The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Museveni pushes for home-based value addition on Africa’s minerals – they belong to country
Bahir Dar, Ethiopia | THE INDEPENDENT | President Yoweri Museveni has urged African leaders to stop what he described as ideological meandering. Leaders, he said, should thoroughly discuss and distill positions which can help their people transform and develop using their natural resources.
Museveni added that focus should be on home-based solutions and self reliance. He said new US President Donald Trump’s “America First” policies will jolt Africans into the reality of their situation.
“I love Trump. I love that man Trump because that man has told you that he is not your uncle. And I think it is good. For those Africans who feel orphaned, am sorry for them. Let’s come back to our continent and mind our own affairs,” Museveni said.
Museveni was speaking Saturday at a discussion on “Managing Natural Resources In Africa: Challenges and Prospects,” at the ongoing 6th High Level Forum on security in Africa at Blue Nile Hotel, Bahir Dar in Ethiopia.
The president spoke passionately about processing Africa’s minerals from Africa to create jobs and get more value from their resources, illustrating his point by saying it was “foolish to give your neighbor firewood when you don’t have firewood in your house”.
“We have a lot of Uranium. Canadians came and said they wanted to take to Canada to process it from there and I said it will stay in the ground until we build own nuclear power station because am not a fool to give firewood to my neighbor when I don’t have firewood in my house,” he said.
Museveni in Bahir Dar for Tana forum on natural resources #TanaForum https://t.co/rR7TVuBOJM pic.twitter.com/0CjoCoZOi6
— The Independent (@UGIndependent) April 22, 2017
Education is not only solution
President Museveni who disagreed with some of the presenters who said education was the solution to solving Africa’s problems said policy mistakes by both technocrats and polictical leaders have led to various problems in Africa.
“That if you educate your people, everything will be okay? This was part of mistakes in 1960. This fragmented thinking, fragmented vision is incorrect. If you educate people but you don’t have infrastructure including electricity, where will they work? How will they work”? the president said.
The president used the example of the Phillipines which he said has its citizens working all over the world because they don’t have jobs in their own country while South Korea has its citizens working home.
“We in Uganda have identified 10 strategic bottlenecks and our view is that they all must be handled together. These include ideology, state formation, infrastructure development, market integration –
If I produce but do not have enough buyers, how will I benefit?”
Museveni said while Africa is at a structural disadvantage in that great ideas do not apply to the whole of Africa, the Tana Forum can still spread the ideas throu ‘osmosis’. He said it takes good ideas to spread on the continent to consolidate its gains and urged all Africans to come together and achieve this.
“Africa has a structural disadvantage. We are not like China. In China when there is one good thinker…the whole china follows them. Here, you may have good ideas in Ethiopia but they are localized and do not apply to the whole of Africa. This forum can help ideas spread by osmosis,” he said.
He urged all Africans to come together and achieve this.
I like your thinking. We should begin to look inward,make proper developing policies,stop compromising our positions. Stop accepting anything that comes like beggers. It is only good ideas and reasonable implementation not just talking that can move Africa our dear continent forward. President, you are reasonable.
M7 is quite right, the imperialists get so many useless reasons to plunder Africa’s resources, even after the lucrative slave trade, they aren’t done. They keep changing the game plan but with mischievous interests behind their mind.
When abroad, museven reasons and talks sense of exactly what Africa needs to develop but here, millions are languishing in extreme poverty that leaves me guessing who exactly fails him back home. ‘oh kumbe Kabaka tayala wuwe’ the man gave a very brilliant speech, oba asigale eyo affuge ethiopia!
Muzeeyi obwoongo namagezi aliina,naye abamuli kulussegere
If we are to stay focused on the issue at hand, Mzee (as the majority of Ugandans refer to President Museveni) has proven to be a practical philosopher of modern and post-modern African times. For the African sisters and brothers that have lived, studied or worked elsewhere from the mother continent would agree with me that for an African that strives to think and wish the best for his/her continent will often run into collision with those from elsewhere that harbor vested interests in our continent. Their interests often (if not all the times) run counter to African interests. Many examples have been given by this Philosopher of modern and post-modern African times including instances of Global “Development Organizations” advising African countries against constructing sizable hydro power dams because they “lacked” the capacity to consume the generated energy! Therefore thinking and wanting the best for Africa will not make you a darling to those with vested interests in mother Africa. Fake love has never counted. We prefer to be darlings to our own.
We are lucky to be living in our times. The continent is coming closer by the day, intra-Africa trade volumes are growing, regional efforts are starting to bear fruits of successful conflict resolutions, all types of infrastructure are being laid to interconnect African regions and yes Africa is getting stronger enough to defend herself. As those that colonized and exploited us yesterday start to disintegrate, they are running back to us (Africa) for “partnerships” to sustain their economies and global influences. This time they are finding us very awake, self-conscious and ready to deal with them at own terms. As one African slang goes “Amaaso kulutimbe” vaguely translating “watch this space”
I suppose this takes us back to the issue of Panafricanism. Museveni has good ideas and by far the best ideas that benefit Africans and Uganda as a nucleoside. I enen disturbs my mind that as the man goes around doing his job, there are fools busy doing nothing and idling with the Togikwatako bull. The fact that even MPs can fight in the house while Museveni is busy rotating around the world making ends meet for them, while they fight instead of looking at things that benefits their constituencies is clear a sign that we need the man, a thing that i never used to believe in, but now do believe. Our opposition is full of idlers and Nincompoops who are just arrogant and will disappear in vein while what this country has built for years goes down. The man has managed violence at local and advanced level in this country and by no doubt the Strategist driver this country needs. Now i am not movementist but believe me, i am gonna find a way to reach Museveni and advise him on what to do with this Togikwatako Furry, as the solution is just at my finger tips
Museveni is no panafricanist and he would n’ t known panafricanism even if it sat on his face!!.
Three main things that Africa needs to economically develop and without these three, it may as well forget.
1. A strong collective military. First to protect it’self against external aggression. Secondary, it’s only, and I repeat only the military that can drive industrialization, not the private sector as most uninformed and people think.
2. A strong economy controlled by Africans and this mean s we have to tear ourselves complete ly from this current feudal world economy that is meant to keep as slaves working for minority people in the West. And most importantly we must tear ourselves from the world monetary policy where worthless unbacked people is used to dupe people into purchasing precious unrewable resources.
3. We must have an Africanist ideology. 50 years + after Independence and celebrated independence but we are still held behind colonial borders.
This africanist ideology must be pushed by real leaders, not these clowns allover the continent l, but leaders who will put their continent first dispute the consequences.
Lastly, this ideology must create self worth and build self esteem even it it means others viewing it as racist. This is how nations like Japan, China, and Western Europeans achieved what they achieved.
They viewed themselves as special.