- President Museveni asserts that foreign influences do not threaten Uganda’s sovereignty or economic progress
- Museveni urges the East African community to work towards unity and adopt Common Market Protocol and Customs Union Protocols
- Sanctions imposed by the UK and US on Uganda’s Speaker of Parliament and ministers have been criticized for their enactment of the Anti-Homosexuality Act
While delivering his State of the Nation Address (SONA) yesterday, Museveni emphasised that no outsider has the power to intimidate the people of Uganda.
“Uganda’s economy and society are moving forward, the mistakes by some actors notwithstanding. The foreigners interfering in our internal affairs are not a threat at all. There is no foreigner who can threaten us…nobody can threaten us,” Museveni said.
The President also called upon the East African community to strive for unity by fully adopting the Common Market Protocol and Customs Union Protocols to consolidate the fragmented markets of East Africa into a single unified market. He added that a directive has been given to halt the export of raw minerals to encourage local processing and value addition.
Highlighting Uganda’s economic milestones, Museveni pointed out the country has attained the lower middle-income status with a per capita income of USD 1182. “We have just entered the ground floor of the middle income. Just the first floor…we are down there now,” Museveni noted.
Speaker of Parliament Annet Anita further bolstered the President’s points, saying that the State of the Nation Address was an opportunity to reflect on the country’s achievements in the previous year, the inherent challenges, and the government’s legislative agenda for the subsequent session.
She also reaffirmed Parliament’s commitment to achieving Uganda’s Vision, urging MPs not to be discouraged by what she described as the noise and actions of detractors and enemies of Uganda’s progress.
“We are aware that the call to leadership sometimes comes with the risk of being misunderstood, criticized, opposed, accused, sanctioned, or even rejected. But we owe it to our society to stand firm,” Among said.
