Saturday , November 9 2024
Home / NEWS / NRM rebel MPs critique President Museveni’s speech at NRM retreat opening

NRM rebel MPs critique President Museveni’s speech at NRM retreat opening

FILE PHOTO: NRM rebel MP Gaffa Mbwatekamwa

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Mr. President you and the caucus leadership thought that we who often have a different opinion from yours and have the capacity to challenge your views should not attend the Kyankwanzi parliamentary caucus retreat. Your decision did not surprise us because you also did the same when you wanted to include the two years extension in the constitutional amendment.  Thank you because it gave us opportunity to critically follow procedures as outsiders and this comment provides our opinion.  The comment is about your opening remarks in Kyankwanzi as reported by the media.

We write our comment at a time when Hon.Kyagulanyi  Ssentamu  was seriously criticized by people who thought that to run for president you must have enrolled in an economics class to be able to articulate issues like  fiscal  policy.  Your  opening  remarks  just  showed  that  Professor Muhumuza and other economists in the country still have a lot of work to do  if  you  the  longest  serving  president  in  Africa  failed  to  know  how economists  determine  the monetary  poverty line  and  how eventually a certain group is said to be above or below.

That being said we found it worrying that Mr.  President  you  seem  not concerned   about  the  increasing  poverty  levels  from  19%  in  2013  to nearing 28% in 2017 according to Uganda Bureau of statistics statistical abstract.  In your speech at Kyankwanzi you sounded unaware that poverty is on the increase in the country as you claimed it’s only at 21.4%. If the current trend continues more than 30% of Ugandans will be under the monetary poverty line in 2020 a year when you promised them middle income status where the per capita income was expected to be averaging $1200.

We also believe that after 34 years as the president you should have used the Kyankwanzi retreat to explain why the income inequality in the country is worsening from 32% in 1990 to an estimated 57% in 2018.  You should have explained why the gap between the rich and the poor is worsening every year. We expected you to explain why in a country you have led for all these years its only people coming from the same region as you that have higher chances of accessing available opportunities like jobs, contracts, capital, scholarships etc.

You applauded the MPs for having supported you  to pass the Lubowa specialised   hospital   financing   deal,   but   you   must   have   used   this opportunity to explain to the country why you opted for this option of $378 million  yet  the  redundant  specialised  doctors trained  with  support  from World  Bank  had  cheaper  options  of  less  than  $45million  to  provide specialised services in all regional referral hospitals in the country instead of  building  new concrete  walls.  You should have convinced Ugandans who thought it was a more expensive venture to finance this project using promissory notes and a bad idea to support a private investor.

Mr. President we keep wondering why you always interpret the census figures wrongly. Yes it’s true, in Uganda only 32% of households have income, 68% don’t earn anything.  The statics will be worse if you only considered eastern, north eastern, northern and north western regions of the country. What we want you to know is that they did not just refuse to earn or enter the money economy as you seem to claim in your speech. It’s rather because for 34 years your regime has not created opportunities for the masses.

Your government were you’re the only vision bearer has not prioritized development of subsistence agriculture where majority of the 68% earn a leaving.  For  34  years  you  have  provided  no  financing  for  subsistence farmers, you killed cooperatives that used to provide financing and your government has made substance farmers so vulnerable to money lenders who   finance   their   subsistence   agricultural   activities   charging   them immoral interest rates. You have provided no reliable financing for value addition so they are often exploited by traders who purchase their produce very raw.

You killed an education system that ensured equal opportunities even for the children of the poor in rural areas to complete tertiary education and would  eventually  compete  favourably  in  the  job  market  and  created  a system where only children of the rich who can go to expensive private schools, access tertiary education and hence the job market.

Your administration killed merit in public service where jobs could also be accessed by children of the rural poor, now jobs can only be acquired through a recommendation yet available jobs in the private sector are also acquired by relatives and friends of those who hold capital. We hope your aware that the 84% unemployed Ugandans are children of the poor yet these households sold off their properties like land, cows etc to educate them hoping that they will get jobs.

You deliberately failed to deal with corruption in the country a vice that continuously puts the country’s resources in the hands of those public servants your relatives and bush war friends have recommended for jobs. We hope you know it’s this nepotism that made it very difficult for your government deal with corruption.

