Museveni is Good for Uganda, Africa and The World

Museveni is Good for Uganda, Africa and The World

 

Tom Muyunga-Mukasa

 

Museveni has redefined presidential longevity and has presented Uganda as a case study against which to critique effective political, economic and social benchmarks. 


He took power in 1986 and the recent swearing-in was on May 11th 2021. He was declared the winner of the January 2020 elections at 58% by the Electoral Commission beating his closest contender Mr. Kyagulanyi Robert who had secured 35%. His slogan “securing the future,” rides on the cusp of a continuously rising GDP putting Uganda on track to a middle-income economy by 2027. 


A quintessential Pan-African Activist President, Museveni’s 35-year reign has consolidated Uganda as an increasingly independent African nation and secular state whose religion is security. Uganda disintegrates when any form of opposition (seen as tyranny) desecrates this security. People don’t take the security for granted but in their self-determination efforts, they detest repression or oppression and worry about security only when it is threatened. 


The people are aware of certain existential realities such as: who is able to do business, keeping their businesses while others are shutting down, who enjoys tax holidays, who are exploiting the resources, who is dispossessing them of land, jobs, education and house, who is able to seek quality healthcare and afford it too. 


Uganda has political promise, economic potential to expand and catalysts for social sustainability. The people are also aware of political oppression, economic exploitation and social degradation. This is what gets them to protest.  However, the security organs deal with these protests and protesters as enemies of the state. Two dimensions arise. 


To the people freedom is the heartbeat of any democracy and governance. To the security organs, security is the belly-button of democracy and governance. This is the nationalist dilemma faced by all actors which needs consciousness, compromise and tolerance. This is not about whether one is leftist or rightist but on issues that hold people together so that they invest all their energy in nation building. 


People need to use their land, have well remunerated economic means, educate their children, access health care and leaders who prescribe effective development policies.  


One has to check under the hood to behold the Museveni neo-realism where security is all-or-nothing but democracy may not necessarily be level field elections. One reason to explain this is that democracy in Uganda is more than parliamentary or representative democracy. Uganda provides the opportunity, even if one has to jump through hoops, for seeking redress through the institutions of the state such as the legislature and courts of law (an example of monitory democracy). 


A culture of demand-making, marches and protesting are the new norm hallmarks of democracy and governance depending on which side one looks at it.  With the prevailing security and harmony in Uganda, Museveni needs to ensure that people are protected, produce and have purchasing power. In a globalized economy free trade and comparative advantage principles are the doctrines but there have to be minima beyond which communities are not made economic captives. 


Are Ugandans ready to make certain hard sacrifices? Are the leaders incentivized enough to invest in modern infrastructure and industrialization through government-run development banks? Are the people incentivized through regional or local entrepreneurship policies that have development goals shared among all the people of the country? 


Ugandans should not ask Museveni for democracy but rather Museveni should be a leverage and catalyst for all Ugandans to be actors in creating the bounty of nationalism. Democracy and governance will fall in place thereafter. This is an ecumenism which will return uplifting sensibilities to Ugandans.

 

Uganda’s GDP 1961-2021


GDP at purchaser's prices is the sum of gross value added by all resident producers in the economy plus any product taxes and minus any subsidies not included in the value of the products. It is calculated without making deductions for depreciation of fabricated assets or for depletion and degradation of natural resources. Data are in current U.S. dollars. Dollar figures for GDP are converted from domestic currencies using single year official exchange rates. For a few countries where the official exchange rate does not reflect the rate effectively applied to actual foreign exchange transactions, an alternative conversion factor is used. Uganda GDP for 2019 was $35.17B, a 6.83% increase from 2018; GDP for 2018 was $32.92B, a 7.02% increase from 2017; GDP for 2017 was $30.76B, a 5.77% increase from 2016; GDP for 2016 was $29.08B, a 9.83% decline from 2015. Source: Microtrends

 


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