President Yoweri Museveni has cautioned fellow African leaders against what he called addressing the consequences of African problems while ignoring their very root causes.
Museveni said on Sunday that he was disappointed that most meetings and conference held to address African problems tend to concentrate on addressing wars, coup d’états, election results disagreements, sometimes total breakdowns of state structures, among others, often forgetting about what brings about all these.
Delivering a key note address at the France-Africa Summit on “Partnership, Peace and Emergency” in Bamako, Mali, Museveni warned that African problems which include slow development and insecurity, have been exacerbated by the focus on people’s identity rather than people’s interests.
Giving the example of Uganda where more than 800,000 were “killed extra-judicially on account of those ideological mistakes,” Museveni said similar situations have happened in South Africa, Sudan among other countries.
In Uganda’s case, the president told the conference, “the manipulation was to create conflicts among the tribes and the religious denominations: Baganda vs Banyoro, Catholics vs Protestants, Christians vs Moslems etc.”
In South Africa, the president pointed out how “Black people could not vote and, along with dogs, could not enter certain hotels.
“Our brother country, the Sudan (the old Sudan), faced the issue of identity. Was it Arab or was it African? Was it Islamic or Christian? That question, among others, was at the root of the civil war that broke out immediately after Independence.
This Museveni said should be the starting point of addressing the continents bottlenecks.
He noted, “In the cases where our people are persecuted for their identity of any description (religious, racial or tribal sectarianism and chauvinism), we must take a principled position and oppose the mistake makers.”
Museveni told the meeting, which was organized and also attended by French President Francois Hollande, that instead of people’s identities, focus should be on their interests which include prosperity and security.
“That is why my ideology is patriotism within Uganda (as opposed to sectarianism) and Pan-Africanism when it comes to Africa,” he said.
“A united East Africa, moreover, enables us to negotiate better with the rest of the world. The unity of the people of Uganda, the unity of the people of East Africa, the unity of the people of Africa are instruments for our people’s prosperity.
“Therefore, when somebody opportunistically highlights identity (religion, tribe, etc) instead of highlighting interest, he acts against our prosperity.”