Prime
Sowing the Mustard Seed irrelevant - DP
President Museveni delivers a speech during the launch of the second edition of his book Sowing the Mustard Seed last year.
KAMPALA.
Opposition Democratic Party (DP), has said the book which President Museveni rewrote ahead of the 2016 presidential elections was irrelevant to the curriculum of students.
Addressing journalists at their weekly press conference in Kampala yesterday, DP Press Secretary Fred Mwesigwa said the 2016 edition of Sowing the Mustard Seed omits names and contribution of the people the incumbent was with during the Bush War but has since fallen out with.
“The procedure is illegal to distribute this book in all secondary schools and through the Minister for Education and Sports Ms Janet Museveni, we request President Museveni to withdraw the directive immediately,” Mr Mwesigwa said.
He also dismissed as unnecessary, a government plan to distribute President Museveni’s autobiography to secondary schools.
Last week, government issued a directive to headteachers of government-aided secondary schools to get their students to read a revised version of the book first printed in 1997.
Through a May 2 directive to the school heads, the ministry said availing the books to schools and thus the students would enlighten the students about Uganda’s history and that would “lay a firm foundation for responsible citizenship”.
“You are required to ensure the book is readily available to students and you are urged to encourage students to read the book,” the directive reads in part.
Mr Mwesigwa added that if the directive is implemented, then the party will seek court redress.
“We warn Mr Museveni as a person that his book is not necessary at this stage unless to his (Museveni’s) sympathisers but schools need different material to improve their performance like laboratory equipment,”Mr Mwesigwa said.
He also asked Ugandans to join DP and oppose the directive because it’s going to spoil the young generation who will view capturing power as a bloody struggle.
Senior presidential press secretary Don Wanyama, in an interview, described the distribution of the book, as dissemination of an “authoritative account” of Uganda’s liberation struggle led by President Museveni.
“For DP to say that the content in this book should not be known by children in schools, it exposes their ideological myopia, because we have students reading Shakespeare, European history and all manners of unhelpful literature,” he said.
