President\nYoweri Museveni has said that Ignatius Kangave Musaazi is in the same category\nas South Africa’s Nelson Mandela who filled the vacuum when Africa was\nleaderless and down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According\nto the President, it is not possible to mention people like I.K Musaazi without\ntalking about Africa, \u2018because they were the glue that united the continent to\nput up resistance in the face of colonialism\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mr. Museveni made the remarks Friday at Sheraton Kampala Hotel, during a fundraising dinner for the I.K Musaazi Innovations Institute. Musaazi\u2019s family together with Uhuru Institute for Social Development organized the dinner. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Shs. 231 million project will be erected on a 30-acre piece of land and is aimed at shaping up young people who are future leaders.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Speaking to\nthe audience that comprised family members and friends of IK Musaazi, former\ndeputy Chief Justice Steven Kavuma, Ugandan Academics, Second Deputy Prime\nMinister and Minister of East African Community Affairs Kurunda Kivejinja\nand different NGOs, President Museveni said Musaazi\u2019s relevance can be traced\nfrom the struggles of Africa to free itself from the colonial grip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou cannot talk of I.K Musaazi without talking about Africa, that is how he gains his relevance.\u00a0 For colonialism to happen, Africans got the first visit of Vasco da Gama, and 364 years later, another group of Europeans came with the likes of James Hanington. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This means that Africa had an entire 364 years of warning that some people were coming and still we did not prepare, colonialists found us sleeping and our kings engaged in small wars against each other. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
What sort of people are we? By 1900, the entire Africa with the exception of Ethiopia was conquered, that in itself is a dangerous fact,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nPresident said, the good thing is that Africans don\u2019t die easily, and this is\nhow the likes of Musaazi came in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMusaazi\ncame in because Africa was in danger, the chiefs had failed to defend us, some\nlike Kabalega and others tried but it was too late,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The President observed that Musaazi played a leading role in Uganda, alongside other personalities in the region, such as the late Mwalimu Julius Nyerere of Tanzania who formed TANU in 1954 and the late Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He was pleased to note that China, Russia and the Europeans\u2019 Committee for Freedom supported the freedom movement on the African continent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018If\nyou do not salute such people how do you build the country?\u2019 he asked. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mr.\nMuseveni said he salutes Musaazi because he filled a leadership vacuum, forming\nthe first political party in Uganda, which he used to mobilise the masses. He\nalso commended Musaazi for engaging other tools to mobile resistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI salute him because he filled the vacuum. Africa was leaderless and down. He was one of those who came to lift Africa up. In his mission, Musaazi used different tools; Political tools through a political party (the Uganda National Congress), Economic tools through cooperative and labor unions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So when we talk about the end of colonization, we refer to two factors that gave us back the independence, the first is greed by colonial masters, who during the scramble for Africa ended up fighting each other and losing grip of Africa and the second aspect is people like I.K Musaazi, who took up the resistance,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He made a Shs100m cash pledge towards the construction of the I.K Musaazi Institute with a cash delivery of Shs.10 million. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The fundraising dinner realized Shs.31 million. He also promised to \u2018sell a few of my cows\u2019 to contribute towards this innovations institute so the family can start the institute not only as an acknowledgment of Musaazi\u2019s contribution to this nation, but also to serve as an inspiration to young people and continuation of Musaazi\u2019s wishes for this country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mr Kirunda\nKivejinja described Musaazi as the grandfather of Uganda\u2019s peace\u2019, urging the\nfamily to put up a gallery of Musaazi\u2019s activities that shaped Uganda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEvery\nnation has heroes, every country has those who change people\u2019s lives, and those\nare the people who organize others to bring about peace. Musaazi was that person\nfor Uganda,\u201d Kivejinja said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Elizabeth\nMusaazi, the chairperson of the I.K Musaazi Memorial Foundation said the Innovations\nInstitute will carry on the unique legacy of Musaazi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBeing\nburied at the heroes\u2019 corner in Kololo is well-deserving for Musaazi, but an\ninstitute will be even better,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nInstitute, according to Ms, Musaazi will consider six disciplines including;\nSelf-help and patriotism, leadership and mind-changing, corporative philosophy,\ncommercial farming, leather tuning, innovation think-tank, credit union and\nfinancial inclusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mr. Leonard Okello, the Chief Executive Officer of Uhuru Institute, the organizers of the fundraising dinner, said that the I.K. Musaazi Innovative Institute is planned to support, among other things, a revival of the cooperative movement in Uganda. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He noted that such facilities are needed in Africa adding that the late Musaazi worked with the cooperative and the labour movements during the fight against colonial rule in Uganda<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Yoweri Museveni has said that Ignatius Kangave Musaazi is in the same category as South Africa’s Nelson Mandela who filled the vacuum when Africa was leaderless and down. According to the President, it is not possible to mention people like I.K Musaazi without talking about Africa, \u2018because they were the glue that united the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27983,"featured_media":11564,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_paywall_metabox":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[31],"class_list":["post-11563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-featured"],"yoast_head":"\n