"Museveni. Your time is up. Go away," said Bob Geldof, standing next to Tony Blair at the launch of the Commission for Africa report. But Yoweri Museveni, president of Uganda since he drove Milton Obote from power in 1986, presents a problem for those who say democracy is a condition of development. For Uganda is a one-party state, but an economic success. After ten years of rapid growth, poverty has been sharply reduced and the HIV/Aids infection rate is down from Africa's highest to one of its lowest.
There is some sympathy inside Uganda for Geldof's challenge, and in March, for the first time in years, the police allowed a protest march. But when I mentioned Geldof, the ice cool 60-year-old president said: "I don't know who he is." I explained his role as a fundraiser for the Ethiopian famine. "I am a fundraiser too," said Museveni, "I raise money through increased tax revenue from a more prosperous people. You should tell him to give true regard to other fundraisers!"
Where does your tenacity come from?
I was born in Uganda of cattle people. We had to be disciplined to survive. Also along the way I developed strong convictions about justice and the need to empower Africa and secure Africa's place in the world.
Isn't 19 years in power enough?
In Africa our interest in politics is not about careers as in Europe. It is not a job, it's a cause. I'm not running a country. I'm creating a country. We are not free, because we are economically backward and balkanised. In Europe you spent 300 years looking for a direction. In 1453, when the Ottomans captured Constantinople and blocked the west from its old routes to China, the Europeans spent many years looking for a new direction. Then Vasco da Gama found a sea route to the east and Columbus voyaged to the west and Europe could step forward. Then later Adam Smith gave an economic direction to Europe. His solution was industry, not just agriculture, and not amassing millions in stolen bullion. Right now in Africa we are trying to create our direction.
Hasn't Uganda's presence in the Congo been counterproductive?
If you have a dirt road, as long as the car is moving forward you are going to throw up some dust. I'm a moving vehicle and it has been for a good purpose. In the Congo we were fighting the Sudanese intervention, which created a lot of problems for black people. We succeeded in driving them out of the Congo. We have now pacified our borders and withdrawn our troops.
Are you pleased that the UN security council has voted to refer the genocide allegations in Sudan's Darfur region to the international criminal court?
I support this. And if they decide to prosecute some Ugandans accused of crimes against humanity, I would encourage them to go to The Hague to defend themselves.
You have had a lot of economic success. But isn't it going to get harder now?
It's true that we need a higher level of investment, higher technology. But we are going to reprocess our coffee, make our own textiles. All these problems are solvable. We are going to exceed our 6 per cent growth rate. We also need to co-operate more with our neighbours because we are landlocked. Uganda hasn't yet been able to fly out of its import-substituting, raw material-exporting economy into an export-orientated one, an industrial one. We haven't yet taken off.
