Museveni commissions State House

By Alfred Wasike

PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni commissioned the newly constructed State House at Entebbe on Saturday.

The grand white complex overlooking Lake Victoria will have cost $54.9m when all the associated structures are built, works minister, John Nasasira revealed.

Museveni, flanked by his wife Janet and hundreds of guest under a huge white marquee at the entrance of the imposing structure, was excited. He proudly announced: “This is the first State House that our Government has constructed for Uganda. We built this magnificent command post ourselves and we built it in record time. This is a reflection that our economy is robust. We would not have done it if our economy was not repaired. We refused to succumb to the borrowing culture that our public service is used to because it is a curse like the Bible warns.”

The construction of the State House begun in August 2004 and was completed in November last year by a Chinese construction company.

After thanksgiving prayers, in which Church of Uganda Archbishop Henry Luke Orombi delivered a sermon based on Uganda’s motto, “For God & My Country,” Museveni unveiled a gray marble plaque inscribed in black with the words: “State House Entebbe. A Smaller Structure Of The State House Built By The Colonial Government Stood In This Place since 1940 until 2004. The Government Of Uganda Demolished That House & Built This New One & It Was Officially Commissioned By President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni On Saturday 29th March 2008.”

Museveni recounted: “Our economy has remained robust in spite of the mistakes by some politicians of trying to delay our power. But we started on Bujagali using our money because the lenders were also delaying. But now they have paid us back the money. We are carrying a surplus in our energy fund.

“I told my ministers that I don’t want a scattered effort while tackling national tasks. We focused on CHOGM plus related facilities like roads, hotels, this State House, the energy fund, USE and a couple of other tasks and we achieved them all on time.

“This confirms our guerrilla principles during the war. We concentrated on a few points like the guns, ammunition, the human beings to carry them and food but clothing was optional since a naked man can shoot you well,” he recalled amid laughter.

“We are trying to break out of this public service problem of trying to touch everywhere and nowhere in particular and with no good results to show. You cannot be everywhere at the same time. Our economy, this State House, our security and other achievements so far are fruits of calculated focus by the Movement Government,” he said to cheers.

On Libyan leader’s recent remarks at Nakivubo Stadium that the Bible was doctored, he said: “I am an amateur Christian because I am not very active but I was able to preach to Gaddafi when he made those remarks at Nakivubo. He keeps bringing up those issues of his. I always try to advise him quietly.”

“Later when we were having dinner, I again preached to him. He knows about Christianity. I told him, you, Gadaffi, you want to cause a civil war among my people. Stop it, I told him. Then he said that Jesus did not die. That they just brought another body and put in the grave. I said to him, why do you bother with things that happened where you were not?”