Nyerere, Karume visionaries, who united two republics, says Museveni

BY CORRESPONDENT

13th June 2013

Uganda President, Yoweri Museveni

Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni has described Tanzania’s founding fathers Dr Julius Nyerere and Sheikh Abeid Karume as visionary East African leaders and wise thinkers who gave up their country’s sovereignty to unite the people for a common objective.

‘’These leaders should be saluted for the wise decision of uniting the Tanganyika Mainland and Zanzibar to form the United Republic of Tanzania,’’ President Museveni told the Inter-Parliamentary Relations Seminar in Entebbe over the weekend.

“This brave and commendable example should be followed suit by the East African Community Partner States,” he added.

President Museveni was addressing the two-day seminar run under the theme: “Promoting a people-centred and market driven East Africa”.

“With a population of 140 million, [East Africa] offers huge market that can easily attract investors who in turn will offset the manufacturing age for the region,” Museveni commented.

“Sectarianism based on tribal and religious grounds interferes with the interest of both producers and entrepreneurs,’’ said the president in reference to what the union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar has achieved in terms of alleviating tribal and civil conflicts that are still plaguing some of the nations in the region.

As such, he argued that unification of East Africa is “a necessity as the people of the region are already linked through culture, history and dialects.”

Mwalimu Nyerere, who retired from presidency in 1985, died from leukemia in London on 14 October 1999, aged 77. Sheikh Karume (67) was assassinated in April 1972 in Zanzibar Town.
 

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN