Museveni lectures UK military officers

President Yoweri Museveni has told a visiting delegation of students and staff from the British Advanced Commanders’ Staff College that the British and Uganda Armies have common areas of cooperation to share in development such as investments, tourism and security based on their liberalism trends and policy.

“We share a common platform of liberalism and tolerance. The British Army and Ugandan Army have common areas of cooperation and this is important for integration nationally, regionally and internationally,” he said.

President Museveni was responding to questions raised in the course of his lecture to the students and staff of the British Advanced Commanders’ Staff College in UK, who called on him on Tuesday at State House, Entebbe. Colonel Martin Mackey of the British Royal Navy led the students.

The delegation is on a five-day study tour of Uganda. They have so far toured the Uganda Air Defences Headquarters in Entebbe and slated to visit Singo-based Peace Support Operations facility, the Uganda Senior Command and Staff College, Kimaka in Jinja.

He told the delegation that the UPDF is evolving into a modern Army adding that Uganda will achieve a middle-income status and become a modern society in the next 25 years.

Regarding to the African continent, he told the delegation that the hindrances that have made Africa lag behind in terms of development amidst high potential of natural resources have been identified and are being addressed by fighting the pseudo ideology of sectarianism, advocating for ideological orientation to emphasize markets for quality goods and services as well as tackling bottlenecks of building infrastructure such as electricity and roads, among others.

“By addressing these major bottlenecks, it has made us distil the problems Africa has faced in the last 500 years. Technology advance has helped us fight the original problems of the continent, like malaria, and the population is growing tremendously. It is the population that stimulates production,” he said.  He noted that with good investment, the population becomes a dividend in terms of production, which is Africa’s plan to have a common market.

Regarding regional affairs, President Museveni said that the political situation in Somalia will normalize in the next decade adding that the Somali political factions can be mobilised to come together through students’ movements – the available building blocks – to rescue their country.

The President said that the influx of refugees into Uganda, naturally exerts pressure on the country but with the help of partners, the impact can be mitigated through supply of food relief tents, energy sources to protect the environment as well as skilling the youth so that they become useful to their home countries when they return home.