FULL STATEMENT: Museveni slams World Bank in lengthy letter on Foreign Aid and Loans

UGANDA: President Yoweri Museveni has for the second time responded to the World Bank in which he slammed the arrogance and provoking decision by the international money lender to halt any further funding to Uganda over the Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2023.

The World Bank in a statement on August 8, 2023, said it would not entertain any further funding requests coming from the East African country to its Executive Board citing that the adoption of the law “fundamentally contradicts the Group’s values.”

However, in a second response last evening, President Museveni in a lengthy 27-page statement titled, Foreign aid and loans, President Museveni chided Western “imperialist actors” that elect to rebuke or condemn other countries over their own internal and sovereign decisions, as “insufferable”.

“You have to work hard to restrain yourself from exploding with anger. They are so shallow [that] they do not know when and where to stop. It is this shallowness in philosophy, ideology and strategy that interferes with the global efforts to generate [global] consensus,” a furious Museveni wrote.

The President bemoaned the provocation and arrogance by the World Bank Group on the subject of homosexuals saying the country he leads has so patiently discussed so many of those elements.

Museveni also reiterated that foreign aid and loans are welcome and can be of some use if designed and executed by patriots (not neo-colonial agents), but are neither decisive nor indispensable elements for our desired social-economic transformation.

“On the contrary, those loans and aid packages can be a source of distortion and stunted growth, as you can see across Africa. Foreign aid and loans are a source of social and economic transformation, which is why the present is growing. crisis of security and stability in Africa? Look at Guinea-Conakry, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, the Central African Republic, the DRC, and Boko Haram in Nigeria, Somalia, Mozambique, etc. Most of these countries have been getting those grants and loans,” said Museveni.

Mr Museveni likened the “intolerant” World Bank and states and institutions that behave like them to “religious fundamentalists” blamed for terrorism activities, warning their unilateral actions were likely to boomerang.

“This arrogance of some actors creates unnecessary contradictions among partners in that cause [of the global war on terror],” he noted, citing Uganda’s deployment of troops in Somalia and the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo to fight extremism.

The very intolerance to different views by these homosexual lobbies is, he argued, in itself is a “bad example”.

“How, then, are you different from the religious fundamentalists who are intolerant of other faiths? If you have a certain view-point about homosexuality, we have a different one. Your attempt to coerce us [to acquiesce] puts you together with the chauvinists,” he noted.

The bank in funding freeze statement demanded that Uganda guarantees that projects it bankrolls breach no rights of minorities, including individuals who identify as lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender, queer, intersex (LGBTQI)+.

There are about 70 countries around the world, including the West’s Middle East ally Saudi Arabia, that criminalise or provide death penalty for homosexuality and the conflict in Uganda’s case, as is for most of Africa, is centred on protection of traditional and family values against the pro-gay campaigns.

As of December 31, 2022, the World Bank’s portfolio of IDA-financed credits and grants stood at $5.4 billion in commitments, comprising 22 national and 4 regional projects.

The Anti-Homosexuality Act (AHA), 2023 restricts activities of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, & Intersex (LGBTQI+) community in Uganda by introducing penalties including death and life imprisonment for aggravated homosexuality.

Below is President Museveni’s full statement on Foreign Aid and Loans