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How Busoga can maximise cabinet slots
President Museveni has been generous to Busoga over time that there’s even an office on poverty alleviation in Busoga occupied by a person at the level of senior presidential advisor.
Isaac Imaka.
By: Admin ., Journalist @New Vision
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OPINION
By Isaac Imaka
There is a continuous argument that because a region has X number of ministers, it will develop faster and more, compared to the other regions with fewer or none. Is that so?
When the new cabinet list came out, I posted a question in the Busoga Forward Group to know what my comrades made of the appointments in relation to Busoga.
Almost immediately, one unhappily replied with a photo montage of the ministers from Kigezi region.
“This is Kigezi, a very lucky region,” he said: “Nothing like this can happen in Busoga. Busoga doesn’t have any ministry of direct impact on the region. [President] Yoweri Museveni has, for years, failed to get any man worth it. He keeps recycling a group of women. When I meet him one day, I will ask him why.”
Busoga Forward, where I serve as interim chairperson, is a platform we created after the General elections to start asking questions about Busoga’s place in the politics of the country and what role we can play to make a positive contribution to national building efforts.
What my comrades and those with similar views need to remember is that development is not about the who, but the what. We have had more than five ministers before, but that didn’t stop the Uganda Bureau of Statistics from ranking the region as one of the poorest in the country.
Through the minister for the presidency, we can access the presidency for structured development initiatives in addition to what we currently use that office for most—lobbying for RDC slots.
Almost immediately, one unhappily replied with a photo montage of the ministers from Kigezi region.
“This is Kigezi, a very lucky region,” he said: “Nothing like this can happen in Busoga. Busoga doesn’t have any ministry of direct impact on the region. [President] Yoweri Museveni has, for years, failed to get any man worth it. He keeps recycling a group of women. When I meet him one day, I will ask him why.”
Busoga Forward, where I serve as interim chairperson, is a platform we created after the General elections to start asking questions about Busoga’s place in the politics of the country and what role we can play to make a positive contribution to national building efforts.
What my comrades and those with similar views need to remember is that development is not about the who, but the what. We have had more than five ministers before, but that didn’t stop the Uganda Bureau of Statistics from ranking the region as one of the poorest in the country.
Through the minister for the presidency, we can access the presidency for structured development initiatives in addition to what we currently use that office for most—lobbying for RDC slots.
Through the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for East African Affairs and the Third Deputy Prime Minister, we can be intentional about increasing our region’s production output through tapping into the different government programs in agriculture, trade and industry.
Increasing production and ensuring better access to the market, both locally and the East African market, will help in addressing the challenges of the half a million youth between 18 and 30 years who are idle, not in school and not employed.
Sadly, the minister of lands can’t create miracles around our highly fragmented pieces of land. That means that whereas the four-acre model is a wonderful approach to addressing household poverty, most people in the region who have at best one acre might be left out of that equation.
But we could use her to fast-track land titling for the thousands of Basoga who continuously suffer at the hands of land grabbers.
For the region to burst its development potential, it must:
1. Increase production in agriculture and complement that with cottage industry processing for both the local and the East African or international market.
2. Keep its children in school and stop the political promotion of ghettos for short-term political satisfaction. It is good that the RDCs have started a campaign to get young boys off sugarcane trucks and back into classrooms.
3. Build and tap into the talents of the region’s youth in music, dance, drama and sports. The old theatres in Jinja are either Pentecostal churches or premier league halls. How then can the region produce our next actors and actresses like the late Waibales of the Ebonies?
President Museveni has been generous to Busoga over time that there’s even an office on poverty alleviation in Busoga occupied by a person at the level of senior presidential advisor.
He will not come to physically lift us from where we are stuck, and no amount of voting for the opposition will do us magic. It is up to us to know that development is from within and not without.
We can travel the world calling investors to build factories in Busoga, but for as long as majority of the locals are going to be casual labours taking home less than a dollar a day, the region will be poor.
Our production and human resource development needs to translate into cottage production where we relate with manufacturing investors using a collaborative linkage model — prioritising capacity building, technology transfer and mandatory local content.
With the five minister firmly in, the poverty alleviation efforts in the region need to be led by the office of the Presidential advisor on Poverty Alleviation, in liaison with our five ministers, by actively engaging the grassroots people.
The office needs to be felt by the people, instead of just being heard about as if its existence is a mere rumour.
The writer is journalist and former MP contestant Jinja North Constituency. imackisa@gmail.com
Increasing production and ensuring better access to the market, both locally and the East African market, will help in addressing the challenges of the half a million youth between 18 and 30 years who are idle, not in school and not employed.
Sadly, the minister of lands can’t create miracles around our highly fragmented pieces of land. That means that whereas the four-acre model is a wonderful approach to addressing household poverty, most people in the region who have at best one acre might be left out of that equation.
But we could use her to fast-track land titling for the thousands of Basoga who continuously suffer at the hands of land grabbers.
For the region to burst its development potential, it must:
1. Increase production in agriculture and complement that with cottage industry processing for both the local and the East African or international market.
2. Keep its children in school and stop the political promotion of ghettos for short-term political satisfaction. It is good that the RDCs have started a campaign to get young boys off sugarcane trucks and back into classrooms.
3. Build and tap into the talents of the region’s youth in music, dance, drama and sports. The old theatres in Jinja are either Pentecostal churches or premier league halls. How then can the region produce our next actors and actresses like the late Waibales of the Ebonies?
President Museveni has been generous to Busoga over time that there’s even an office on poverty alleviation in Busoga occupied by a person at the level of senior presidential advisor.
He will not come to physically lift us from where we are stuck, and no amount of voting for the opposition will do us magic. It is up to us to know that development is from within and not without.
We can travel the world calling investors to build factories in Busoga, but for as long as majority of the locals are going to be casual labours taking home less than a dollar a day, the region will be poor.
Our production and human resource development needs to translate into cottage production where we relate with manufacturing investors using a collaborative linkage model — prioritising capacity building, technology transfer and mandatory local content.
With the five minister firmly in, the poverty alleviation efforts in the region need to be led by the office of the Presidential advisor on Poverty Alleviation, in liaison with our five ministers, by actively engaging the grassroots people.
The office needs to be felt by the people, instead of just being heard about as if its existence is a mere rumour.
The writer is journalist and former MP contestant Jinja North Constituency. imackisa@gmail.com