Maj. Gen. Takirwa cautions soldiers against lobbying for deployments

Jinja, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Deputy Joint Chief of Staff, Land Forces, Maj. Gen. Francis Takirwa has tipped soldiers on the dangers of lobbying for lucrative deployments, which he says exposes them to the dangers of stunted career growth.

Takirwa was speaking while presiding over the pass out of non-commissioned officers-NCOs at the Jinja city’s based non-commissioned officers academy-NCOA on Friday.

The intake comprised 633 NCOs, who were jointly in three courses namely; senior non-commissioned officers course, junior non-commissioned officers course and instructors course.

Takirwa says that, after completing the NCO’s course, most soldiers rush to lobby for other training opportunities without offering themselves time to implement skills learnt at these lower levels of training, killing any room for excelling in their areas of deployment. “Some of you after here will run all over the place looking around for connections to pursue other courses without acquiring mastery of service for the knowledge acquired at NCOA. Courses in UPDF are not pursued like formal education where it is automatic that, when a learner completes primary, they are immediately enrolled for secondary, no, in our case excellence is attained by practising all the skills attained at different levels,” he says.

Takirwa argues that, by nature, most human beings hide greed under the whims of working hard for success, through risking their lives to achieve much in a short time, a pursuit he says must cost the lives of inexperienced soldiers.

Takirwa says that most soldiers prefer deployments in foreign missions, with the pursuit of garnering more earnings,  however, since most of them are unequipped with the concepts of war,  which entail self-defence and proper handling of modern fighting equipment, they end up losing their lives prematurely.

Takirwa notes that, rather than wasting time lobbying “godfathers and godmothers,” for lucrative deployments, soldiers should return to their units and patiently wait for befitting deployments from their immediate supervisors, who are conversant with their areas of strength.

He notes that most soldiers prefer working near their homes yet the nature of UPDF deployments denies them any opportunities of spending time with close family members.

The Director of capabilities in the chieftaincy of training and doctrine, Col. Steven Mulindwa challenged UPDF’s topmost leadership to prioritize the increase of finances allocated to NCOA, a move he says will boost their already commendable training capacities.

The Commandant of NCOA, Col. Michael Ssesanga challenged graduands on the value of prioritizing competence, which is a clear reflection of the UPDF in their fields of study, a virtue he says automatically prepares them for higher responsibilities in pursuit of excelling in their respective military careers.

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