Museveni scoffs at the US over AGOA

President Museveni has scoffed at the United States Government following its decision to exclude Uganda from the African Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA).

Museveni, who made the remarks on his official X (formerly Twitter), said that Uganda has the capacity and capability to manage its own economic affairs without any help from Western nations.

“Some of these actors in the Western world overestimate themselves and underestimate the freedom fighters of Africa. On account of some of the freedom fighters making mistakes of philosophy, ideology, and strategy, some of the foreign actors erroneously think that African countries cannot move forward without their support,” he said in a tweet on Sunday, November 6, 2023.

He added, “Certainly, as far as Uganda is concerned, we have the capacity to achieve our growth and transformation targets, even if some of the actors do not support us.”

Last week, US President Joe Biden wrote to the Senate and the US House of Representatives, indicating that he was going to suspend Uganda and three other African countries off the AGOA beneficiaries list for their poor human rights records. This follows Uganda’s passing of the anti-homosexuality law.

On Sunday, Museveni accused the US Government of double standards in its condemnation of countries on human rights.

“These pressures from outside are joogo (looking down upon somebody, underrating somebody) towards the Africans and must be rejected. I am told that some of the Arab countries have similar laws. Why don’t these actors put similar pressure on them?” he said.

The President listed eight points that he said are critical for Uganda’s development.

“The eight points are: patriotism—not following politics of identity but following politics of interests; supporting the private sector; economic infrastructure development to lower the costs of doing business in the economy; regional integration to create big markets that can absorb our products; working with foreigners who respect us; eliminating corruption; social infrastructure to develop the human resource through universal education and health; and protecting the environment that controls our water and our rain,” he said.

“Uganda, under the NRM, is and will succeed, regardless of what some of the external actors and internal detractors do. The further good news is that not all the Western countries’ actors have the same arrogant attitude. Many, actually, either agree with us or believe in the correct principles of living and letting live. Even in colonial times, some Western actors supported our anti-colonial struggle. People like Fenner Brockway, Dingle Foot, Olof Palme, etc., supported us”

It should also be noted that the US Government issued a business directory advising the international business community not to invest in Uganda.