African leaders must resolve its problems
May 20, 2008
THERE is glaring similarities between Bunyoro’s relevance to Uganda and that of Africa to the world. Unlike its great past, Bunyoro’s present is hollow and hopeless. Similarly, Africa’s great past cannot be compared to its present day misery.
By Mwesigwa Byakutaaga
THERE is glaring similarities between Bunyoro’s relevance to Uganda and that of Africa to the world. Unlike its great past, Bunyoro’s present is hollow and hopeless. Similarly, Africa’s great past cannot be compared to its present day misery.
Bunyoro, just like Africa, has an ill-educated, poverty stricken and unskilled population.
Bunyoro also has few competent national leaders as is the case of the few star performers on the African continent like Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Nelson Mandela of South Africa and Muamar Gadaffi of Libya.
The exploitation of the enormous resources in Bunyoro hardly benefits its people. Similarly, Africa’s enormous resources minerals, bio-diversity, land, hydro-electric potential and solar energy extracted do not entirely benefit its people.
The inertia and incompetence of Bunyoro’s leaders to tame challenges like unemployment, poor education and health care, the energy crisis and poor infrastructure is not any different from Africa’s miserable performance globally. Her leaders have failed to address problems in education, health, security, infrastructure, security, employment and they lack strategic direction.
The promotion and protection of incompetent, selfish and inarticulate leaders is the case in Bunyoro and on the African continent. In both cases, people have been blinded by selfish leaders and their resources have been exploited to their detriment. The similarities are endless but what are the solutions to these problems?
There is need to educate, train and breed high quality leaders committed to the local and national cause. This will benefit not only Bunyoro but Africa in the long run.
Resources should be made accessible through better management. This would provide an opportunity for the locals to participate in the resource allocation and ensure that they have a say in its distribution.
There is need to create more employment opportunities. This would enable the locals to strategically participate in the management of resources. Poor people should also be availed with opportunities to access revenue through permanent constitutionally agreed formula and structures. Endowment of funds should also be created by governments for future generations.
Social and economic programmes like health care, quality education-for-all, social security and employment should be implemented to ensure an educated, skilled, healthy and productive population. We must all work to isolate, undermine and dis-empower the powerful and invisible arm that controls Africa’s destiny and discludes her people from benefiting from the vast resources.
The public sector in Africa should also be strengthened. Europe, China and South America were developed by a powerful state-owned public sector not privatisation as advocated by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Even Japan that has a highly private sector-driven economy has a strong public sector mentality.
It’s interesting that what one sees locally is a microcosm of the bigger picture. As a matter of fact, Bunyoro’s case is replicated in Lango, Toro, Buganda, Busoga and the same arguments would apply. It is time for African leaders to take charge of the continent’s affairs and ensure that its people, and not foreigners, are the beneficiaries.
The writer is a freelance consultant
THERE is glaring similarities between Bunyoro’s relevance to Uganda and that of Africa to the world. Unlike its great past, Bunyoro’s present is hollow and hopeless. Similarly, Africa’s great past cannot be compared to its present day misery.
Bunyoro, just like Africa, has an ill-educated, poverty stricken and unskilled population.
Bunyoro also has few competent national leaders as is the case of the few star performers on the African continent like Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Nelson Mandela of South Africa and Muamar Gadaffi of Libya.
The exploitation of the enormous resources in Bunyoro hardly benefits its people. Similarly, Africa’s enormous resources minerals, bio-diversity, land, hydro-electric potential and solar energy extracted do not entirely benefit its people.
The inertia and incompetence of Bunyoro’s leaders to tame challenges like unemployment, poor education and health care, the energy crisis and poor infrastructure is not any different from Africa’s miserable performance globally. Her leaders have failed to address problems in education, health, security, infrastructure, security, employment and they lack strategic direction.
The promotion and protection of incompetent, selfish and inarticulate leaders is the case in Bunyoro and on the African continent. In both cases, people have been blinded by selfish leaders and their resources have been exploited to their detriment. The similarities are endless but what are the solutions to these problems?
There is need to educate, train and breed high quality leaders committed to the local and national cause. This will benefit not only Bunyoro but Africa in the long run.
Resources should be made accessible through better management. This would provide an opportunity for the locals to participate in the resource allocation and ensure that they have a say in its distribution.
There is need to create more employment opportunities. This would enable the locals to strategically participate in the management of resources. Poor people should also be availed with opportunities to access revenue through permanent constitutionally agreed formula and structures. Endowment of funds should also be created by governments for future generations.
Social and economic programmes like health care, quality education-for-all, social security and employment should be implemented to ensure an educated, skilled, healthy and productive population. We must all work to isolate, undermine and dis-empower the powerful and invisible arm that controls Africa’s destiny and discludes her people from benefiting from the vast resources.
The public sector in Africa should also be strengthened. Europe, China and South America were developed by a powerful state-owned public sector not privatisation as advocated by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Even Japan that has a highly private sector-driven economy has a strong public sector mentality.
It’s interesting that what one sees locally is a microcosm of the bigger picture. As a matter of fact, Bunyoro’s case is replicated in Lango, Toro, Buganda, Busoga and the same arguments would apply. It is time for African leaders to take charge of the continent’s affairs and ensure that its people, and not foreigners, are the beneficiaries.
The writer is a freelance consultant