An Analysis Of President Yoweri K. Museveni Of Uganda Through The Nash and Correlated Equilibria Lenses
The people of Uganda are known for industriousness, When their president normalizes handing out envelopes this creates a dangerous paternalism and expectations which will derail institution building in Uganda. Money is finite and it is not the answer to infinite needs of the people. Rather than envelopes, president Museveni can invest in public goods infrastructure which in turn would allow people to be innovative and self -reliant: The Nash and Correlated equilibria can be used to problematize this scenario.
Uganda under President Yoweri Museveni has the potential to create a critical mass of opportunities in the political, economical, social, cultural and development arenas. Uganda has a unique brand of market economy and an electoral democracy. Some may be quick to say Uganda is an agricultural society run by an autocratic elite.
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| Museveni at UN 2005. Source: UN |
Uganda under President Yoweri Museveni has the potential to create a critical mass of opportunities in the political, economical, social, cultural and development arenas. Uganda has a unique brand of market economy and an electoral democracy. Some may be quick to say Uganda is an agricultural society run by an autocratic elite.
The definitions may or not ring true at selected core zones or the peripherals. The story from Moyo, Adjumani, Amudat, Kaabong, Kisoro, Kanungu and Kabale should have something like a development trajectory influenced by a people who have what it takes to produce, market and profit from their products. The central government must invest in public goods and an infrastructure necessary to produce these public goods and distribute them.
It serves the population better and addresses the representative demographic needs for example those of the youth bulge, rural population and urban based populations. Competition as a motivator to produce quality goods and services must not necessarily be between Moyo, Adjumani, Amudat, Kaabong, Kisoro, Kanungu and Kabale but rather in ensuring public goods and services exist and are accessible to the users. Competition in this scenario is between president Yoweri Museveni’s power to perform, which is also his legitimacy and how the expectations of the people he leads are met.
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| President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni. Source: https://twitter.com/KagutaMuseveni. |
The president as the fountain of honour in Uganda is also the chief producer and the Ugandans, as citizens, are the consumers. A competition arises between consumers and producers of public goods and services. Governments which seek to address all the needs of all the people hit a communication bottleneck given the sheer number of preferences and differences. But when they are limited to addressing certain preferences such as public goods, they create standard options that entrench norms. This is a replacement solution concept. An equilibrium in production, distribution and consumption of these public goods alone, is what is needed. Following from the replacement solution concept, it puts appeasement pressures away from the President. President Museveni is cultivating a working relation with the cultural institutions in Uganda. Non state actors, e.g., Kingdoms, Religious bodies, CSOs, private enterprises.. are important development catalysts in Uganda. Many have take on several of the development initiatives in Uganda. The president can facilitate them to continue driving development in Uganda.
Rather than creating events for handing out envelopes which is not sustainable, the president should ensure that government, which plays the role of a correlating device, has best strategies to adopt. This is what the Aviad Rubinstein, Yakov Babichenko and Robert Aumann frameworks for understanding strategic behavior advise. Envelopes only feed president Yoweri Museveni’s altruism but they are a mirage downplaying the long term needs and interests. Goods and services need to be seen in the strategic political, economical, social, cultural and developmental planes. This will mean regret minimization approaches are in place. The stories from Moyo, Adjumani, Amudat, Kaabong, Kisoro, Kanungu and Kabale will be more existential and industrial with tales of perpetual satiety among the populace. Uganda has that potential. However, it is high time to turn potential into catalytic traction toward development for the middle-class, working class, formal and informal sector and the youths.
Uganda, is one of those African countries faced with the youth bulge. For more on youth bulge please read: here-comes-the-young-youth-bulge-demographics and high-quality, well-researched knowledge with the aim of improving public policies that affect the lives of young people. Read what the Middle East and North Africa are doing about the youth in childmigration.net. See what Richard P. Cincotta, means when he wrote "developing countries undergoing “demographic transition”—or those moving from high to low fertility and mortality rates—are especially vulnerable to civil conflict. “A large proportion of young adults and a rapid rate of growth in the working-age population tend to exacerbate unemployment, prolong dependency on parents, diminish self-esteem and fuel frustrations,” in effects-youth-bulge-civil-conflicts.
In handing out envelopes, His Excellency Yoweri Museveni is doing part of his benefactor duty. However, it is like killing the proverbial goose that lays the golden eggs. There is need for a more sustainable approach that will not only empower Ugandans to make the "envelopes" but enable them to reproduce the "envelopes" for generations to come. One such way is to ensure that government, has structures through which institutional strategies are adopted.
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President Yoweri Museveni came into power in 1986 and his regime has ushered in development plans at human and infrastructural levels. For over 30 years he has been in power, Uganda has experienced fast-paced modernization in many areas. One entity in Uganda that has utilized the opportunities provided under President Yoweri Museveni’s regime is Buganda Kingdom. In The pictures, are the King Of Buganda and President of The Republic of Uganda on the occasion when the King hosted the President-4th Feb 2019. Source: Buganda Kingdom
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| The Crane, a symbol of graceful resilience. A metaphor for Uganda |
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| According to Kristin Lord of the Foreign Policy Journal, "there is also the risk that the unmet expectations of youth could fuel widespread violence.While there is no empirically concrete link between joblessness and terrorism, unemployment can contribute to a broader sense of marginalization and grievance that can drive young people to commit acts of violence, whether they live in Nairobi, Baghdad, or the Brussels neighborhood of Molenbeek. According to recent survey by ASDA’A Burson-Marsteller, Arab youth across the Middle East view a lack of jobs and opportunity as factors that aid the recruitment efforts of extremist groups in that region." |
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According to Kristin Lord, "in the coming years, the population of people under the age of 30 in some of the most fragile and unstable countries is going to skyrocket. And the world is not ready for them." |
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| This new Rukungiri- Kanungu road will among other things promote tourism, which is a major foreign exchange earner, contribute socio-economic transformation and regional integration because it will link us to the DRC. Source: https://twitter.com/KagutaMuseveni |
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| The NRM is systematic in how it works. We do things step by step. We started by opening up the country through tarmacking cross-country roads. Soon, we shall have tarmacked roads at all border posts; Mpondwe, Kyanika, Katuna, Murongo, Mutukula, Malaba, Lwakhaka and Suam (Bukwo). Source: https://twitter.com/KagutaMuseveni |
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| Going forward, I hope to see emphasis being put to value addition efforts. As government, we shall look into equipping groups with machinery required for such processes at parish level. Source: https://twitter.com/KagutaMuseveni |
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| According to Kristin Lord, "societies across the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia are experiencing youth booms of staggering proportions: More than half of Egypt’s labor force is younger that age 30. Half of Nigeria’s population of 167 million is between the ages of 15 and 34. In Afghanistan, Angola, Chad, East Timor, Niger, Somalia, and Uganda, more than two-thirds of the population is under the age of 25." |
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| According to Kristin Lord of the Foreign Policy Journal, "Indian school children wait in line for their mid-day meal at a government primary school in the outskirts of Hyderabad on June 13, 2011, on the opening day of the new academic year. The government of India's Andhra Pradesh state has introduced English as a second language from Class 1 onwards for the 2011-2012 academic year. India's National Knowledge Commission has admitted that no more than one percent of country's population uses English as a second language." AFP PHOTO/Noah SEELAM |
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