Liberalism, Devolution And Consumerism Under President Museveni In Uganda: A Road Reserve Mentality

Prosperity & Strategic security of our people are some of the key things that drove me into politics. We must ask the question; how can our people prosper? Leaders must attend to the issue of their people's prosperity, irrespective of the number of transitions a country has. Source: https://twitter.com/KagutaMuseveni

Those who are quick to blame President Museveni for all the ills in Uganda do not factor in two things: that Uganda still needs a culture of transparency to be built at all governance levels and that this will require all Ugandans to participate in governance and not think Museveni can go it single-handedly. Secondly, the forces of free-market capitalism and democracy were not necessarily on the agenda when President Museveni took the reins of power in 1986 after the Bush war. So, the mindset, then as is now, was not prepared to negotiate and strike win-win deals.

Modern state:

The zealousness to set in motion priorities that included implementing the 10 point Agenda, blinded many to the need to have skilled nation-builders or think-tanks in place. All effort went to setting up tribunals to address historical abuses, reconstruction and getting as many exiled Ugandans and citizens who had been disenchanted by previous governments back in Uganda. Uganda needed to have both guardrails and wide wiggling margins if it wanted to entrench mechanisms for development. This is very much like building a road and leaving wide road reserves. But, in 1986 and beyond this has turned out not to be the case. Uganda embraced free-market and democracy not by default but by forces outside its own making. Literally there was no time to construct guardrails and roads with wide road reserves.

There was an overwhelming support for the development plans president Museveni had for Uganda. He was the darling of the West and had very high ratings from the Nordic countries. Next-door countries too had very high expectations of stability and a palpable sense of security. There was motivation to follow every word that came out of the president. It was common for Ugandans to attend speeches and other forms of social mobilization drives the president led.

Liberalism And Devolution:

When the forces of liberalism and deregulation swept through, they were embraced wholesomely. There was a wave of admiration for anything president Museveni was involved in. Even when it was clear that powers outside Uganda were forcing such trends like Universal Primary Education, Internet connectivity and Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAP) of the World Bank, still people as well as the president believed all these were for the good of Uganda. Ugandan banks, social welfare initiatives, various public institutions and cooperatives were  privatized under a divestiture plan that mostly benefited a few insiders. This slight, was the stroke that drew up all social support systems that supported the extended family safety nets seen among Africans. 

But still, the privatization and selective enrichment did not perturb Ugandans that much. After all the much liked president Museveni was behind the wheel. Even when people who in the late 1980’s literary had nothing but ended up accumulating vast assets by mid 1990’s, Ugandans did not question it that much. It was tolerated! There was a popular understanding that eventually things would be good for all Ugandans. Also, the various interventions e.g. temporarily stopping multi-party dispensation and compulsory political indoctrination, in place were embraced without batting an eye. Government still enjoyed high popularity ratings.

Consumerism:

What the president was not saying clearly was that the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, International Development AID (IDA) agreements were forcing his Agenda off the road. So, aspirations of building Uganda into a politically and economically stable country were not on track. He devised a counter plan that revitalized an older idea of the East African common market. The promise was that Ugandans would join a large consumer population which would make consumables cheaper. This has its snags too. 

To get there, Uganda had to put in place assurances of income generation which would be spent to purchase consumables. To put income generation opportunities in place, there had to be policies assuring Ugandans of stable employment, opportunities to develop employable skills, a critical mass of the population with  entrepreneur skills and monetary institutions ready to provide credit. 

To have stable institutions people must be allowed to function, debate about the affairs affecting them and associate freely without the fear of arbitrary arrests or retribution. It would be impossible for the  government of Uganda to put these aspirations in place single-handedly. It will require the support of many including leaders other than the president himself. President Museveni may be the main person but other leaders have to help him achieve the promise of 1986. These leaders are the much needed road reserve. This fact will remain true for any president in Uganda.

As time went on the pressures from international forces, the disenchantment over SAPs that did not work, the internal agitations over how the Ugandan cake was shared became categorical issues. To let off some steam, regions were allowed to establish local governments under what became the Decentralization Programme. It was possible to earn a living at one’s ancestral district and this reversed the rural to urban migration of skilled labour. It worked but needed infusion of money to build the necessary infrastructure e.g., roads, housing estates, administration buildings, human resource and other logistics especially in districts that had a very low tax or income base. As time went on this did not work out well on the ground as it did on paper. 

Decentralized districts needed to raise money on their own to run their affairs with minimal central government interference. Uganda, had to rely on AID to run these districts, counties, sub-counties and parishes. As if that was not enough, Uganda had to embrace a political organization where power transition, accountability, rule of law, legislature, judiciary and Civil society were thriving. This not only proved the direction to maturity but also re-assured the international community which was committing a lot of money to Uganda. 

So, we may be excused to take the blame game path! However, there is need to know something about a genealogy or ecosystem in which President Museveni leads Uganda. There is need to have a grasp on the issues at hand in Uganda. What are some of the solutions? I propose the following:

Liberalism And State integrity:

Liberalism can lead to visible development which in this case means exchanging or movement of assets, opportunities, skills, goods, services, knowledge and infrastructure. But in order for development to take root there has to be a genuinely friendly disposition for engaging in transactions by all involved. This could be between state, among corporations or by investors and recipients. The countries or corporations with financial wherewithal and skilled workforce must be allowed to invest but clauses should be in place to avoid biased, regrettable, cumbersome treaties. Some of these treaties end up affecting the integrity of the state.

Citizens participate in oversight:

The citizens must be allowed to be part of the processes in form of established committees studying and designing business plans, value estimation, inventorying and the like. This way there will be public buy-in,  motivation to be accountable and any under hand suspicions will be avoided. Closet negotiations occur because their objective is to finalize deals but they should have an expectation of public accountability. An expectation of public accountability will build a critical culture of negotiating common resource use. After all, Ugandan resources must belong to all the people. 

It takes all leaders to tango:

It is incumbent upon the leadership e.g., MPs, Religious leaders, Local government officials, Development partners and many others to embrace this notion. If only districts or concerned parties can be allowed to have strategic plans and value estimations, business plans and a culture to make known goings on this will be a long list of the felt fruit of liberalism, devolution and consumerism in Uganda.

The writer of these blogs is an American Political Scientist. Read more of these blogs please. Thank you.

President Y.K. Museveni and other forces that combine to make a presidency work better. Source: Google