New Vision
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Problems in Africa can best be solved if African countries take the lead, President Yoweri Museveni has said.
“When external stakeholders usurp the powers to solve African
problems, failure and catastrophe is unavoidable whereas where Africans
take the lead in partnership with others, results are better,” he said.
He cited examples such as the Independence of Mozambique, Zimbabwe,
Namibia, Angola and the majority rule in South Africa as some of
Africa’s successfully handled situations.
The President said the correct way of handling African crises
involves engaging internal stakeholders, respective regional efforts and
international partners.
Museveni was addressing a one-day London Conference on Somalia which
took place at Lancaster House in London. The conference organized by the
British government attracted over 40 delegations and heads-of-state
from Africa and Europe.
President Museveni described the conference as timely and that by
legitimate stakeholders like AU, IGAD, the AU Commission and others
represented, “it is the type of packaging that is legitimate, credible
and effective.”
He appreciated the material and financial assistance given by
external partners to AMISOM regarding the ongoing humanitarian efforts
and problems in Somalia but decried sectarian tendencies in the country,
calling for unity and fostering of brotherhood.
Museveni said that modern life requires specialization and exchange
of goods which can’t be done at the village level. And that what Somalis
need is security for peaceful co-existence and markets to sell their
produce.
“We therefore need markets and national unity in Somalia. We should
assist the Somalis to expel the chauvinists of al-Shabaab from strategic
areas of the Somali territory and the coasts.
He cited five areas which are crucial for Somalia: democracy,
providing relief to the Somali people to avert hunger, repair and
rehabilitation of infrastructure and an end to piracy on the Somali
borders. He was happy to note that Somalis have resolved to end the
transitional form of government and elect a representative government
come 2012.
The British Prime Minister David Cameron said the conference is the
most influential with every region in Somalia represented, adding that
the focus is on the plight of Somalis who have suffered for two decades
with famine, bloodshed and poverty.
“There is another reason for the international community to help the
Somali people and that is because the problems in Somalia don’t just
affect Somalis. They affect us all.
“In a country where there is terrorism disrupting the whole world,
abduction of tourists and disruption of trade routes, if the rest of us
sit and look on, we will pay a price. As an international community it
is in all our interest to help the people in Somalia address this,” he
said.
The UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, paid tribute to soldiers who died in the course of fighting for peace in Somalia.
President Museveni later held separate meetings with the UN Secretary
General, Ban Ki Moon, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the
British Prime Minister, David Cameron.
The conference comes in a wake of prolonged absence of a
representative government in Somalia which has given way to terrorism,
famine and death.