Uganda’s purse is in female hands at last
KAROORO OKURUT<br><I>A literary and socio-political analyst</I><br><br>This Thursday, when finance minister Syda Bbumba makes a grand entry into the Serena Conference Centre to present the 2009/2010 budget, she will in all likelihood be greeted by thun
KAROORO OKURUT
A literary and socio-political analyst
This Thursday, when finance minister Syda Bbumba makes a grand entry into the Serena Conference Centre to present the 2009/2010 budget, she will in all likelihood be greeted by thunderous applause.
Not just because it is polite to do so, but largely because for the first time in Uganda’s history, the budget briefcase that the media takes a million snapshots of on such a day, will be in female hands.
The finance portfolio, historians say, did long remain a male domain but during the last couple of years more and more women have been appointed to take care of the finance and economy, which is traditionally one of the most important ministries in every country.
Africa first had a female finance (economy) minister in 1975 and that was Marie-Christine Mbokou of the Central African Republic who held the post till 1979.
Liberia, from 1979-80 had Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf who is now President. From 1979-81 Ghana had Gloria Amon Nikoi. From 1982-83 Liberia had Peters, Nederlandse Antillen. There was Bintou Sango in Burkina Faso 1987-91. Chad had Alina Mangodjo 1994-95, and then Zaire had in 1997, Ndombe Sita.
From 1998-99 there was Edith Zewelani Nawakwi in Zambia. From 1999-2002, Sierra Leone had Dr. Kadie Sesay. Angola had in 1999 Ana Dias Lourençco, while in Gabon from 1999-2002 there was Yolande Assele Ebinda.
Mozambique joined the club a little late, having LuÃsa DÃas Diogo from 2000-05. From 2000-02, Burkina Faso had another woman in charge Anne Konaté.
Sao Tome and Principe islands had two bouts of Maria dos Santos Lima da Costa Tebús Torres from 2002-03 and 2006-07.
From 2002-03 Togo had Ayawovi Demba Tignokpa and from 2003-06 there was Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala in Nigeria. Namibia had in 2003, Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila while from 2003-05 it was Séraphine Wakana for Burundi. The Gambia had in 2005 Margaret Keita while Burundi took another female helping from 2005-06 with Marie Goretti Nduwimana. Then East Africa joined the club, with Tanzania having Zakia Hamdan Meghji from 2006-08.
Liberia, from 2006-08 had Antoinette Sayeh while Sao Tome and Principe which (alongside Burundi) has had the most female finance ministers in Africa took on from 2006-07, Cristina Maria Fernandes Dias.
Nigeria from 2006-07 had Nenadi Usman while Burundi from 2006-07 had Denise Sinankwa. Mali came on board in 2007 with Bâ Fatoumata Néné Sy running its economy, as Sao Tome and Principe from 2007-08 took on Valdimira Da Silva Tavares. She was replaced in 2008 by another woman, Ângela Viegas Santiago. In 2009, three countries appointed female finance ministers. Helena Nosolini Embalo emerged in Guinea-Bissau, Clotilde Niragira showed up in Burundi and Uganda made her presence felt with the one and only Syda Namirembe Bbumba. While space won’t allow delving into detail, suffice it to say that even in the developed world, folks have been generally reluctant to entrust their economies to women. For Uganda to entrust her economy to a woman at long last is a tale of how far women have come since the Movement came to power 23 years ago.
She is the sixth finance minister of Uganda since 1986 when we had Prof. Ponsiano Mulema (RIP) from January 1986 to September 1986; followed by Dr. Crispus Kiyonga until February 1992. In came Mayanja Nkangi up to May 1998 who was replaced by Gerald Ssendaula who retired in February 2004.
Dr. Ezra Suruma carried the torch from then till February 2009, handing it over to the woman of the moment, Bbumba for whom the cameras will be clicking every other second on Budget Day as she marches in with the country’s most famous briefcase.
A briefcase is a symbol of power and nobody wields more power than the one who carries the economy in their hands.
