Somalia Solution according to Yoweri Museveni

[Jacaylbaro]

I salute Rt. Hon. Cameron for organizing this Conference on Somalia and those who have made time to be here today.

History has shown that a three-tiered approach is the correct way of handling African crises.

 

The three-tiers are: The internal stakeholders, the respective regional efforts and international partners.

Where external forces usurp the role of solving African problems unilaterally, failure and catastrophe are almost assured.

This is what happened in Congo in the 1960s and in Rwanda in the 1990s. Where Africans take the lead in partnership with others, results are better. This is what happened with the independence of Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Angola and with the majority rule in South Africa.

 

Sometimes, African regional efforts result in providing solutions for example, the defeat of Idi Amin in Uganda, the ending of genocide in Rwanda and the defeat of Mobutu in DR Congo.

In the de-colonisation of southern Africa, Africa worked with the Soviet Union and China as well as liberals and leftists in the West.

 

On the issue of Burundi, it was the internal stakeholders within the country, the regional effort and the UN.

It was the same packaging with respect to the problem of the Sudan. I would also like to salute the financial and material contribution already made to AMISOM by our partners from outside the continent in the on-going efforts in Somalia.

 

This conference is, therefore, most timely. I am glad Mr. Cameron has invited all the legitimate stakeholders: The Somali TFG, other Regional authorities in Somalia, IGAD, the African Union (AU), those of us who are involved in Somalia, the AU through its chairman, H.E. Yayi Boni President of the Republic of Benin, the AU Commission chairman by the names of Prof. Jean Ping and our partners from beyond Africa. This is the type of packaging that is legitimate, credible and effective.

 

Coming to the Somali problem, I detect five problems:

-First, the Somalis themselves have to understand that modern life demands that your economic interests cannot be taken care of in your village alone.

The people in the villages of Somalia need the people of Mogadishu to buy their farm produce and the people in the rural areas buy the shop products of the people of Mogadishu. I always like to use the example of Uganda to expose the bankruptcy of sectarianism in Africa.

My Banyankore groups all produce milk and bananas. Since they produce similar products, they cannot buy from one another. It is the people of Kampala and other parts of Uganda that emancipate the Banyankore from poverty by buying what they produce.

 

Not only do the Banyankore need the whole of Uganda to buy their products in order for them to be prosperous, they need the whole of East Africa and Central Africa to sell their products and get out of underdevelopment.

A modern life requires specialisation and exchange of products. We, therefore, need markets and integration to create those markets in a continent that was balkanised by colonialism.

 

-However, these markets cannot function if there is no security. This forms the second factor in the Somali problem.

We should assist the Somali government to expel the al-Shabaab chauvinists from all the strategic areas of the Somali territory if not from the whole territory of Somalia.

 

-Thirdly, sectarianism is reinforced by the prolonged absence of a representative national Government and institutions in Somalia.

 

It is good that the Somali in Djibouti, in the Kampala Accord, in Garowe and other places have already agreed to end the transitional phase in August, 2012 and have agreed to elect a representative or an accountable government, possibly using some crude formula but a formula that will produce an accountable government.

 

The need to establish an accountable government has the possibility of forcing factions (sectarian or otherwise) to work together because no single clan can win national power by itself through a democratic election.

Democracy, in whatever form, forces groups to seek for alliances. To be a warlord, you do not need internal alliances.

You can be a warlord by solely depending on external sponsors. We commend and encourage the Somali people on this path they have chosen.

 

-Fourthly, in my language, there is a saying which translates that ‘you estimate that a starved man may die in two days but he ends up dying in only one day.’

 

The starving people of Somalia must get relief. Africa and her partners were able to raise close to $350m in a pledging conference in Addis Ababa last year.

 

There is need for the world to contribute more and promptly to this effort.

 

-Fifthly, there are elements of the infrastructure that may need to be repaired to enable her to come back to normalcy. Somalia needs assistance in this area.

 

Finally, the piracy problem in Somalia waters must get a solution.

The main problem here is not in the ocean but on land. It is because there is no control of the Somali coastline that the pirates use it as a springboard to attack the ships in the ocean and come back in safety to the uncontrolled coastline.

Therefore, the durable answer to this problem is controlling the Somali mainland or at least the coastline. This is where our efforts should be directed.

 

The countries of Western Europe, the USA, China, India, Russia and Brazil, by working closely with Africa, can open up new huge possibilities for mankind. The population of Africa is now one billion people. Our population will be three billion in 2075.

 

The prosperity of Africa is growing. While the economies in the West have been having problems, the economies in Africa are continuing to grow, some of them growing very fast.

 

If we work together, we shall be able to, at last, cause socio-economic transformation on a global scale, unlike in the past when there were only islands of prosperity in a few corners of the globe while the rest of the world is inhabited by impoverished peoples.

 

We call this phenomenon ‘unbalanced development’ in the world. Let us build a middle class, a skilled working class population on a global scale.

 

 

I thank you.

 

 

 

President of the Republic of Uganda

Yoweri Museveni

[Jacaylbaro]

HALKAN