UGANDAN President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni was the perfect choice to dodge the recurring questions about the unattended challenges that befuddle Africa and its 967 million people.

National distractions took the shine off his distinguished lecture on "Development strategies for African countries: Imperatives for Actualising the Objectives of Vision 20-2020 and the Seven-point Agenda", at the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies, NIPSS, Kuru.

Museveni listed obstacles to greatness of African nations. Among them were insufficient energy (500 MW per person in Africa compared with Europe and America 's 3,000-7,000 MW per person); and failure to develop cheap transport infrastructure through the creation of artificial waterways to solve some of the continent's logistics problems.

Countries like Japan , he noted developed, making quality education a priority. He urged his colleagues on the continent "to identify their priorities and work for the diversification of the priorities so that posterity would judge them aright, when they contribute to the growth of their economies and to be able to compete favourably with other developed economies around the world."

Does the choice of Museveni reflect the thinking at NIPSS, one of our top think-tanks? At a time that the world is promoting democracy NIPSS offered itself to an unrepentant dictator. What was Museveni expected to contribute to any meaningful dialogue on the development of Africa?

It is totally depressing that in this century NIPSS can give the likes of Museveni the podium to prescribe solutions to African problems, when he is a well-known creator and contributor to those problems.

His book, What Is The Problem With Africa (2000) arrived with the same popular acclaim that the West had built in accepting Museveni, who they thought was a good alternative to Idi Amin. Museveni had been involved in distabilising governments in Uganda from 1971. His march to power in 1986 followed his loss of a December 1980 election he was confident of winning. He returned to a guerrilla career that had seen him oppose governments since Idi Amin.

As President of Uganda since January 29, 1986, Museveni has joined the coterie of sit-tight African leaders who believe they alone have the wisdom to solve their nation's problems.

In 2006, Museveni won a third term. Indications are that he would stay beyond 2011 because he has removed tenure limits, meaning he could join the league of Omar Bongo in Gabon (41 years, the longest serving ruler in the world excluding monarchies, his current tenure expires in 2013), Libya 's

Muammar Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi (39 years) or Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe (28 years). His legendary harassment of the opposition is becoming an embarrassment to the West. Museveni's major achievement has been the curtailment of the AIDS pandemic in his country.

Museveni has dedicated the rest of his efforts to civil wars in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Sudan, and the suspicious sending of his peace keeping force to Somalia, ahead of an African Union planned force.

Sadly, NIPSS chose him, as if his precedents do not matter.