[UAH] JEEMA says M7's SoNA Insincere

JUSTICE FORUM (JEEMA) WEEKLY PRESS STATEMENT

JEEMA Headquarters, Mengo, Kampala,

Saturday June 8, 2013

 

 

Smart Politics.

Smart Governance.

 

 

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Press,

 

Thank you for coming.

 

Museveni's SoNA gave half-full account of the situation

 

1.0  If Ugandans understand State of the Nation Address (SoNA) as an occasion for the head of government to give a full account of domestic and international situations and chart a collective national direction to better their lives, Mr. Museveni, once again, like on many occasions came short of doing so on Thursday.

 

2.0  His narrative was laced with self contradictions—on one occasion elating the state of the economy as being in a record better shape—with a whopping size of tax revenue from Ugandans and in the same breath lamenting lack of resources to implement previous commitments. For sure, how would he expect Ugandans with sound mind to believe him any more?

 

3.0  A careful scrutiny of the presentation, however, reveals that as usually done by deceitful characters, Mr. Museveni deliberately gave a half-full account of the situation. This is his routine practice of hood-winking Ugandans that they can expect him to deliver better than he could in previous decades.

 

4.0  For example, to cite male nurses as a problem to potential mothers was a sheer populist diversionary from such public concerns as to 'what might have happened to the budgetary allocation to construct a female-only hospital that was provided in the 2012/13 fiscal budget?'  How can a country expecting to leap-frog into a middle-income economy in four years time run out of life-supporting blood-supplies? Why should a sincere head of government boast of record national reserves without referring to the national debt burden?  How can he be able to mention export earnings and avoid the import bill?  What is this to an intelligent person? Simple: dishonest leadership.

 

5.0  In these critical circumstances, the nation doesn't need to debate issues like male nurses versus female nurses where even a combination of them still leaves an alarming nurse to patient ratio of 1:11,000, according to the national development plan 2011/2015. This is far bellow the recommended 1: 800 by the World Health Organization (WHO).  The country, therefore, has to give hard questions about the accountability in the health sector. What, for example, is the status of the hospital that would specially serve our mothers, no matter the gender difference of health workers in it? About the blood crisis, it's now understood that whereas officials concerned did their homework by requesting for sh18b for the necessary equipment, the NRM regime only offered sh7b representing only 38%. Another report by the ministry of health about the minimum social standard study (MSSS) indicates that the per capita cost of a minimum health care package is USD$48, the regime only provides USD$10! Even then, some of it is recalled to facilitate State-House supplementary needs!

 

6.0  Whereas the country's current account, as can be confirmed by the central bank is worth USD3.3b, the national debt burden is a record USD4.7b—which globally renders our country in the perpetual highly indebted poor countries (HIPC) category. But why does Museveni not want to mention this publically? Is he really willing to fix this debt obligation or even part of it? Or he is planning to pass it over to our grand children? And, once again, what is there to celebrate by an intelligent person? Instead of mobilizing the population to celebrate these unfortunate circumstances, or attempting to conceal the facts; the next president has to innovatively appeal for massive efforts aimed at marshalling our energies to collectively improve this gloomy situation.

 

7.0  Other silent issues a concerned president of the people, by the people and for the people should have addressed include the now common blatant murders in the country, the efforts taken by security agencies and if at all, any support to the affected families. Even a single soul killed in such conditions must be a national concern. But here we are with our media outlets full of incidents of citizens killed in cold blood but with a president unbothered! Likewise, the Ugandan Diaspora Community would expect a more responsible statement and a word of gratitude from their president at home beyond a mere mention about the size of their remittances.

 

8.0  In a nut shell, after nearly three-decades as president, and still himself unconvinced to have done anything concrete, thus the desire for more years to serve, Mr. Museveni can hardly project a genuine picture in which our nation is.

 

9.0  Finally, JEEMA wishes our national football side, the Cranes, the best of luck in tonight's encounter with the national team of Liberia. We also encourage all Ugandans to render all necessary support to the team throughout the remaining fixtures in this World Cup qualifier campaign.    

 

All the best,

Swaib K. Nsereko

SECRETARY FOR INFORMATION

FOR GOD AND MY COUNTRY