Let’s face it – Uganda is a dysfunctional state
By M. Suleman
25th June 2012: To the uncritical Ugandans, it is budget time – a lot of excitement and debate. To many serious Ugandans however, as well as to serious international friends, the budget makes no difference. There have been similar budgets for the last 26 years but they have not benefitted Ugandans.
On the contrary, they have benefited Museveni & Co. at the expense of the taxpayers. Uganda today has become the perfect model for a failed state camouflaged as the “success story” of Africa. Foreign governments and institutions have no shame pointing out in the face of Ugandans that their country is a failed state.
The Evidence
In the recent past, one can start with the BBC Hard Talk (23 Feb 2012) interview in which the interviewer Stephen Sackur, seemingly disgusted with Museveni’s pretences asked him barrage of questions regarding his leadership, a subject that many Ugandan journalists and citizens are simply too scared to challenge Museveni on.
The overall impression one got from the interview was that as looked Museveni in the eye, Stephen Sackur must have felt that this is a man Ugandans should have thrown out long ago. Secondly, one also gets the feeling that Sackur decided to force Museveni to expose himself as a man without integrity – perhaps even a liar.
The second overtly cynical remarks came from the IMF representative to Uganda, just before the budget speech. The representative looked at the taxation policies of the country. His remarks portrayed the Ugandan government’s economic policies as totally lacking and directionless.
He criticized the confused taxation policies that have no regard for the ‘tax justice principle’ policies that give unnecessary exemptions to the ‘investors’. He categorically pointed out that in Uganda, “investors are enemies of economic growth” and that government policies are “not geared towards alleviating poverty and inequality”.
The strongest remarks, however, came from outgoing US Ambassador to Uganda Mr. Jerry Lanier. Lanier shocked the Vice President and all Ugandans when he categorically pointed out that the government has been receiving $400m for health annually for a couple of years but there is “paltry results” to show.
He noted that there is theft of drugs and other supplies; that mothers and children continue to die in childbirth; that there is uneven economic growth in the country; and that there are so many individuals whose wealth does not reflect their investments.
Above all, however, he stressed that the country loses more lives due to the failure of the health system than due to the elusive foreign and domestic enemies who seem to be Museveni’s main pre-occupation. In short, the Ambassador portrayed Uganda as a corrupt and direction-less country.
Then came the text message from the Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy to his Finance Minister. There is no nice way of putting it. The Spanish PM clearly thinks Uganda is a failed state under a hollow leadership from President Museveni that is ready to imbibe all conditions set by the IMF, World Bank and other donors.
From the comments of some of the foreign governments and institutions, one can conclude that many foreign governments and institutions now feel that Uganda is a dysfunctional state with a leadership deficit. The calls to Ugandans to wake up and remove Museveni are becoming loud by the day – and that is the challenge to all who love Uganda.
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