President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda
Those who “don’t believe in God and themselves” were on Sunday lambasted for predicting doom for the presidency of Yoweri Museveni, Ugandan president. Yoweri Museveni who made the claim in his State of the Nation Address, also blamed an “undisciplined opposition” for a surge in Covid-19 cases in the country.
He did not stop there. In the face of a surge in food prices, partly due to the war in Ukraine, he also advised Ugandans to take up an indigenous diet, which he said had made him reach the age of 78. He said he was “doing very well” healthwise.
The Ugandan strongman in his address on Sunday, said the opposition’s election campaigns ahead of the January 2021 elections had been the reason for the country’s increased Covid-19 deaths.
Said he: “In Uganda, the death toll up to now is 3,600, out of a total of 164,153 that were infected. Our deaths from corona up to March 2021 were only 335 persons. It was the indiscipline of the opposition during the elections that pushed the figures to the present 3,600″.
During the campaign season, only 70 people were allowed at meetings because of the country’s Covid-19 containment measures. But the meetings of Museveni’s most notable rival Robert Kyagulanyi, also known as Bobi Wine, attracted huge crowds.
Uganda, which has a population of 43 million, has had fewer Covid-19 cases and deaths than its eastern neighbour Kenya, which has recorded 324,000 Covid-19 cases and 5,649 deaths.
Museveni said the relatively low number of Covid-19 cases was on “account of the strictness, taking the Biblical narrow path”.
Added he: “Uganda, up to now, has had two waves of the corona pandemic, while other countries have had three and even four waves”.
Like all economies, the near two-year Covid-19 lockdown hurt Uganda.
The World Food Programme said the proportion of urban nationals with poor or borderline food consumption increased from 11% in May 2020 to 16% in June 2020 at the onset of lockdown. It said months later, it got worse.
While Uganda seeks to recover from the Covid-19 shocks, the war in Ukraine has led to an increase in food prices and food shortages.
Advised he: “The real medicine for high prices and shortages is increased production. Produce more, if you can”.
He said it was time for Ugandans to “both thank the NRM (National Resistance Movement, the ruling party) and reconfirm its credentials as a no-nonsense, problem-solver”.
Coming into power through a military coup in 1986 and having been a rebel involved in the war that drove Idi Amin out of Uganda, he said food price hikes and shortages had existed back then and that his new government had dealt with them.
That alone made it easy for him to do it again, he said.
Said Museveni: “However, this history (of solving price hikes and shortages) is clear. Therefore, the recent phenomenon of high commodity prices is indeed a problem, but it is easier to solve than, for instance, Covid-19 was”.
He said despite the price of imported foods being on the rise, his government would not put in place subsidies or remove taxes because that would be “suicidal and a blunder”, adding that it would affect the country’s R72 billion ($4.5 billion) reserves, which were only enough to support imports for four months.
Museveni said Uganda was working on home-brewed solutions, such as using sunflower oil and castor oil for soap-making, and banana and cassava flour for bread-making.
While at it, Ugandans should follow his example of eating traditional foods.
Stated he: “Apart from eating the traditional foods, for many years now, I do not eat wheat bread or rice. I eat our richer indigenous foods, such as millet, cassava, bananas cooked in their skin, groundnuts, peas, and beef”.
He said Uganda’s biggest problems regarding food security were its reliance on only rain-fed agriculture, damage to the environment, and international conflicts.
Museveni is due to address Ugandans again on June 7.
