President Yoweri Museveni has blamed his predecessors Dr. Milton Obote and Iddi Amini Dada for the poverty that continues to sting Uganda so hard. Delivering his speech at the opening the 2019 Africa Now summit at the Commonwealth Resort and Conference Centre in Munyonyo, Kampala this morning, president Museveni blamed Amin for expelling Asians, something […]
President Yoweri Museveni has blamed his predecessors Dr. Milton Obote and Iddi Amini Dada for the poverty that continues to sting Uganda so hard.
Delivering his speech at the opening the 2019 Africa Now summit at the Commonwealth Resort and Conference Centre in Munyonyo, Kampala this morning, president Museveni blamed Amin for expelling Asians, something he said was a big mistake that took Ugandans back in the journey towards economic development.
“Someone is producing sugar for you instead of importing it and you declare him a problem. The president is there, the ministers are there, they did not understand the private sector” Mr. Museveni said.
The president told the delegates that it was his NRM government that allowed Indians back and returned their properties. He however says this was a hard battle as most MPs at the time had taken over the 4000 houses formerly owned by Indians.
“I told them, return the property of Indians. And when we were doing that, the whole Parliament was full of people sleeping in Indian houses. I nearly developed throat cancer trying to convince these people to leave Indian houses. Now they have built more, Kampala and Entebbe are now one town built by Africans, because Indian houses were ‘Ekisilani’ that conceptual confusion is very dangerous” he added.
Museveni also said the problem with Africa is that in the last 600 years, the continent has not transformed whereas African society has regressed and that the feudal class of Africa that competed for power with colonialists was decimated and only the peasantry was left. Many years of fascist revolution didn’t deliver social transformation.
After independence he said “I used to hear leaders talk of double production (you know politicians love slogans), meaning more production of the same product. This double production didn’t help.”
He added that: “When we became active, I insisted on the use of the word transformation. In the 1960s, they used to talk about sustainable development, however, I insisted on transformation.”
The 2-day summit which is running under the theme; “Towards a secure integrated and growing Africa,” is also being attended by various leaders that include; the President of Somalia; Mohamed Mohamed, Deputy Presidents of Kenya and Tanzania ;William Ruto and Samia Hassan among other dignitaries.
The conference aims to harness the interminable energy of the African youth in forging a secure, integrated and growing Africa.
The four thematic areas of concern at the summit are; leadership, Youth – finding an Africa that works for the African youth, finding African solutions to problems and achieving partnerships .
The summit has attracted over 800 delegates from all over Africa.
