Ugandan president Gen Yoweri Kaguta Tibuhaburwa Museveni has previously sworn that he does not drink alcohol. He has also publicly warned against the dangers of alcoholism and advised the youth to stay away from the ‘bottle.’
But at some point, Gen Museveni came to terms that all people will not be like him and shun alcohol: some, including many top government officials, will keep drinking.
Museveni was also concerned that the Ugandan drunkards were swallowing imported beer like there is no tomorrow.
So, he and his government devised means to manufacture beer in Uganda so that besides earning revenue from beer sales and through taxation, some Ugandan youths could get jobs working in factories making beer, wines and other alcoholic beverages.
Gen Museveni has now assured Ugandan drunkards that the country now has enough beer to quench all their thirst, thanks to his foresightedness in embracing and implementing an import substitution strategy that made it possible to make beer in Uganda instead of importing the drinks from abroad.
“We used to import beer for the drunkards here, I noticed this was wrong, I said let’s produce the alcohol here and we did,” said Museveni, before warning: “Now, alcohol will be the death of some of you, but from here.”
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Museveni bragged about his beer import substitution strategy during the commissioning of the Kawumu Tannery in Luweero District on Friday, October 07. The tannery was constructed at a place Gen Museveni said was “our battlefield at one time, and on March 12th 1985 right here, I directed Rwigyema, Saleh, and Kigongo (Moses) to form the Rwenzori front, which we used to launch attacks.”
He narrated that he would later set up a demonstration farm, which currently employs 27 people, exactly in this very place to help Ugandans understand his agenda of how they can earn big from operating in a small space of four acres.
He further noted that fighting poverty will require Ugandans to embrace commercial agriculture, value addition and import substitution.
“While I acknowledge that working on roads, electricity, schools, and hospitals is development, it does not necessarily translate to poverty alleviation. Otherwise, people in Kampala would be rich, but they use the tarmac and they reach home to find poverty waiting,” observed Museveni.
“Therefore, we should eliminate what they call okusaka, which is Africa’s biggest problem thus far. While we are busy talking about commercial agriculture and value addition, a muzukulu somewhere is ordering hair from dead people abroad. This means that all our efforts to export and bring money here will be undone by this person badly in need of importing hair from dead people abroad. We are losing dollars, we are losing bargains in the market and most importantly, we are losing jobs.”
Meanwhile, back to the drunkards issue, Museveni opponent Bobi Wine has accused the president of turning Uganda into a bar where he has hired his son as the General Manager so that he can drink and even eat the bottles. (Read Story Here).
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