| KAMPALA PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame yesterday disagreed on how political succession should be handled.
Although both heads of
State were responding to the same question during a session at the African Business Leaders Forum, Mr Musevenis response was ambiguous before Mr Kagame punched holes in the idea of infallible leaders, and told all and sundry: I want to see leaders come and go.
The question, posed by a delegate representing Leap Africa, came up during a debating session after the two presidents, along with former Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda, had given their speeches at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The delegate had asked why most African leaders have failed to demystify the succession issue.
In the case of Uganda, it is a simple process. Politics is a strategy by different players.
What are the programmes and who can champion them? We have elections and people vote. That is not a problem in Uganda now, Museveni said. We didnt agree with the question of term limits
For us, it is the people to decide.
Moderator
Peter Ndoro then posed the same question to Kagame, who responded with certainty. The Rwandan President, who has been critical of leaders who overstay in power, told the delegates that succession is an orderly affair when you prepare others to carry on the responsibilities. Said Kagame: You have to build institutions
you dont simply emphasise individuals
![]() | | OLD PALS: Presidents Yoweri Museveni, Paul Kagame (C) and former Zambian president Kenneth Kaunda. PPU Photo | Succession is a system of replacing a leader in monarchies, but it has turned out to be used in African politics since some leaders have been replaced by their sons.
President Museveni won a third elective term in February after
a successful move to scrap presidential term limits from the 1995 Constitution.
Yesterday the presidents, who have had a love-hate relationship since the late 1990s when their armies clashed in the Congo, had different views on what kind of leadership is needed to transform Africa.
While Kagame submitted that leaders should inspire their people to collectively work towards achieving a common and well-defined goal, Museveni argued that a leader who combines vision, patriotism and knowledge is the best bargain.
On the panel, Museveni and Kagame were joined by Kaunda and some business executives. In his speech, Kaunda described Africa as a continent at crossroads, because of its failed economic policies and conflicts arising out of bad governance.
A premier gathering of African business leaders, the Annual Business Leaders Forum is organised by BusinessinAfrica, the continents leading business magazine.
Musevenis keynote address, which
preceded the debate, focused on transitional leadership, stability and growth.
Leadership, if it is to be useful, is propelled forward by the circumstances under which it emerges
the leadership that makes a contribution to the problems of Africa is one that addresses what I call strategic problems that have led Africa to lag behind other continents, Museveni said.
The President, who said political stability is not useful on its own, argued that national security must be linked to other strategic issues, though he conceded that Ugandas investment patterns had not been foolproof.
Our economy has been growing at an average GDP rate of growth of 6.5 per cent for the last 19 years. Much of this growth, however, is in the type of enterprises that are low investment, low technology and high returns, he said.
However, enterprises that require investment of the magnitude of $10-$15 million (about Shs18-27 billion) and above have not attracted
investments.
Museveni said the lack of independence in decision-making was one of the strategic bottlenecks to Africas development. At some stage, we decided on the basis of the advice of other people and we delayed in developing our power potential, Museveni said. In fact we were told that Uganda was in danger of having too much electricity.
Therefore you need to sequence the building of the power stations. And as President Kagame said, some of our people listened to that type of lie. What is the cause of that? Policy dependence; listening to other people instead of pushing your own priorities.
Some of Africas strategic problems, the President said, include exportation of raw materials, small markets, illiteracy, and small population occupying a huge landmass. | 