Mr. President you asked a very good question, how much more would we have achieved as a country had you not ignored the majority (the 68%) of Ugandans for 34 years. Yes you indicated that it’s high time you wake up and know they exist.  The problem you’re waking at time when these masses are tired, you’re waking at time when they are demanding that you get out that office, you’re waking up when you may not be able to do much. You were wise not to allow us come to Kyankwanzi we would have demanded that you apologise to the people of Uganda for claiming that the 68% just refused to enter the money economy.

Mr. President, look at the solutions you give to the people you want to join the money economy! Do you hear yourself? The 68% are out of the money economy how do you expect them to focus on the four sectors as you prescribe them? Don’t you find it unreasonable that your advising them to; set up industries big and small when your aware they have no money!, You advised them to join mineral exploitation when in 2017 you banned artisanal mining using UPDF to evict  those in Mubende and you have just given fresh instructions to stop those of Buhweju!  You advised them to join  the  service  sector  to  set  up  hotels,  banks,  business  outsourcing really? If these are the solutions you have, they will still benefit the 32% and continue to alienate the 68%.

Mr. President, we know you as a man who has been around for more than 50  years,  although  most  of  the  time  you  have  spent  it  in  privileged positions that should not be justification enough for you not to know what goes on in the Lives of the ordinary people. These households (the 68%) go without basic needs; they cannot afford two meals a day, their children always fail to access quality education, they rely on traditional medicine for their healthcare, they are so vulnerable to lose their assets to money lenders trying to meet these needs. So it’s a mockery to them when you tell  them  to  join  commercial  agriculture,  set  up  industries,  or  join  the service sector.

If you had allowed debates in the NRM caucus and avoided dictatorship by expecting MPs always to node their heads in approval of what you said, we think many resourceful NRM MPs would have provided better solutions to you and your government. If you had not expelled us from the caucus retreat as ‘rebel MPs’ we would have advised that to build resilient household  your  government  should  come  up  with  better  solutions  that focus  on  dealing  with  vulnerability,  support  to  the  informal  sector  and affordable financing for subsistence farming. The 68% need assurance that they will not be evicted from their land   because it’s their source of Livelihoods, so solutions focused at building a reliable land management system would be more welcome.

In  1987-1990  when  you  were  still  patriotic,  you  refused  to  borrow expensive loans, to build railways, and construct electricity dams. When one  reads  or  watch  those  famous  videos  when  you  preached  against heavy borrowing and the need to build local capacity to build own railways and  power  dams  we  wonder  what  happened  to  that  philosophy.  What happened to that Patriotism? You instead ended up borrowing all the time and very expensive loans to build power dams forgetting that although the country   needed   electricity   and   other   infrastructure   we   needed   it affordable.  Your badly negotiated Bujagali Project, the most expensive power project in the world will make power unaffordable for more than 35 years in Uganda.

Your  government  borrowed  expensively  to  build  the  ICT  backbone infrastructure where you convinced the country that 125 million dollars will bring  internet  costs  down  and  promote  ICT  growth.  Whereas  the  ICT backbone ended up only benefiting government agencies and not majority of Ugandans because they still rely on expensive telecom companies for their  internet  services  your  policy  on  discouraging  internet  usage  by slapping OTT tax defeated the purpose.

The  standard  gauge  railway  could  have  been  a  viable  project  if  your government  had  other  efforts  to  develop  the  entire  railway  transport system in the country. You cannot desire to borrow for Standard gauge railway when your doing nothing in maintaining and expanding the meter gauge railways system which your government found functional in 1986. For us we think the standard gauge will be a ‘white elephant’ benefiting only imports to Uganda.

Since  2016  you  have  claimed  that  your  going  to  capitalise  Uganda Development  Bank  (UDB),  many of  us  clapped  our  hands  for  you,  we thought that was a good decision, we indeed thought your government will make it a priority. Whereas UDB needed USh 500 billion for capitalisation the last three budgets you have provided less than 50billions and UDB has  resorted  to  borrowing  expensive  loans    externally  to  be  able  to function. So Mr. President stop the Rhetoric, Capitalise UDB it should stop

being a campaign buzzword make it  a reality. We have seen so much wasteful allocation over the three budgets. We need a Development Bank and we need it for all Ugandans not just a few.

