Why the President is on zonal tours

By Moses Byaruhanga

The zonal tours of President Yoweri Museveni started early May with Tooro sub-region. This was followed by Bunyoro, Lango, West Nile, Madi, Acholi, Karamoja, Teso, Sebei, Bugisu, Bukedi and this week the President is in Busoga sub-region.

In all these zones, the President has been spending two days in each. The first day he addresses leaders from the zone in one of the districts and the following day he addresses a rally in the sub-county in the zone that gave him the highest percentage of votes in the 2016 presidential elections, and in the evening of the second day, he appears on a radio programme.

The categories of the people the President meets are: Members of Parliament from the region irrespective of their political affiliation, district chairpersons, district councillors, the district NRM executive and the NRM league chairpersons at district level, district youth and women council chairpersons, municipal mayors and municipal councilors, municipal NRM executive and NRM league chairpersons at municipal level, sub-county chairpersons and their councillors, sub-county NRM chairpersons, RDCs, DISOs, OWC officers and technical officers at district and municipal level.

The President is meeting the above - mentioned leaders to sensitise them on how to transform society from subsistence farming to commercial farming putting into consideration returns in the selected economic activity. He gives his story that in his youth, working with a few others, he mobilised the people from Ankole to stop nomadism, which they did. His struggle was cut short by the political developments in Uganda that saw him go into exile and later start a liberation war. When he came into the government, he continued with the mobilisation.

This time he was telling them that since they didn't have vast pieces of land, it was better to move away from Ankole cows to dairy cows. The idea here was that with Ankole cows, you need to sell cows in order to meet your family needs and since they didn't have many cows because of small pieces of land, they would end up selling all their animals to meet their family demands.

He advised them to keep dairy cows because with dairy cows you sell milk daily to meet your family needs instead of selling the cow. This advice they followed and today the dairy farmers in Ankole are rich because they sell milk. Soon the export of milk might bring in more dollars than coffee.

For the small-holder farmers with about four acres of land, the President is advising them to have one acre for fruits, the second for coffee where coffee grows, the third for food security for the home and the fourth acre for pasture for a dairy cow. Why fruits and coffee and not any other crop?

It is because fruits and coffee are high-value crops and have a good market. He discourages people from growing low-value crops because that way they will remain in poverty. For those with about two acres or less, he encourages them to engage in poultry, piggery for non-Muslims, mushrooms, fish farming, etc. Furthermore, the President is campaigning against land fragmentation. This is a dangerous practice that renders land useless when it is divided into small plots in rural communities.

The President's crusade is that Ugandans should all engage in income-generating activities. On funding the various activities, the President is telling his audiences that the Government is going to create a fund from where activity-based SACCOS will be funded. For instance, there should be a SACCOS for saloon owners, for bodabodas, carpenters, etc. There will also be a SACCO created for political leaders from the village council to the district. All these activity-based SACCOS will be for all those engaged in that activity in that district.

For instance, all the salon owners in a district should belong to one SACCOS which will be supported by the Government. What is remaining is for the district leaders working through the ministry responsible for co-operatives to spearhead the formation of these activity-based SACCOS. The President has directed the chief administrative officers to embark on the SACCOS formation. When Ugandans transform from subsistence to commercial farming, two things will happen. One is that there will be a need for a market to absorb the various goods produced. Like in the dairy sector, where milk processing factories have sprouted, various agro-based industries will come up or will be assisted to come up.

This way, employment will be created. The second thing that will happen is that with a majority of the population in a money economy, that will increase the effective demand of the population, hence, there will be a justification for manufacturing to meet the demands of the population with income. This too will lead to industrialisation of the country.

I have had the opportunity of moving around the country with the President. You should see the beautiful roads. Fortunately, I have worked with the President for a number of years. In the 90s, we used to go upcountry on poor roads. I recall that those days, the leaders in their memoranda to the President they wouldn't ask for tarmac roads. They would instead ask for first-class murram roads. They would ask for boreholes, better radio and TV signals, piped water, extension of electricity to the district headquarters, hospitals, schools, etc. These days, no one asks for a first class murram road.

Most connecting roads from Kampala are all tarmacked. I traveled on beautiful roads from Gulu to Kitgum, from Mbale to Lwakhakha, from Gulu to Atiak. In Tooro, there is a beautiful road from Ibanda through Kamwenge to Fort Portal. In Bunyoro, the famous Kibaale-Kagadi-Hoima-Masindi-Kigumba road is under construction and on the way to Karamoja I traveled on a beautiful Soroti-Katakwi-Moroto road. From Moroto to Nakapiripirit there is another beautiful road. In all these places, you are on Internet and all have electricity.

I recall on the way to Orom Sub County, which is about 80km from Kitgum town, as we drove, the power lines were ahead of us. In the past, driving from Karuma to Arua, a distance of 520km would take ages on a murrum road. When I used that road recently, I really enjoyed it while comparing to when I first used it in the 90s. In Busoga, there are new roads too. The Musita-Mayuge-Busia-Majanji, the Iganga-Kamuli and the Jinja-Kamuli roads. For the municipalities like Fort Portal, Hoima, Lira, Arua, Gulu, Moroto, Soroti, Mbale, Tororo, Jinja, the town roads look so good.

The writer is a Senior Presidential Adviser on Political Affairs