President Museveni has said begging has never made anyone rich, noting that if this had been the case, Africa would have been the wealthiest in the world.
"Can prosperity be achieved by begging from other countries? If that was the case, then all the African countries would be very prosperous because they have excelled in that enterprise, all these years. So, would Latin America from where you see desperate throngs of people walking on foot and going to the prosperous USA," Museveni said.
The president was on Wednesday speaking during the opening of the opening ceremony of the Ateker cultural festival in Soroti.
Flanked by the First Lady, Janet Museveni, the president explained that prosperity doesn't come from begging but rather producing a good or a service, with while assessing the optimal returns, sustainably and selling the good or somebody using that service and paying the service provider.
" In that case, the producer of the good or the service, will get income and solve the problem of food, shelter (house), clothing, health, education for the children as well as creating jobs for other citizens and paying taxes to support the country," he said.
" If that is the answer for achieving prosperity, then the next question is who will buy those goods and services sustainably and on large scale so that your prosperity is sustainably supported? Here, we get to the question of the market. If you produce goods and services with calculation to solve your problem of prosperity, who will buy those products sustainably and on a big scale enough to sustain your prosperity? Is the market in your tribe enough?"
The president explained that when people wake up and start producing goods and services with proper calculation, neither the tribal market nor the country market, can be enough.
He said this calls for regional and continental integration, citing Latin America as one of those continents which are not integrated and citizens trek to go to "heaven" in USA yet their countries have more natural resources than the US.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
"In my view, the answer is integration- economic and political versus fragmentation. Political and economic integration among similar, linked or contiguous People, appropriately done, means strength and prosperity while political and market fragmentation, means weakness and misery on account of poverty and insecurity," Museveni said.
"That is why our movement, the NRM, which started as a student movement in the 1960s, distilled the four ideological principles of patriotism, Pan- Africanism , social- economic and democracy to ensure that people hold the leaders accountable and they are elected by them."
The president said the Ateker festival is in the right direction to unite people.
"You are reminding yourselves that you are similar people, the colonial borders not with- standing."
He however urged the Ateker to catch up with their colleagues in other parts of East Africa by working with governments to create peace, provide water to the semi- arid parts of where some of them live, abandon nomadism, engage in commercial agriculture and emphasize health and education.