Every woman will hope that Bbumba’s holding the briefcase will translate into better gender budgeting so that the women of this nation are further empowered to reach where they deserve to be.
The first woman to gain prominence at the advent of the Movement did so for all the wrong reasons. Alice Lakwena (RIP) the half-crazed queen of the jungle showed up bubbling nonsense and sowing mayhem as she mounted the first resistance to the new government. Lakwena led thousands to their deaths, as she convinced them that her spiritual powers could protect them against bullets and bombs if they smeared themselves with shea butter.
Since then, an affirmative environment has seen more women go to school and enter the leadership domain. But there remains much room for improvement especially in two prime areas—education and the economy. While Universal Primary Education is a good example of policy interventions that are helping redeem the girl child, other such interventions in the economic domain like Prosperity For All need to be oriented more towards specific help for women. It is women who hold this country in their hands. They till the land which yields 80 per cent of our sustenance and look after the men and children—while they themselves lag behind.
Women-specific interventions therefore stand to benefit the country in the long term far better than the current ones that are too generic. Many women are at the mercy of loan sharks and when they fail to pay, some of these disgusting sharks (aptly named) demand for sex.
One heart-rending story recently is that of 27-year-old Jennifer Alupot of Okurutuk village in Pallisa district whose husband forced her to breastfeed his five puppies.
It couldn’t have been that she loved the man so much she could not leave; rather that she had nowhere to go because of financial dependence on the man. She is the poster girl of women in crisis because they have run out of options and must put up with inhuman and degrading treatment from their husbands.
Musician Tina Turner said she didn’t have to beg a man. She could simply walk out of the marriage into a five-star hotel without a thought. With due respect to the institution of marriage, you wish Tina Turner’s disposition for every Ugandan woman; that we may all move from the ugly shackles of dependence into a world where we relate with spouses on equal terms. Syda Bbumba has taken over the national purse and fiscal policies at the worst time possible when the global credit crunch has made it more difficult for people everywhere on earth to make ends meet.
But Uganda’s women, already struggling to make the affirmative environment count, will be hoping for solutions closer to home and a really decent deal since for the first time one of their own is in charge.
A literary and socio-political analyst
This Thursday, when finance minister Syda Bbumba makes a grand entry into the Serena Conference Centre to present the 2009/2010 budget, she will in all likelihood be greeted by thunderous applause.
Not just because it is polite to do so, but largely because for the first time in Uganda’s history, the budget briefcase that the media takes a million snapshots of on such a day, will be in female hands.
The finance portfolio, historians say, did long remain a male domain but during the last couple of years more and more women have been appointed to take care of the finance and economy, which is traditionally one of the most important ministries in every country.
Africa first had a female finance (economy) minister in 1975 and that was Marie-Christine Mbokou of the Central African Republic who held the post till 1979.
Liberia, from 1979-80 had Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf who is now President. From 1979-81 Ghana had Gloria Amon Nikoi. From 1982-83 Liberia had Peters, Nederlandse Antillen. There was Bintou Sango in Burkina Faso 1987-91. Chad had Alina Mangodjo 1994-95, and then Zaire had in 1997, Ndombe Sita.
From 1998-99 there was Edith Zewelani Nawakwi in Zambia. From 1999-2002, Sierra Leone had Dr. Kadie Sesay. Angola had in 1999 Ana Dias Lourençco, while in Gabon from 1999-2002 there was Yolande Assele Ebinda.
Mozambique joined the club a little late, having LuÃsa DÃas Diogo from 2000-05. From 2000-02, Burkina Faso had another woman in charge Anne Konaté.
Sao Tome and Principe islands had two bouts of Maria dos Santos Lima da Costa Tebús Torres from 2002-03 and 2006-07.
From 2002-03 Togo had Ayawovi Demba Tignokpa and from 2003-06 there was Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala in Nigeria. Namibia had in 2003, Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila while from 2003-05 it was Séraphine Wakana for Burundi. The Gambia had in 2005 Margaret Keita while Burundi took another female helping from 2005-06 with Marie Goretti Nduwimana. Then East Africa joined the club, with Tanzania having Zakia Hamdan Meghji from 2006-08.
