I have seen Museveni’s ‘fundamental’ changes. And you?

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OPINION

By Dr Sam Akaki

Like President Museveni and the other liberation heroes, I am a child of the British Uganda Protectorate. We were born before independence on October 9, 1962.

Any honest Ugandan born before, or soon after independence, could not have lived that long without noticing, or telling their children and grandchildren about the fundamental changes, both good and bad, that have occurred since Museveni took power 39 years ago.

Yet, according to my former friends in the opposition, Museveni has spent all his time in power doing nothing except killing people in the north and east, and ferrying all the national wealth and jobs to the west.

I had heard similar nonsense sung from rooftops about Lango people in general, and my Oyima/Homia clan in particular, when Milton Obote was in power in 1962-71 and 1980-85.

Why?

If the hyena first makes its cubs smell like goats in order to kill and eat them, so do Ugandans make other Ugandans outside their own tribe smell like animals before killing them, for tribal glory.

The inconvenient truth is, just as the poorest people in Lango were poorer than their counterparts in the south when Obote ruled, today, the poorest people in western Uganda are poorer than the poorest in the north.

Consider the wretched children who litter Mbarara streets. Or, Miss Nankunda, the Munyankole girl with a Master’s degree, I found working as a cleaner and waitress in my Chinese hotel in Kololo.

Against this background, let me cite but two self-evident pieces of positive fundamental changes I have seen in northern Uganda during the Museveni era:

Peace, security and stability

From independence until Museveni came to power, we in the north had spent much of our time plotting and counter-plotting a vicious cycle of violent tribal military coups: West Nile Vs Lango and Acholi in 1971, Acholi and Lango vs West Nile in 1979-1985, and Acholi vs Lango in 1985.

Hundreds of thousands of men, women and children were killed, many more displaced internally and externally, and our social and economic bases were destroyed.

Thankfully, there has never been a single military coup or an attempt since 1986, giving the whole country an unprecedented period of peace and stability.

This has given us the time and space for reflection, counting the cost of our tribal wars, the healing of wounds and starting afresh.

An elaborate network of poverty-beating trade routes

Since independence, transport in and out of the north had been limited to the ferries and trains, or on the bumpy and dusty roads during the dry season, or on impassible roads during the rains.

Today, there are thousands of kilometres of modern roads linking the greater north to Kampala, the administrative and business capital, either via Kamdini and Karuma, or via the Gulu-Lira-Soroti and Mbale route.

There is also another road, from Masindi Port to Kitgum via Apac and Lira. This one will eventually connect northern Uganda to Kampala, to South Sudan and Ethiopia.

All these are opening up huge opportunities for cheaper and faster trade in goods and services.

That was why I wrote in my October 2013 piece, ‘Why the Gen Museveni Highway from Masindi to Kitgum will finally defeat poverty in our northern region’ - published in the New Vision two years ago on October 11, 2023.

I argued that, just as the North Vietnamese Gen Giap had defeated the mighty US Army by building a 260 Km underground tunnel called the ‘Ho Chi Minh’ trail, which ferried troops and equipment up to the US embassy in Saigon, the Gen Museveni highways will also defeat poverty in northern Uganda.

The combination of good roads and sustained peace has transformed northern Uganda from a citadel of poverty it had been under northern-led governments, to a region awash with multi-billionaires in cash and real estate terms.

Sadly, they preach anti-Western Ugandan rhetoric by day, while quietly stealing public funds and accumulating their ill-got wealth by night.

The anticlimax of Museveni’s positive fundamental changes – population explosion and corruption.

There were 15.5 million people in Uganda when Museveni came to power in 1986. But today there are 51 million people, a 230% increase.

It is estimated that our population will reach 115 million by 2050, only 25 years away. This exponential population growth rate is unsustainable.

Museveni should borrow a leaf from our Chinese friend and put a legal speed limit on our population increase – impose a two-child policy for the next 10-20 years.

At the same time, Museveni should also seriously tackle corruption, now a national culture which unites all regions, tribes, clans, families and religions.

The combination of population growth rate is already making is impossible for the government to provide basic public services, especially health, education, land, water and employment.

This is creating an Apartheid state by default. The minority rich people and the majority poor are leading separate lives and accessing basic services through different doors.

The next impact is that the majority poor are getting poorer, hungrier, angrier and more restless.

They are the perfect targets to be exploited by self-seeking politicians, who could excite them to violence as a means of changing government.

The student-led uprisings in Bangladesh, Nepal and Madagascar, which toppled their governments, are instructive.

Mr President Museveni, lead us in protecting your positive fundamental changes by effectively tackling the negative ones.