Uganda shouldn’t be a least developed and failed state Uganda has again been listed as a failed state in the Foreign Policy magazine dated July/August 2013. At the start of the 20th century, Winston Churchill christened Uganda as “The Pearl of Africa”. He reported that he had never seen anything like what he witnessed in Uganda – the uniqueness of natural and human resources, concluding that Uganda would play an important role in development. The British colonial administration decided that Uganda should be developed by Africans and for Africans because of their entrepreneurial and achievement spirit. At independence in 1962, Uganda was ahead of Kenya and Tanzania in human condition. Now it is way behind. How do we explain this change? Uganda is not poor in natural resources. Uganda is not poor in professional and skilled resources. Uganda is not poor in financial resources. Uganda is poor in what has been called “integrity at the top” that has created a political and economic environment unsuitable for economic growth with equity in a sustainable manner. Obote I regime had a credible economic and social policy to level the playing field but was undermined by political instability, resulting in the January 1971 military coup. Amin captured power to save his skin – not to develop Uganda and her people. He did not trust educated Ugandans and expelled industrial and commercial Asians to reward his supporters and buy time in power. He relied on poorly educated and inexperienced mercenaries from Sudan and DRC that killed Ugandans en masse – up to 500,000 – and plundered the country and took off when the Tanzanian troops and Ugandan rebels booted them out of government in April 1979, leaving Uganda in a terrible mess. Obote won the 1980 general elections which despite some irregularities were given a pass by the Commonwealth Observer team. The opposition especially the Democratic Party supporters were not happy because they felt victory had been snatched from them but were willing to form the opposition and prepare for the next elections. However, Museveni whose party won a single seat in parliament and himself lost to his current minister of foreign affairs chose the military option. He waged a very destructive guerrilla war against the government. The war destabilized the country and undermined economic growth and poverty reduction efforts. It is reported that some 700,000 Ugandans lost their lives in the Luwero Triangle alone (half the population as recorded in the 1980 census) between 1981 and 1986 before Museveni captured power and became president. Museveni and his National Resistance Movement government promised to end the suffering of all Ugandans through the popular and well-designed ten point program. However, it was dropped before it was implemented and replaced with a shock therapy stabilization and structural adjustment program (SAP). The stabilization part was designed to clean up the macroeconomic imbalances within a short time and prepare the country for long term structural adjustment to promote economic growth and equitable distribution of benefits through trickle down mechanism and ultimately eliminate poverty which was NRM’s overarching goal communicated to the public during the bush war. Then three major things occurred: 1. The government focused on military adventure into neighboring countries including in Burundi, DRC, Rwanda and Sudan apparently to restore stability essential for development; 2. The government refused to return skilled Ugandans in the diaspora and marginalized experienced ones at home in large part because they had been associated with Amin and Obote regimes; 3. Uganda suffered a massive invasion of corruption, sectarianism, cronyism and mismanagement of public funds never seen before and Uganda became more divided in such a manner that the resulting districts are economically unviable. People were posted to high positions they had not been prepared for on promise they would get on-the-job training while trained and skilled Ugandans were ignored largely because they didn’t fight during the guerrilla war or were Amin and Obote sympathizers. Many relatives of key leaders in the government were given important positions but refused to work as they should because they knew nobody would touch them: some chose to pursue studies while they were hired and paid to serve the public. Ipso facto, the morale sank and so was productivity. Corruption became so rampant that much money for development just disappeared into private pockets. Some of it was diverted to defense to wage wars in neighboring countries in pursuit of Tutsi Empire dream in the first instance. Capital flight accompanied by brain drain followed. To cover up wrongdoing which was reflected in deepening and spreading poverty, NRM government began reporting economic growth and per capita income. It switched from developing the country as a whole to a focus on the capital city of Kampala disguised as a “growth pole strategy” which has not worked in terms of distributing income equitably, resulting in highly skewed income distribution in favor of the few that are already rich. The introduction of indirect taxation which is regressive has hurt the poor the most. Controlling inflation to single digits through raising interest rates has constrained efforts of small and medium enterprises to expand and/or start up new enterprises that create jobs – hence low economic growth far below the 9 percent annually to meet the MDGs by 2015 and high unemployment especially of the youth. Not least, export-oriented growth has led to a foreign exchange policy formulation that has promoted exports of primary commodities, increased the price of imports and resulted in food exports leaving insufficient amount for domestic consumption resulting in hunger and serious nutritional deficiencies with debilitating economic and social consequences. Massive de-vegetation and overfishing have occurred to increase agricultural, fish and livestock exports. NRM malfunction is so deep that rebranding it won’t work. Instead, a new government with an alternative development blue print is what is required to return Uganda to the right growth and equitable path. In response UDU has: 1. Prepared an alternative development blue print titled National Recovery Plan accessible at udugandans.org; 2. Called for a transitional government to clean up the place and then prepare the country for free and fair multi-party elections; 3. Begun compiling a list of all Ugandans according to their professions from the lowest to the highest position. The overarching goal is to realize meritocracy and keep corruption, sectarianism and mismanagement of public funds at bay. UDU calls on development partners, friends and well wishers to lend a helping hand in order to fully integrate Uganda into the global economy from a competitive – not a comparative – advantage as has been the case so far. Eric Kashambuzi Secretary General, UDU
Posted on: Wed, 03 Jul 2013 18:50:06 +0000
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