KAMPALA – President Yoweri Museveni has said that Kyadondo East MP, Robert Kyagulanyi commonly known as Bobi Wine has no right to benefit from Uganda’s prosperity through holding music concerts after he waged war on the country by discouraging American investors from coming to Uganda.
The President made the remarks in an interview with BBC Africa where he spoke out for the first time why Police has declined to grant permission to the musician turned politician to hold concerts, his primary trade.
Mr. Museveni lashed out at the youthful MP describing him as an enemy of progress ‘because’ he told Americans not to invest in Uganda.
“Bobi Wine went to America and said that people shouldn’t come and invest in Uganda; that is what he said, that means he is an enemy of progress in Uganda. I was in the opposition myself in the 1960s, I was in Democratic Party but when I was in DP, I couldn’t say don’t build Kabale-Masaka road because I am not in government.”
Asked by BBC Journalist, Allan Kasujja if that is justification enough to cancel Bobi Wine’s concerts, Museveni responded, “If you are waging war on your country when you go and tell foreigners that they shouldn’t invest in your country, you are waging war on our prosperity then why come at the same time and take advantage of that prosperity?”The President was also asked to comment about Uganda’s relations with Rwanda and why Rwandan government has continued to close its Katuna border despite signing a peace deal in Angola, Museveni said, “What I have said is that I am not going to discuss in the press what I can discuss with President Kagame in a confidential meeting.”
Asked to comment why Rwanda isn’t sharing the same sentiments with Kigali administration accusing their counterparts in Kampala of supporting people who are looking to destabilise their government; Mr. Museveni asked BBC journalist Kasujja to familiarize himself with the communiqué signed by the two nations in Luanda, Angola.
Kasujja then tasked President Museveni to explain how long the Uganda-Rwanda debacle will go on to which Museveni said, “You see the problem is that leaders can’t go and solve issues in the papers, I will not do that.”
Asked whether security was one ofthe biggest threats to Uganda’s development security Mf. Museveni said, “There is no threat we can’t handle.”
When asked if the huge number of youths, making demands about their future and looking for jobs, isn’t an internal security threat, the President said, “It isn’t a threat, it is an opportunity, jobs are there and they will be there, if you look at agriculture, there is potential. We were struggling with basics like electricity, we now have enough electricity.”
The President also blamed the high unemployment on the mentality of youths stating, “One of the issues is the mentality because some of the people are looking for white collar jobs instead of looking for jobs, there is commercial agriculture, there is industry, factory, services, hotels, you can see how many people are employed in transport, ICT. We are deliberately working on each of them to create jobs for our people, the youths aren’t a problem, they are actually an opportunity.”
