By Franklin Draku
President Museveni used a televised Independence Day eve address last night to rally Ugandans to reject tribalism,saying the country needs unity to glue it together and expand markets to enable citizens to prosper.
“You should reject the serial idea of politics of identity, but join politics of value and ideas. Those who emphasise tribes, religion, sectarianism, and gender chauvinism want to turn us into a Latin America in Africa and yet we the freedom movement want to build a United States of Africa in Africa. Latin America is very rich in terms of natural resources, much richer than the United States but they are fragmented and not organised. This environment doesn’t encourage business,” Mr Museveni said.
He outlined eight areas, among them fighting corruption and protecting the environment, where he said progress will make Uganda’s socio-economic transformation “unstoppable”.
“We insist that in order to ensure the economic and social prosperity of our people, we must not forget their needs; food, jobs, market for their products, sources of raw materials for their industries. The prosperity of our people will come from our people selling their products to the Ugandan and African markets; that is why we encourage patriotism and Pan-Africanism and reject,” he said.
To protect nature, the President said he planned to issue a detailed Executive Order, which would be his second this year, to end environmental degradation and encroachment on ecologically fragile areas.
