Popular Kenyan Pan Africanist Prof.P.L.O Lumumba has time and again
asked whether African leaders are doing what is in the best interest of
the people they lead. In his opinion Africa is still standing at the
diner table with the whole world as a waiter and not as a diner.
Global Zambian Economist Dambisa Moyo asserts that until we can ween
Africa off of Aid, African leaders will continue to be corrupt, and do
only what can keep in them in power as they wait for Aid from donors
every year. In other-words, they have no reason to care.
Today in Uganda, we have more poeple slipping back into poverty (from
19% to 27% below in the poverty line according to the Household survey
report 2017, UBOS) increasing graduate unemployment rate 11.8% and a
shrinking middle class-if at all. Meanwhile more shopping malls and
apartments crop up, new cars rover the streets everyday with windshields
up high for fear of goons while bars keep full in upscale Kololo and
other exotic places. So yes, the gap between the haves and have-nots is
clear and widening. Will the strategies being taken by government solve
the problem? Obviously not! Is people power the answer? Probably not!!
Are people aware of this? Absolutely! And yet majority of the youth and
probably older Ugandans are willing to rally behind any one or anything
that is willing to change the government. Its despair and its created by
governments which fail to create Inclusive institutions that distribute
wealth among the many. Instead they create extractive institutions
that: fail to guarantee property and land rights (or grant these to a
minority elite like the case in South Africa), hire public servants
depending on political parties, tribal affiliations and family
relations. Like Acemoglu and Robinson theorize, a small group of
individuals do their best to exploit the rest of the population. Milking
the starved population with new taxes and poor service delivery,
investing more money in creating more political positions on top of a
big government (investing in white elephants); carrying sacks of money
to hungry masses as the economic strategy....one can go on and on. This
is the reason why people become socially intolerant. It becomes worse
when the governments resort to extreme measures to exterminate their own
subjects and become unwilling to sit and talk. Instead, they resort to
using clubs and progressively bullets indiscriminately. Who then
becomes the extremist in this regard?
has been a public outburst following the new wave of #people power
by populist parliamentarian Mr. Wine who represents or claims to
represent the plight of the desperate majority-unemployed youth. His
stardom has been received with both skepticism and mixed feelings
especially among the highly opinionated "self-appointed" elite of this
country. Their claim is that he comes from the members of the
"bewildered herd" and not the "specialized class"; he has no economic
strategy for the very problems he fights against and therefore unfit to
lead. They have accused him and the youth of "social intolerance and
extremism". They have named many opposition members as radicals and
therefore a threat that should be eliminated. At any cost. But before we
delve into whether this new wave is the way to go or not, we need to
investigate why this hurricane has come in the first place.
Popular Kenyan Pan Africanist Prof.P.L.O Lumumba has time and again
asked whether African leaders are doing what is in the best interest of
the people they lead. In his opinion Africa is still standing at the
diner table with the whole world as a waiter and not as a diner.
Global Zambian Economist Dambisa Moyo asserts that until we can ween
Africa off of Aid, African leaders will continue to be corrupt, and do
only what can keep in them in power as they wait for Aid from donors
every year. In other-words, they have no reason to care.
Today in Uganda, we have more poeple slipping back into poverty (from
19% to 27% below in the poverty line according to the Household survey
report 2017, UBOS) increasing graduate unemployment rate 11.8% and a
shrinking middle class-if at all. Meanwhile more shopping malls and
apartments crop up, new cars rover the streets everyday with windshields
up high for fear of goons while bars keep full in upscale Kololo and
other exotic places. So yes, the gap between the haves and have-nots is
clear and widening. Will the strategies being taken by government solve
the problem? Obviously not! Is people power the answer? Probably not!!
Are people aware of this? Absolutely! And yet majority of the youth and
probably older Ugandans are willing to rally behind any one or anything
that is willing to change the government. Its despair and its created by
governments which fail to create Inclusive institutions that distribute
wealth among the many. Instead they create extractive institutions
that: fail to guarantee property and land rights (or grant these to a
minority elite like the case in South Africa), hire public servants
depending on political parties, tribal affiliations and family
relations. Like Acemoglu and Robinson theorize, a small group of
individuals do their best to exploit the rest of the population. Milking
the starved population with new taxes and poor service delivery,
investing more money in creating more political positions on top of a
big government (investing in white elephants); carrying sacks of money
to hungry masses as the economic strategy....one can go on and on. This
is the reason why people become socially intolerant. It becomes worse
when the governments resort to extreme measures to exterminate their own
subjects and become unwilling to sit and talk. Instead, they resort to
using clubs and progressively bullets indiscriminately. Who then
becomes the extremist in this regard?
Enock jumba SsentongoEconomic Hub Uganda ltd
P.O Box 1337, Kampala- Uganda | Tel +256779373114/+256703744999 |
Email:economichubuganda@gmail.com|
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