{UAH} NO NEED TO CELEBRATE NRM DAY
|
9:52 AM |
No comments |
NO NEED TO CELEBRATE NRM DAY
BY MUHIMBISE NTAWANGWA GEORGE
This week NRM celebrates 31 years in power.
It was on 26th Jan 1986 when President Museveni made a famous speech that promised a fundamental change. Museveni said that theirs was not a mere change of guards but a fundamental change, he said that it was not a usual business of removing a turmoil to bring another turmoil.
31 years there is a debate of whether the fundamental change has been delivered or whether it has been a fundamental no change.
NRM apologists view success in relation to where Uganda was in 1986 to where we are now in terms of GDP growth, maternal mortality rate, poverty, enrolment in UPE and USE, graduates that are produced annually, increased revenue, infrastructure development, etc and going by this, one sees a country that has progressed.
However we should look beyond this in measuring our progress.
We need to question our progress putting into consideration where we would be as a country if we had done better than we are doing.
We need to look at other countries like Singapore and Malaysia with which we had nearly the same GDP by 1960 and see where they are in terms of development.
When we compare ourselves with our neighbors Rwanda, DRC or Tanzania it becomes a competition of dwarfs, we can not surely measure our progress that way.
Secondly we need to look at the quality of the achievements and asses the impact they have had on the Citizens of Uganda.
For example enrolment in UPE has increased but what is the quality of UPE? Does it produce good results?
Do we ever account or even think about the 70% of the pupils that enrol in UPE and drop out before completing P. 7?
According to Uganda National bureau of statistics, in ten years between 1997 to 2008 over 17,000,000 pupils dropped from from School before completing P. 7, do we ever account or even talk about them?
Do we ever ask our selves how their lives look like or do we ever ask ourselves the impact of resources that had been allocated to educate them or we only brag that millions were enrolled and that's all?
If I may expound on this couldn't they be the street vendors that we run after every day on Kampala streets arresting them and destroying their merchandize ?
Couldn't they be the boda boda riders that have been turned into a harvesting garden of our traffic officers and in turn blamed for the road carnage that claims thousands of people putting in mind that Mulago hospital alone admits 20 boda boda motorists on a daily basis which costs 1,500,000,000= per year in the Mulago budget alone of course not mentioning other health facilities ?
If that drop out does not lead to that, then what about the popular kiface groups that terrorize our Citizens in our capital?
While NRM celebrates 31 years, there is usual mentioning of revenue increase from 5 billion to now collecting trillions, do we interrogate the quality of work that this money has done or it is shared just like the famous hand shakes both directly through political patronage and indirectly through corruption?
For example according to Black monday Movement, Uganda Shillings 24,000,000,000,000 is stolen every 10 years, assuming this money was not stolen, wouldn't it build all the dams we need to generate the 4000 mega watts that we need to exploit our full potential and facilitate industrialisation that will take us to a middle income status?
Unfortunately we view progress in relation to where we have come from to where we are heading instead of where we would have been and where we would be heading.
Thirdly our government after losing the track on the famous 10 point program has embarked on the vision 2040 and on such a day I surely know the President will be boasting how his emphasis is infrastructure development to spur development and take us to the said vision.
However Lets internalise the infrastructure starting from roads.
In 1979 we had 1200 km of tarmac road in Uganda, by 2006 we had 2700 km of tarmac road, and from 2006 to 2015 a period of ten years after seriously embarking on infrastructure development, we did 1300 km of tarmac roads making it 4000km, this means that on average we do 130 km of tarmac road per year.
Colleagues, our vision 2040 targets having 119840 km of tarmac road.
Out of this by 2015 we had only 4000km and working at the pace of 130 km per year means that we will require 891 years to hit our vision 2040 target of 119840 km of tarmac roads, and going by this is vision 2040 a real vision we are aiming at or its simply hoodwinking Ugandans for political ends?
Dont forget that even the 4000 km am talking is of poor quality and has been done with borrowed money, using foreign equipment and foreign labour, and by the time Ugandans repay these loans, these roads will be no more.
