WHY ARE UGANDANS POOR YET PRESIDENT MUSEVENI AND NRM GOVERNMENT HAVE BEEN IN CONTROL FOR 36 YEARS NOW?
The biggest problem is not past leaders and colonialists, it is his governance problem.
The reasons why Ugandans are poor yet NRM Government has been in power for 36 years now are:
1. NRM Government came with an agenda in 1986, to be in power for a long time. This strategy has given them a big challenge. That is why most employment opportunities for a bigger part of NRM time in power have been in security. When a regime sees no challenge to its stay in office, it is bound to deliver less.
2. While fighting, the NRA/M members gave a wrong impression that they loved Uganda. Instead, after capturing power, the scramble started. When World Bank and IMF came up with privatization of enterprises after they had been run down by the NRM appointed managers, among those who took advantage to take the enterprises were products of Luwero Bushes. It is by chance to have some of those enterprises still operating, and many buyers were not able to clear the enterprises they bought. You can as well say: These guys saw the privatization as an easy way to pay themselves. Privatization did not spare accommodation of Health workers, and when COVID came, that is when some people realized that it was wrong to sale the accommodation facilities for health workers.
3. There is nothing that has kept Uganda poor as the corruption. Year after year, the resources Uganda keeps losing to the corrupt many of whom are connected to Government keep increasing and the so - called anti corruption agencies have compromised characters some of whom are beneficiaries from corruption while others see the challenge impossible given the characters involved.
4. The money got through corruption is then used to buy big chunks of land where people are dispossessed and left landless which worsens poverty.
5. The patronage scheme has cost Uganda a lot of resources which could have been put into improving the capacity to produce for export hence increasing the foreign exchange earnings of the country and increase employment opportunities. The patronage scheme is responsible for a huge unproductive parliament of over 500 members, a huge cabinet, an army of Presidential advisers many of whom should be earning from investments they have. Now they are having free money. We also have the RDCs who on many occasions have caused controversy where they are posted.
6. We have seen instances where people appointed in positions as CEOs actually don’t have power over the entities they are supposed to control. Instead effective authority lies in some people junior to them. This has the problem of declaring redundant those who actually would help steer the entities in the right direction.
7. We have the issue of fraud. It is a sad story I have to tell here. It is not clear the role of the NRM Government in the fraud that is taking place and involved commercial banks. On two occasions I fundraised to stand for President of Uganda that is in 2010 and 2015. The money I raised was cashed in the two banks I used: Cairo International Bank and Barclays Bank respectively. I have done all it takes to get justice, but nothing. Even as I write this article, I am unable to access any single dollar from outside Uganda. 12 years now, I would have impacted more than 2,000 lives in Namutamba Parish, Mityana District, but the money has been stolen! Let us put blame where it is due.
36 years is a very long period of time when in charge of state matters. NRM should blame themselves for the increasing poverty and general deteriorating situation of Ugandans in most parts of the country.
President Museveni has blamed past leaders and colonialists for Uganda’s poverty, saying they “poisoned the minds’’ of hardworking farmers.
“When the colonials came here, they made our people grow the crops they wanted: cotton, tobacco, coffee, tea, and then our leaders just copied what the colonialists told them...So, when I studied the issue, I could see danger, number one was only working for the stomach.
“They (locals) must work for the stomach and the pocket. But secondly, even the ones who are working for the pocket do so without cura (calculations). That is how you get West Nile growing tobacco. If you grow tobacco on one acre, you will never get out of poverty…” he said.
Mr Museveni made the remarks while addressing leaders from the Acholi and Lango sub-regions at Baralegi State Lodge in Otuke District.
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