Museveni has responded to critics of his government by saying that politics is not just talking or attending weddings and funerals, but being proactive.
The President of Uganda Yoweri Museveni has lashed out at those criticising his governance saying that politics is not just about talking or attending weddings and funerals but being proactive.
Museveni made the remarks on Friday during a televised address to the nation. This was his third address in a space of only two weeks. He said politics is a matter of life and death and if handled wrongly, it can easily yield negative results.
The President who was addressing the issue of imported inflation that has caused prices to skyrocket compared the current situation in the country with earlier regimes including that of Amin Dada.
He said during Amin’s time, so many people were engaging in production but only on a small scale just to survive.
“This small economy of producing raw materials collapsed. When we came, its only coffee and tobacco that were surviving. We came in to transform the economy from dependency to self-sufficiency. When you export raw materials, you make less money than you would if you exported processed products,” Museveni said.
He explained the problem of Uganda and Africa has been like the unwise villager who chooses to sell raw materials than processed products.
“We never wanted to sell the raw materials, and we are making progress. We have surplus sugar. We are also getting ethanol and electricity from sugar. You can imagine “ekikajo” sugarcane gives you sugar, ethanol, electricity, and rubber tyres.”
He, however, said the country still needs to do more. For instance, he said now Uganda has moved not only to processing but also to making cars, automobiles of different types, vaccines, pharmaceuticals, and sanitisers.
“When sanitizer became necessary for COVID19, the Waragi breweries helped us because there was a lot of Waragi. We just needed to add more distillation to get to 70%, which is the sanitizer. We are now big players in sanitizer manufacturing,” he said.
In addition, he tipped Uganda is now looking to value addition on a number of its produced goods including coffee. He further reiterated by investing in electric vehicles, electric motorcycles and railways, hike in the prices of fuel will never be a problem in future.
“We are going to build a steel factory in Kabale that will use nitrogen instead of coal. Now we are crying because of three or four products. Fuel, palm oil, and fertilizers. What would have happened if we were still importing beer, soda, cement, and milk?,” he questioned.
