President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, who is also the Commander in Chief of Armed Forces, has identified the underutilization of Africa’s vast resources as the continent’s greatest impediment to economic progress, attributing it to ignorance, weak leadership, dependence on the West, low population density, and an ingrained “I don’t care” attitude.
President Museveni made these remarks while delivering a lecture of opportunity to 52 senior officers of Course 2025 at the Senior Command and Staff College (SCSC) Kimaka in Jinja City,
The President Museveni took his time to criticised the African widespread failure to harness available resources for productive and economic development use.
“Africa has a lot of resources, but people are reluctant to utilise them because of ignorance and I don’t care syndrome. In Africa, one can even survive without working. This has caused a lack of innovation and has left the continent backwards,” President Museveni emphasized.
President Museveni decried the dominance of informal labour across the continent, where many work merely to survive rather than generate wealth and encouraged citizens to pursue viable enterprises and commercial production as a way to enter money-based economies.
President Museveni emphasised that sustainable wealth creation depends on four sectors that include commercialised agriculture, industrialisation, the services industry, and the advancement of information and communications technology (ICT) saying that these are essential areas for job creation, particularly for the youth.
He reaffirmed Uganda’s commitment to regional integration, citing the East African Community (EAC) as a strategic platform for fostering a Pan-African identity, widening markets, and generating employment through expanded trade.
While stressing the need for patriotic and strategic leadership, President Museveni said governments must prioritise peace, infrastructure, education, healthcare, electricity, and other social services that empower citizens to engage in intensive, productive economic activity.
The President warned against politics rooted in identity and ethnicity, advocating instead for leadership based on shared national interests giving a referencing of Somalia’s prolonged instability, which he attributed the persistence of Al-Shabaab insurgents to a lack of coherent strategy and ideological clarity.
“If the people of Somalia adopted the same approach we used alongside Tanzania to defeat Idi Amin, working without pay but with a clear cause and strategy; they could overcome Al-Shabaab,” He said.
President Museveni reflected on Uganda’s liberation struggle, stating that its success came not from material benefits, but from a focused vision and strategic direction.
While speaking at the same event, the Commandant of Senior Command and Staff College (SCSC) Kimaka, said the 52 officers attending the course were drawn from across the region. Uganda contributed 41 participants, with Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, and South Sudan each contributing two, and Malawi one and the course is scheduled to conclude with a formal graduation ceremony on today June 27th 2025.
