Nsibambi, so few have benefited from Movement
THE WRITER: Beti Kamya
THE lead story in The New Vision of June 1 reported that Prime Minister Apolo Nsibambi had urged President Yoweri Museveni to stay, on grounds that he has “benefited” Uganda.
I’ve often decried the poor reading culture of Ugandans but I did not realise that it went for professors too. Just on March 22, Museveni commissioned the Population and Housing Census Report released by the National Bureau of Statistics which states that “.... of households in Uganda, 97% use firewood, 85% use tadooba, 80% have earth floors, 92% do not have electricity, 52% have no radio, 49% rely on word of mouth (lugambo) for information, 20% have no access to toilet facilities, 40% have no access to safe drinking water, 68% depend on subsistence farming...” Yet the Museveni regime has borrowed $4.5b and received grants amounting to $16b during his 19 years in office.
It must be mentioned that all pre-Museveni regimes put together borrowed $1.8b and received grants amounting to $0.86b in 23 years characterised by war and uncertainty.
I will not tire of reminding Ugandans that with this amount of funding which is about a tenth of what has been available to Museveni, these past leaders can show for their efforts Entebbe International Airport, Sheraton and Nile hotels, International Conference Centre, the Uganda Hotels chain, Uganda House, Amber House, Crested Towers, NIC building, UDYAM House, Bank of Uganda, UCB, Co-op banks and their country wide branches, the Co-op Movement, Coffee, Lint and Produce marketing boards, 20 UDC industries spread all over the country, a Uganda House in each major city in Europe and America, UTV and free education for all tertiary institutions and university students.
Uganda boasted of an airline, railway and bus service, where children below 12 years old paid half fare and all students were eligible for a bus warrant to travel at half fare. These regimes built 23 high quality district hospitals now upgraded to regional referral hospitals by the Movement regime.
Everybody then took the good services at Mulago Hospital for granted and even presidents Obote and Amin were hospitalised there. All of Obote’s and Amin’s children were born in Mulago. None of them sought medical attention abroad, but just because Nsibambi can (and actually was) given over sh100m to go to South Africa for treatment, he thinks Museveni has “benefited all Ugandans”.
Pre-Museveni governments built low-cost residential flats in Bugoloobi, Bukoto and Wandegeya in addition to employees’ residential flats for Bank of Uganda, Post Office, National Water and Uganda Railways.
They built Mpoma satellite station, food silos and fuel reservoirs, good secondary schools in the 23 districts, even in Buganda where they did not have support.
There was no “not-voting-wisely” and “blocked drinking-straws” in Uganda until the Museveni era. All military barracks in the country except four which were left by the colonialists were built in the 1980s.
Is Nsibambi aware that during the 2004/5 financial year, State House, which caters for less than 200 people was allocated sh49b (original budget allocation was sh27b, later, a supplementary budget of sh22b was approved) and President’s Office, with almost the very same people was all
ocated
sh37b, while Agriculture was allocated sh4b and the district of Kabale, with over one million people, was allocated sh17b to cater for their schools’, medical, administrative and other needs.
Why should Nsibambi care that it cost the taxpayer sh660m to get the President a grandchild in Germany, when the glorified peasant dies everyday in government hospitals for lack of basics like oxygen and antibiotics which cost less than sh5,000.
It is very sad Ugandans can be hoodwinked into believing that Museveni has performed when all official performance indicators say differently. All this must be put down to the lack of reading culture and illiteracy of Ugandans, another Movement failure.
Ends
Published on: Sunday, 5th June, 2005
Are supposed to feel lucky that the President’s Office & State House cost us (officially) Shs 49B + Shs37B = Shs86 Billion, while Agriculture (the supposed mainstay of the economy cost us only Shs4B???? I suppose the boy must be indulged with all the toy trucks, complete with a gulf-stream jet he wants … No wonder the economy is growing so fast!
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