Currently youth unemployment stands at 64% for youth between 18 years and 30 years, every year billions are poured in youth projects, But is there any record of how many jobs or enterprises that have been created?
Of course NONE!
And how do we account for the 392000 youths, definitely survivors of School drop out, who sell their parents belongings including land to buy education only to end up surviving on gambling and others consumed by drug abuse.?
How do we account for these as we celebrate 31 years of liberation?
Peace and security is another celebrated achievement , we have had relative peace in most parts of the country but without political stability, with disputed and fraud electoral process, without justice and current tribal sentiments and generally lack of real Democracy, do we see sustainable peace in future?
As we talk, unlike post independence days when the country was divided between the north and the south, currently the country is more divided along tribal lines than before, an example is the balkanization of the country in small districts and Kingdoms whose agitation is based on tribal sentiments.
For example did we as a country learn any thing from the social media jubilation that followed the death of former KCCA director of physical planning George Agaba or the tribal sentiments that followed the recent shooting of Late Akena?
What about the Kasese crushes? Can we have sustainable peace when we have a population that is divided and devastated?
Lastly, With an education system that produces less skilled man power, with the collection of too much revenue that is stolen or shared and used by the President to dispense patronage in the end not benefiting the would be beneficiaries, with security and peace guaranteed to a few previlaged , with electricity that only complicates cost of doing business, with a justice system that is only sells justice to the rich to exploit the poor and used by the state against political opponents , with the Anti corruption organs that are more corrupt than corruption it self, and lastly with a ruling party that is uncertain of its future stuck with its Old leader, NRM establishment is only acting like a hen that lays its eggs and again eats them hence failing an opportunity for chicks to hatch, the only solution to that hen is to cut is beak /mouth and if it continues like the case here, then the hen is slaughtered as that's the only purpose it can serve and that becomes its end.
Muhimbise Ntawangwa George
muhimbiseg@gmail.com
The writer is a social political commentator from Kamwenge District.
--
-- BY MUHIMBISE NTAWANGWA GEORGE
This week NRM celebrates 31 years in power.
It was on 26th Jan 1986 when President Museveni made a famous speech that promised a fundamental change. Museveni said that theirs was not a mere change of guards but a fundamental change, he said that it was not a usual business of removing a turmoil to bring another turmoil.
31 years there is a debate of whether the fundamental change has been delivered or whether it has been a fundamental no change.
NRM apologists view success in relation to where Uganda was in 1986 to where we are now in terms of GDP growth, maternal mortality rate, poverty, enrolment in UPE and USE, graduates that are produced annually, increased revenue, infrastructure development, etc and going by this, one sees a country that has progressed.
However we should look beyond this in measuring our progress.
We need to question our progress putting into consideration where we would be as a country if we had done better than we are doing.
We need to look at other countries like Singapore and Malaysia with which we had nearly the same GDP by 1960 and see where they are in terms of development.
When we compare ourselves with our neighbors Rwanda, DRC or Tanzania it becomes a competition of dwarfs, we can not surely measure our progress that way.
Secondly we need to look at the quality of the achievements and asses the impact they have had on the Citizens of Uganda.
For example enrolment in UPE has increased but what is the quality of UPE? Does it produce good results?
Do we ever account or even think about the 70% of the pupils that enrol in UPE and drop out before completing P. 7?
According to Uganda National bureau of statistics, in ten years between 1997 to 2008 over 17,000,000 pupils dropped from from School before completing P. 7, do we ever account or even talk about them?
Do we ever ask our selves how their lives look like or do we ever ask ourselves the impact of resources that had been allocated to educate them or we only brag that millions were enrolled and that's all?
If I may expound on this couldn't they be the street vendors that we run after every day on Kampala streets arresting them and destroying their merchandize ?
Couldn't they be the boda boda riders that have been turned into a harvesting garden of our traffic officers and in turn blamed for the road carnage that claims thousands of people putting in mind that Mulago hospital alone admits 20 boda boda motorists on a daily basis which costs 1,500,000,000= per year in the Mulago budget alone of course not mentioning other health facilities ?
