The collapse of our country’s governance by an aging president and the consequences of our country
The Last Word | Andrew M. Mwenda |
Uganda has deep problems. The center is no longer maintained. The country is literally falling apart. And there is no rescue on the horizon. The NRM government has lost its moral purpose. The country no longer has a collective vision. Instead, there is a government of cash and fares. Elected politicians and civil servants alike, most civil servants are among them for personal gain. The elite resigned to complaining to traditional and social media.
President Yoweri Museveni holds effective personal control over the core elements of the state, particularly security equipment. However, when he ages, he is unable to maintain effective control over the smoldering buildings of other elements of the state. So much of what he built is falling apart – roads, dams, bridges, schools, hospitals – give it a name. The economy continues to grow, and the government’s income, the ability to perform many of the national core functions, is characterized by indifference, lazyness, indifference, limp, false and malicious compliance, and fraud.
Kampala, the capital of Uganda, stands as an example of a crisis in which our country is intertwined. That road infrastructure has completely collapsed. Even expensive areas like Kororo, Nakasero and Bugorobi have land for land ranging from $1.5 million to $4 million. The road is full of pot holes and huge craters. In front of the Deputy British High Commissioner’s residence along Price Charles Drive, there is a huge lake with every rainfall. Therefore, foreign diplomats and Uganda’s wealthiest elites have not survived this crisis.
The paradox is: Museveni is primarily a rapidly growing economy due to historical and modern measures. As a result, individuals have achieved good fortune. As a result, they bought flashy cars and built a gorgeous mansion. But even exclusive neighbours are rich slums, as the state can’t provide decent roads. There is no sacred thing in our country anymore. Furthermore, the terrace of Kororo, a road on the Kororo ritual grounds, is in a disappointing state where we host all the important high-ranking officials. Until recently, there are huge potholes and craters, and the road turns into a lake when it rains.
No one can escape this governance crisis. Museveni’s greatest success was the National Highway. But these are now collapsing like roads in Kampala. The path from Mattiana to Mbende and from Kyogegwa to kyenjojo is gone. It takes 5 hours to navigate, not 1 hour and 30 minutes. The road from Karma to Alua is gone, just like the road from Masaka to Mutsukura. The government had contractors on all these roads and they had abandoned the site because they weren’t paid. In the first quarter of this year, the Ministry of Finance announced SH1 billion for road development to UNRA.
As I am writing this article, the Ugandan government has a 1.2 trillion proof of completion from road contractors that have not paid. Of these, 700 billion shrub is a certificate containing interest, which costs 350m per day and 117 billion Shs per year, sufficient to build a new 50km road. Failing to implement driving rules, the government has built thousands of speed bumps on all roads that made driving difficult. On the other hand, many road contractors are not properly supervised – if any. As a result, road accidents increased with deaths.
The two can make a difference: his brother Salim Saleh and his son, CDF, General Mufuji Kaingaba. However, Saleh is too philosophical to save the situation by providing immediate and visible interventions. Muhoozi focuses on military and security, and therefore does not pay attention to infrastructure, environment, capital, etc. Certainly, outside the military and security equipment, civil servants, businesses, and other powerful elites, and even ordinary citizens, do what they want.
Everyone can now personally use protected areas such as wetlands, marshlands, lakes, game parks, forests and forest reserves. The profits go to individuals or groups who take over domestic assets, but costs are incurred by everyone in the country. Civil servants plunder public resources without fear of punishment. Ordinary citizens feel the vacuum and take the law into their own hands. Therefore, Boda Boda riders will pass through red lights and the right side of the road. Taxi drivers stop in the middle of the road to select passengers. And the public knows that no one will crouch on government lands and other protected areas and no one will drive them out.
How did Uganda reach this?
It is difficult to establish the cause of such political development. Many Ugandans attribute our apparent national crisis to the decisions of many other political elites to the decisions of our apparent national crisis to remove the terminology and age limits of presidency. However, the president’s life expectancy will not automatically enter the governance crisis that Uganda has today. Some of the most successful countries of the 20th century, such as Singapore and Taiwan, had leaders who built strong institutions and systems for 40 years.
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More than Museveni and his senior years, Uganda’s governance crisis can be traced back to the specific ways in which democracy evolved in our country. The competition for public office through the vote of poor, uneducated and culturally diverse people is undermining the public spirit of public services. Politicians need money to win elections. To raise it, they either use up their savings, borrow from lenders, or solicit from the rich. The result is that, like American officials, our elected officials benefit from the funders or lenders who have to pay them back. This gradually forces many public individuals who are seeking to serve the nation’s interests from politics, leaving it to fraudsters and control private interests.
It is in this context that explains how Museveni’s era contributes to the crisis. If he was young and could multitasking, he might have reigned with many negative forces that captured his government. Sadly, he is being held hostage. More than Museveni’s personal desire to stick to power, keeping him there is a strong desire for profit to benefit from his continued leadership – because they can now use him better.
