President Musevenis message to Zambia on their 50th Independence Anniversary celebrations #ZambiaAt50 His Excellency the Vice President, Dr. Scott, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen. Muli bwanje; muli shaali. Zikomo kwa mbili. Through our Vice President, H.E. Ssekandi, I convey to you the greetings of your brother people of Uganda. We congratulate you on the 50th Anniversary of Zambia’s Independence. I take this opportunity to salute our elders, like Mzee Kaunda, who fought for that Independence. I also, take this opportunity to wish President Sata quick recovery. We normally sit next to each other on account of the alphabetical arrangements in the international meetings, such as the AU and UN. I have missed his humorous interjections in the last few meetings that he has missed. The people of Uganda salute the people of Zambia for maintaining peace, all the time, in the last 50 years of Independence. The Ugandans who failed to do likewise, have nothing but admiration for our Zambian brothers and sisters. The people of Uganda also salute our Zambian relatives for hosting the thousands of Ugandans who had to flee into exile on account of the internal turbulences in Uganda. We also salute the people of Zambia, especially Dr. Kaunda, for supporting the anti-colonial struggles in Mozambique, Angola, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Namibia. It was Mwalimu Nyerere, Mzee Kaunda and Sir Seretse Khama that stood by our brothers and sisters in the sub-continent of Southern Africa that had to be liberated by armed struggle. Supported by the socialist countries (Soviet Union and China), our leaders in the Frontline States, were able to channel aid to the anti-colonial freedom movements ─ Frelimo, MPLA, Zanu, ZAPU, Swapo, ANC, PAC, etc. etc. Zambia was always pivotal in this endeavour that had historical implications as later events were to prove. It is now 57 years since Ghana, the first African country to get Independence from the European colonial powers, got its freedom. Ghana joined Ethiopia, Liberia and Egypt, the only other African countries that were already Independent. In those 57 years, it is only a few African countries that have attained a Middle Income status. These are: South Africa, Mauritius, Zambia, Botswana, Angola, Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, etc. The rest are still classified as among the least Developed Countries (LDCs). Yet we were not the only colonized countries in the world. Asian countries had also been colonized along with us. Many of them, however, except for countries like Burma, are now either Middle Income Countries or even First World Countries ─ South Korea, Singapore, India, Indonesia, etc. As many of the African countries celebrate the golden Jubilee of 50 years, we must answer this question. Some of us have been lucky. We were old enough to know what was going on at Independence and yet young enough to live for long after Independence. Having been 18 years old in 1962 when Uganda got her Independence and in form II (Senior Secondary II as we call it in Uganda), I have had the honour of watching the whole scenario closely up to today. Starting from 1965, as a student leader, I have not only observed the situation but have actually been a participant in many of the events ─ many in Uganda and some beyond Uganda. In the process, along with my colleagues in our Party, the NRM, in Uganda, we have identified 10 (ten) strategic bottlenecks that have held Africa back and caused us to lag behind Asia in development and socio-economic transformation. These were captured in the lecture entitled: “Golden Jubilee Lecture” that I gave, on behalf of our Party, on the eve of Uganda’s 50 years of Independence in October, 2012. Vice President Ssekandi will give two copies to H.E. the Vice President of Zambia, Dr. Scott. On today’s occasion, I will only highlight three of these bottlenecks. First, the issue of infrastructure development. The bureaucrats and other economic planners did not highlight the importance of infrastructure development, such as the railway and electricity. Where these two are absent or inadequate, the costs of doing business are high. If the costs of doing business are high, few enterprises will be attracted into the country and those which are attracted will not survive. High input costs, means less profits or no profits. Little or no profits means that the businesses will not expand in size. If the enterprises do not survive or expand, that means less jobs for the labour force, a narrower tax base for the Government, etc, etc. As far as electricity is concerned, I normally use the measurement of Kwh per capita ─ the amount of electricity per person. The USA has got a Kwh per capita of 14,000; some of the African countries, however, have got as low as 12. Remember that many of the African countries have got small populations. Until recently, only South Africa and Gaddaffi’s Libya had a Kwh per capita of 3,000 to 4,000. This is a big bottleneck. The other bottleneck I should mention here today is the problem of small markets on account of an under-populated African continent, on the one hand, as well as that small African population being fragmented into 54 States (countries). The African continent is twelve times bigger than India. Yet, even today when the African population has grown tremendously, the population of India is still bigger than the population of the whole of Africa. At Independence, therefore, one of the strategic bottlenecks was the African fragmented market. Without a big market, an enterprise cannot thrive and grow. Yes, a small country, with a small population, such as Singapore can grow and undergo socio-economic transformation. This is because they adopted an export oriented strategy ─ they used the market of others to cause that growth. Many African countries did not see this. Yet, their own internal markets were small. Fortunately, although alot of time was lost, all parts of Africa have started addressing this issue through the regional blocs ─ EAC, COMESA, SADDEC, ECOWAS, etc. In order for these blocs to thrive, we must work deliberately to ensure balanced developments within each one of them. It is not correct to have a few partners dominating these blocs economically. All members must benefit and, therefore, compensatory mechanisms must be put in place for the weaker members. The third and final point for today is the mistake of Africa continuing to export only raw-materials. I always give the example of coffee, exported as a raw-material. A kilo of de-husked coffee will give us US$1. When the same Kg is roasted, ground into powder and packed by Nestle in London, it will sell at US$15. In otherwords, Uganda, all these years, has been aiding UK to the tune of US$10 plus in every Kg of coffee sold. Uganda exports 4 million bags of 60kgs per bag per annum. This is a total of 240 millions of Kgs. That means that each year Uganda has been aiding foreign countries to the tune of US dollars 2.4 billions. Apart from the loss of value in terms of money, we also export jobs ─ the job for roasting, the job for grinding and the job for packaging. What is true of coffee is also true of cotton, copper, etc. This is a very serious handicap. Africans work so hard and get so little. It is only now that Uganda is, finally, succeeding in attracting a serious investor to roast our coffee within Uganda and also being able to attract textile manufacturers. The problem of Africa stagnating has not been due to witchcraft or any mysterious cause. There are factors that have caused this. Those three are some of them. It is true that African economies have been growing at high rates in recent years. This shows the great potential of Africa. These economies have been growing in spite of these bottlenecks. How much more will they grow when the bottlenecks are removed? Therefore, as the different African countries celebrate 50 years of Independence, we should evaluate factors that have made us to lag behind and make sure that we fix them this time. Africa cannot afford to lose or underutilize the next 50 years. The people of Uganda wish the people of Zambia a successful 50 years ahead and thereafter. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni President of the Republic of Uganda
Posted on: Fri, 24 Oct 2014 11:43:07 +0000
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