Uganda’s youth constitute the largest demographic bloc in the country. They are energetic, ambitious, and politically visible. Yet paradoxically, they remain among the most politically marginalised, economically excluded, and civically under-empowered groups within our governance system. Nowhere is this contradiction more evident than in the quality and conduct of youth leadership at sub-county, district, and national levels.

As young people within the National Resistance Movement (NRM), we love the party and acknowledge its historical role in stabilising Uganda. However, loyalty to a party must never be confused with silence in the face of injustice. True loyalty demands honesty, self-correction, and the courage to confront internal weaknesses before they destroy the future we seek to preserve.

An alarming trend has emerged in youth leadership structures, particularly at the sub-county level. Many youth leaders lack basic formal education, civic awareness, and an understanding of the Constitution. This is not a personal attack on individuals but a structural failure of the system that produces leaders without equipping them with the intellectual and ethical tools required for leadership.

When leadership is detached from knowledge, it becomes vulnerable to manipulation. When leaders are financially desperate and civically uninformed, politics is reduced to refunds, facilitation, and campaign money. Leadership then shifts from service to survival, from vision to transaction.

This reality places the youth at risk of being used as instruments rather than empowered as agents of change.

The National Youth Council (NYC) and related structures must go beyond mobilisation and campaigns. Mobilisation without education is dangerous. We urgently need structured, continuous civic and constitutional education for youth leaders—education that explains:

• The roles and limits of youth offices

• The principles of constitutionalism and the rule of law

• Ethical leadership and public accountability

• The difference between political participation and political exploitation

Without this foundation, we normalise bad politics and teach young people that manipulation, bribery, and unethical conduct are acceptable political tools.

The conduct of recent youth league and NYC elections exposed serious ethical and procedural failures. Injustices, irregularities, and unethical practices were not isolated incidents; they were systemic. These experiences send a dangerous message to the younger generation—that bad politics is normal, that misconduct is rewarded, and that integrity is naïve.

The loss of Diana Ampaire, the NRM flag bearer for the National Female Youth MP, and the debates surrounding youth politics within the party highlight a deeper moral crisis. When leadership structures appear divided, compromised, or unwilling to correct wrongdoing, public trust erodes. No party can survive long on fear, money, or blind loyalty alone.

If Uganda is serious about building constitutional and knowledgeable youth leadership, then minimum education standards must be discussed openly and without fear. A proposal that sub-county youth leaders possess at least a Senior Four (S4) certificate is not elitism; it is a safeguard.

Leadership requires basic literacy in law, policy, communication, and governance. Education is not the only measure of intelligence, but it is a necessary foundation for effective public leadership in a modern state.

The demonetization of politics in the NRM party isn't only necessary, but it also has to be a mandatory agenda to democratise power.

Youth desperation financially is not a moral failure of young people; it is a failure of the financial and governance systems that marginalise them. A system that produces hunger will inevitably produce transactional politics.

To break this cycle, Uganda must:

• Demonetise youth politics and elections

• Invest in skills development and economic self-reliance

• Empower voters with civic and constitutional knowledge

• Shift politics from transactions to transformation

When youth are economically empowered and civically educated, they stop chasing campaign money and start voting for ideas, values, and long-term national interest.

The most dangerous loyalist is not the critic but the silent defender of wrong. Parties that refuse to correct themselves collapse from within. History does not forgive organisations that ignore their moral decay. These mistakes, if not corrected, will make youths come for money to the NRM and vote for the opposition. Remember, history doesn't repeat itself, but we repeat history with our daily decisions and choices of what to do and not to do. 

If the NRM is to remain relevant, trusted, and stable in the future, it must be willing to listen to its youth, confront its mistakes, and reform its internal processes without fear. The world is watching. History is writing itself.

To live longer as a party and as a nation, we must choose ethics over expedience, knowledge over manipulation, and democracy over money. The future of Uganda’s politics depends on it.