Liberia, from 2006-08 had Antoinette Sayeh while Sao Tome and Principe which (alongside Burundi) has had the most female finance ministers in Africa took on from 2006-07, Cristina Maria Fernandes Dias.
Nigeria from 2006-07 had Nenadi Usman while Burundi from 2006-07 had Denise Sinankwa. Mali came on board in 2007 with Bâ Fatoumata Néné Sy running its economy, as Sao Tome and Principe from 2007-08 took on Valdimira Da Silva Tavares. She was replaced in 2008 by another woman, Ângela Viegas Santiago. In 2009, three countries appointed female finance ministers. Helena Nosolini Embalo emerged in Guinea-Bissau, Clotilde Niragira showed up in Burundi and Uganda made her presence felt with the one and only Syda Namirembe Bbumba. While space won’t allow delving into detail, suffice it to say that even in the developed world, folks have been generally reluctant to entrust their economies to women. For Uganda to entrust her economy to a woman at long last is a tale of how far women have come since the Movement came to power 23 years ago.
She is the sixth finance minister of Uganda since 1986 when we had Prof. Ponsiano Mulema (RIP) from January 1986 to September 1986; followed by Dr. Crispus Kiyonga until February 1992. In came Mayanja Nkangi up to May 1998 who was replaced by Gerald Ssendaula who retired in February 2004.
Dr. Ezra Suruma carried the torch from then till February 2009, handing it over to the woman of the moment, Bbumba for whom the cameras will be clicking every other second on Budget Day as she marches in with the country’s most famous briefcase.
A briefcase is a symbol of power and nobody wields more power than the one who carries the economy in their hands.
Every woman will hope that Bbumba’s holding the briefcase will translate into better gender budgeting so that the women of this nation are further empowered to reach where they deserve to be.
The first woman to gain prominence at the advent of the Movement did so for all the wrong reasons. Alice Lakwena (RIP) the half-crazed queen of the jungle showed up bubbling nonsense and sowing mayhem as she mounted the first resistance to the new government. Lakwena led thousands to their deaths, as she convinced them that her spiritual powers could protect them against bullets and bombs if they smeared themselves with shea butter.
Since then, an affirmative environment has seen more women go to school and enter the leadership domain. But there remains much room for improvement especially in two prime areas—education and the economy. While Universal Primary Education is a good example of policy interventions that are helping redeem the girl child, other such interventions in the economic domain like Prosperity For All need to be oriented more towards specific help for women. It is women who hold this country in their hands. They till the land which yields 80 per cent of our sustenance and look after the men and children—while they themselves lag behind.
Women-specific interventions therefore stand to benefit the country in the long term far better than the current ones that are too generic. Many women are at the mercy of loan sharks and when they fail to pay, some of these disgusting sharks (aptly named) demand for sex.
One heart-rending story recently is that of 27-year-old Jennifer Alupot of Okurutuk village in Pallisa district whose husband forced her to breastfeed his five puppies.
It couldn’t have been that she loved the man so much she could not leave; rather that she had nowhere to go because of financial dependence on the man. She is the poster girl of women in crisis because they have run out of options and must put up with inhuman and degrading treatment from their husbands.
Musician Tina Turner said she didn’t have to beg a man. She could simply walk out of the marriage into a five-star hotel without a thought. With due respect to the institution of marriage, you wish Tina Turner’s disposition for every Ugandan woman; that we may all move from the ugly shackles of dependence into a world where we relate with spouses on equal terms. Syda Bbumba has taken over the national purse and fiscal policies at the worst time possible when the global credit crunch has made it more difficult for people everywhere on earth to make ends meet.
But Uganda’s women, already struggling to make the affirmative environment count, will be hoping for solutions closer to home and a really decent deal since for the first time one of their own is in charge.