As far as interest rates are concerned we expected you to explain to MPs in Kyankwanzi when your government will stop competing with the private sector  on  available  money  by  reducing  domestic  borrowing  because  it contributes significantly to higher cost of money. We also wished that you explained  to  members  of  parliament  what  your  planning  do  about commercial banks that continue to charge exorbitant interest rates even when  the  central  bank  rate  is  lowered.  We expected policy decisions around what your administration is planning around SACCOs and Money lenders that continue to confiscate peoples’ property everyday even when parliament came up with a law to stop this.

Although we were not in Kyankwanzi, we applaud you for your policy on attracting investors and protecting them, its very good for the growth of the  country  and  with  oil  in  the  offing  the  potential  is  enormous.  4026 factories/ industries and still counting, this is a very good achievement congratulations. How we wished you broke them down on how many are owned by local people and how many are held by foreigners. The 2017 statistics showed that investors from the Indian origin alone owned 65% of industries/factories in Uganda.  It would be paramount to grow the confidence of Ugandans that along foreigners there are local industrialist who are participating in this industrialisation process. Probably this would be  an  opportunity  for  you  to  explain  to  the  country  your  strategy  on ensuring that industrialists that setup in the country give meaningful jobs to Ugandans not merely odd jobs. We also expected that you would use this opportunity to present your strategy on reviewing investor licensing as  many  local  traders  are  decrying  Asian  investors  who  continue  to receive protection from your office to do whole sale and retail business in the Country yet they are expected to be in industries and factories.

It would have added value also to explain why National Planning Authority planned industrialisation strategy of building regional industrial parks and promoting equal distribution of industries to different parts of the country have not taken off. You would have used this as an opportunity for you to explain the concentration of factories and industries in the congested Kampala and Wakiso and there is no effort of clustering them at all. Yes they are members of NRM but they too needed to hear you explain why Mbarara  and  Kiruhura  has  attracted  more  than  5  Milk   Processing industries yet Karamoja and Teso with serious milk potential has none.

Mr. President we would have loved to extend our support for you and the matter  of  environment,  you  were  indeed  spot  on  the  need  to  stop encroaching on forests and advise to people to desist from encroaching on  wetlands.  But  you  should  have  gone  ahead  to  explain  why    your government is busy De-gazetting forests and giving away forest land to people  and  foreign  investors,  why  your  government  has  allowed  most factories to setup in water catchment areas, why your ministry of lands reluctantly titles swampy landscapes and lake shores?

May  be  you  would  have  ended  this  discussion  by  giving  Ugandans commitment  that  your  government  will  ensure  that  existing    forests, swamps and lakes on public land will be protected and that factories will not continue to set up in swamps and water catchment areas.

You  fell  short  of  convincing  us  that  there  is  any  momentum,  we  saw business as usual using the same lazy script writer.

We believe  it’s  possible  to  build  a  resilient,  integrated  and  sustainable economy but with strategies and efforts that are inclusive of majority of the people not just a few.

Mr.  President  we  never  expected  you  to  engage  MPs  on  matters  of peaceful transfer of Power and strengthening of internal democracy in the party, but at least you should have reluctantly hinted on it when you expect to retire because it’s a question that  all those you were facing expects from you. If it means as long as you’re still alive, it does no harm for you to mention it so that many of them burry their hopes of leading the party and the country as long you’re still alive. You should have reminded them that you have been around for 50 years and you still plan to be around forever.

We were surprised that you missed talking about the Rwanda Impasse at a  time  when  your  counterpart  in  Rwanda  is  Spitting  fire  and  giving deadlines to Rwandans staying in Uganda. At basic minimum you should have advised those MPs on what to communicate to Rwandans you’re your   government   allowed   to   become   residents   in   their   respective constituencies. Your silence makes us think your preparing for war. As Ugandans we do not want war, we will give you all the support as our president to avoid any form of war with our neighbours.

Good deliberations hope you don’t do the obvious-Paying our colleagues to  popularise  the  Chobe  Resolutions  where  your  insisting  to  be  Sole Candidate 2021 and Beyond.

*******

URN

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *