Fr Gaetano lives in denial, Uganda is progressing

By Don Wanyama

I read with amusement an opinion by Fr Gaetano Batanyenda in a tri-weekly newspaper and also on social media, titled "Mr President, overcoming poverty and bad governance is not an act of charity."

Fr Gaetano, who calls himself the Chairman of Kick Corruption Out of Uganda (I wonder where he was bestowed this title), makes a litany of accusations against President Yoweri Museveni.

The summary of the accusations is that the President (or his government) has failed to provide basic social services, created a class society and Fr Gaetano makes the following demand: "I do hereby entreat you, Mr President, to either honourably accept the process of undertaking a political metamorphosis through a national dialogue or you surrender the people's power for the good of Uganda and its posterity."

In his full page opinion, at no single time does Fr Gaetano offer any empirical evidence to back his rants, instead relying on emotional outbursts whose climax is the desperate attempt at asking for power through cheap threats.

For someone who has spent the last couple of years demonising President Museveni while hiding behind the veil of a priestly collar, it is understandable why Fr Gaetano is exhibiting signs of daylight hallucinations. It can be frustrating when you talk ill of a person, hold countless press briefings to attack him, call him names, issue threats, lose sleep at night—but when Ugandans make the ultimate decision on who is best qualified to lead them, they keep re-endorsing that individual.

By now Fr Gaetano and his clique, that since the Kizza Besigye "New Year" message, have decided to make this "national dialogue" their chorus, should know that political power is not won through the back-door like they are hoping. What exactly would necessitate a national political dialogue at this time? What political crisis exists in Uganda to warrant a dialogue and the so-called "surrender to the people's power?"

It is about a year since Uganda held successful presidential and other local government elections. The election results were a true representation of Ugandans' political will and President Museveni got an outright endorsement to rule for another five years. As the President goes about this duty fervently, with the target of getting Uganda into the middle-income bracket by 2020, the Fr Gaetanos are still hoping against hope that events of February 2016 can be reversed. It is called living in denial. They need to wake up and smell the coffee. The horse bolted eons ago.

The other probable motive could be that they are pushing for this national dialogue so that they can diddle some unsuspecting donors like we saw in the build-up towards the last election where their own opposition dialogue through the TDA unsurprisingly suffered a still-birth.

American scholar Edwards Deming famously said: "In God we trust, all others bring data." In making his emotional and yet wild allegations against President Museveni, Fr Gaetano offers no data. Let us for example examine his claim that poverty levels have actually worsened under President Museveni's rule.

The World Bank primarily defines poverty from a monetary perspective as "the lack or insufficiency of money to meet basic needs, including food, clothing and shelter." This is what Uganda Poverty Assessment Report 2016, commissioned by the World Bank, had to say:

Uganda has reduced monetary poverty at a very rapid rate. The proportion of the Ugandan population living below the national poverty line declined from 31.1% in 2006 to 19.7% in 2013. Similarly, the country was one of the fastest in Sub-Saharan Africa to reduce the share of its population living on $1.90 PPP per day or less, from 53.2% in 2006 to 34.6% in 2013. (Full report available at http://pubdocs.worldbank.org/en/381951474255092375/Uganda-Poverty-Assessment-Report-2016.pdf)

This same report notes that the middle class has grown to about 40% up from just 10.2% in 1992. Even without statistics, one cannot fail to notice expanding urban suburbs not just in Kampala but across major towns, characterized with new residential houses, shops/malls, increasing vehicle ownership—which all point to a better standard of living for ordinary people. Even in the rural areas, the grass, mud-and-wattle structures are giving way to brick and mabati buildings.

From safe water coverage to primary school admission, from tarmacked and well-maintained murrum roads to university admissions, the statistics point to a rising trajectory.

Fr Gaetano exhibits intellectual dishonesty when he gives the impression that the state (or actually the President) should use hand-outs to get people out of poverty (even extreme Communist states never did this). A functional state exists to create conditions for industrious citizens to thrive. It is the reason President Museveni has placed emphasis on security, roads, universal education, energy production, primary health care, investor attraction and now a push for wider market (EAC, COMESA, AU) as a means of helping Ugandans thrive by selling what they produce.

Is Uganda perfect? Of course not. As a priest, I am sure Fr Gaetano knows that even in Heaven, there was Lucifer and that despite being a tool of Hope, the Bible has a book called Lamentations. President Museveni is currently on an industrialization push to help create jobs and check unemployment. He is more than ever determined to crack the whip on corruption. Accounting officers have been put on notice about slack performance. The country could do with cheaper financial credit, cheaper electricity, among others. But this does not mean Uganda has not made positive strides in leaps and bounds under President Museveni.

In the past six months the President has spent time with key officials from each ministry detailing his expectations, them sharing their challenges and both parties agreeing on deliverables. It is what one would call a private sector-minded approach to public affairs. It is the reason this term has been christened "Kisanja Hakuna Mchezo" and Uganda's future is even brighter despite what Fr Gaetano thinks.

The writer is the Senior Press Secretary to the President

Twitter: @nyamadon