If that drop out does not lead to that, then what about the popular kiface groups that terrorize our Citizens in our capital?
While NRM celebrates 31 years, there is usual mentioning of revenue increase from 5 billion to now collecting trillions, do we interrogate the quality of work that this money has done or it is shared just like the famous hand shakes both directly through political patronage and indirectly through corruption?
For example according to Black monday Movement, Uganda Shillings 24,000,000,000,000 is stolen every 10 years, assuming this money was not stolen, wouldn't it build all the dams we need to generate the 4000 mega watts that we need to exploit our full potential and facilitate industrialisation that will take us to a middle income status?
Unfortunately we view progress in relation to where we have come from to where we are heading instead of where we would have been and where we would be heading.
Thirdly our government after losing the track on the famous 10 point program has embarked on the vision 2040 and on such a day I surely know the President will be boasting how his emphasis is infrastructure development to spur development and take us to the said vision.
However Lets internalise the infrastructure starting from roads.
In 1979 we had 1200 km of tarmac road in Uganda, by 2006 we had 2700 km of tarmac road, and from 2006 to 2015 a period of ten years after seriously embarking on infrastructure development, we did 1300 km of tarmac roads making it 4000km, this means that on average we do 130 km of tarmac road per year.
Colleagues, our vision 2040 targets having 119840 km of tarmac road.
Out of this by 2015 we had only 4000km and working at the pace of 130 km per year means that we will require 891 years to hit our vision 2040 target of 119840 km of tarmac roads, and going by this is vision 2040 a real vision we are aiming at or its simply hoodwinking Ugandans for political ends?
Dont forget that even the 4000 km am talking is of poor quality and has been done with borrowed money, using foreign equipment and foreign labour, and by the time Ugandans repay these loans, these roads will be no more.
Currently youth unemployment stands at 64% for youth between 18 years and 30 years, every year billions are poured in youth projects, But is there any record of how many jobs or enterprises that have been created?
Of course NONE!
And how do we account for the 392000 youths, definitely survivors of School drop out, who sell their parents belongings including land to buy education only to end up surviving on gambling and others consumed by drug abuse.?
How do we account for these as we celebrate 31 years of liberation?
Peace and security is another celebrated achievement , we have had relative peace in most parts of the country but without political stability, with disputed and fraud electoral process, without justice and current tribal sentiments and generally lack of real Democracy, do we see sustainable peace in future?
As we talk, unlike post independence days when the country was divided between the north and the south, currently the country is more divided along tribal lines than before, an example is the balkanization of the country in small districts and Kingdoms whose agitation is based on tribal sentiments.
For example did we as a country learn any thing from the social media jubilation that followed the death of former KCCA director of physical planning George Agaba or the tribal sentiments that followed the recent shooting of Late Akena?
What about the Kasese crushes? Can we have sustainable peace when we have a population that is divided and devastated?
Lastly, With an education system that produces less skilled man power, with the collection of too much revenue that is stolen or shared and used by the President to dispense patronage in the end not benefiting the would be beneficiaries, with security and peace guaranteed to a few previlaged , with electricity that only complicates cost of doing business, with a justice system that is only sells justice to the rich to exploit the poor and used by the state against political opponents , with the Anti corruption organs that are more corrupt than corruption it self, and lastly with a ruling party that is uncertain of its future stuck with its Old leader, NRM establishment is only acting like a hen that lays its eggs and again eats them hence failing an opportunity for chicks to hatch, the only solution to that hen is to cut is beak /mouth and if it continues like the case here, then the hen is slaughtered as that's the only purpose it can serve and that becomes its end.
Muhimbise Ntawangwa George
muhimbiseg@gmail.com
The writer is a social political commentator from Kamwenge District.
--
"When a man is stung by a bee, he doesn't set off to destroy all beehives"
Disclaimer:Everyone posting to this Forum bears the sole responsibility for any legal consequences of his or her postings, and hence statements and facts must be presented responsibly. Your continued membership signifies that you agree to this disclaimer and pledge to abide by our Rules and Guidelines.To unsubscribe from this group, send email to: ugandans-at-heart+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
0 comments:
Post a Comment