Museveni gave us ‘State of Sickness’ address
By M. Suleman
18th June 2012: Some gullible Ugandans expected Museveni to deliver some strategic economic, political and social policy statements during the State of the Nation address. But as many critical Ugandan analysts had predicted, there was nothing remotely close to that.
Amongst the many comments, I wish to share only two, which I believe can help us understand Museveni’s speech. Reacting to criticisms from MPs, Mr. Mafabi, one of Museveni’s many aides wrote: “…It is most unfortunate that many MPs could not make head or tail of the President’s speech”, (see Daily Monitor of June 15th).
Mr. Pius Katunzi, a columnist with The Observer newspaper wrote: “…My take on this is, that the president is either tired, bored with repeating the same unsuccessful things for the last 26 years or he has no respect for the citizens whom he was updating about the state of the nation”, (see The Observer of June 10th).
Clearly, even though he didn’t say it explicitly, Mafabi agreed with Pius Katunzi’s observation when he admitted that many MPs, some of whom are in fact seasoned Economists, could not understand what his boss Museveni was going on about in his speech.
Katunzi also gives a very good summary of the comments of many serious analysts. Simply put, one can say that Museveni’s speech was a collection of so many “…high sounding statements signifying nothing.”
To begin with, there was absolutely nothing new in the speech. Those who have followed Museveni for the past 26 years would have noted that, the content of Museveni’s speeches is always the same – subjectively presented to emphasize that he is the most intelligent person in Uganda.
Characteristic of Museveni, his speech was full of high sounding but ultimately meaningless phrases like “transform economy”, “stimulate production”, “build infrastructure”, “macro-economic stability”, “grow a middle class”, “build a middle income economy”, etc. A far-fetched solution is no solution at all.
For example, Museveni talked about his government’s plan to tarmac 44 roads whose total length comes to about 3466 Kilometres. But, if Museveni was serious about roads and their importance to the economy, how come the Kisoro –Kabale road, which is only 80km, has taken a whole 26 years to tarmac?
Museveni recently bragged that trade with DRC in 2010 amounted to $327.1million. If he is right, then the Kisoro – Kabale road would have been at the centre of that trade, because it links Uganda to DRC, it’s the gateway to the Bwindi impenetrable forest which is home to guerrillas species that are a major tourist attraction for Uganda. It’s is also the same road that transports a lot of agricultural produce for the country.
And yet, the poor state of this road has caused many accidents that have over the years claimed many lives. If 80kms of such an important road cannot be built in 26 years, then 3466kms is a very cruel joke – because Museveni will require at forty life times to complete it.
Museveni also talked about the increased tax collections, from 5billion Shillings in 1986 to 6.1trillion Shillings in 2011. To the uncritical eye, this would seem like a gigantic achievement by Museveni’s government. But if you think carefully, then you will realise that a lot of that increase is down to Uganda’s unprecedented population growth.
Inevitably, as the population grows, there will be more people and private sector actors who pay taxes. Secondly, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that a predatory regime should have developed and implemented predatory tax policies which collected a lot of money for it to ‘eat’, bribe Ugandans, and therefore entrench itself in power.
Indeed, as recently pointed out by the IMF representative in Uganda, the taxation policies have not only placed a burden on the poor, they have also stifled the economy. As if he confused by such honest and impeccable analysis, Museveni argued, in his usual escapist ways, that he is not bothered about such lectures from the IMF.
That he would prefer to increase the salaries of the scientists, but not the teachers who produce them! He even ridiculously suggested that it would be better for civil servants to take voluntary wage cuts from a salary of as little as 250, 000/= a month to fund infrastructure development, pay his henchman Gen. Kale Kayihura, pay for his jumbo size cabinet, parliament and others – all of whom earn more that 10million Shillings a month.
He wants more money, yet the outgoing US ambassador recently noted that Uganda has been receiving $400m annually for health programmes but has nothing to show for it. Museveni also said that the economy needs businesses better than salons?
But who sold Coffee Marketing board, Uganda Hotels, Uganda Commercial Bank, and closed the hugely profitable Greenland Group of Companies? Museveni can fool some people all the time, but he can’t fool all the people all the time. END. Login to www.ugandacorrespondent.com every Monday to read our top stories mid-week for our updates
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