A couple of land cases in court have made me frequently take the dusty, bumpy, windswept excuse of a road that connects Lugazi (not yet a city, but just you wait) to Buikwe (not yet a town, but just you wait) and eventually to the Mukono-Katosi-Jinja highway.
Two kilometres into the dust is a decrepit, dilapidated and tumble-down relic of a structure that, a few years ago was supposed to be a busy factory humming with the buzz of legitimate commerce, and a showcase of the government’s successful Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) policy. I think it was called Abishra Steel something… oh heck, I forget the exact name.
But it was run by foreign investors that we sued for doing some not-very-nice things to young men. By the time the case was ready to take off, the factory had closed: you know court cases… you win many, you lose some, but there’s always one or two that just go bad. Like that one. If you venture into that former steel factory today, I can guarantee you won’t find a single snake or lizard; place is too creepy for comfort, even for them!
Many Ugandans are familiar with the infant mortality rate of their country – about 43 deaths for every 1,000 live births. That’s really great (if your baby wasn’t among the 43 – and that’s why quantitative research can be pretty stupid). What we need to investigate as well is the infant mortality rate of industries; how many die for every 1,000 (or let’s be generous, every 100) that are set up? How many last beyond their fifth birthday? How many are suffering from marasmus, beriberi and kwashiorkor and overall stunted growth?
That decaying, derelict, God-forsaken factory is an excellent poster child of a flawed development policy of a President who flaunts industrialisation as the key to liberating Uganda but again at the same time presides over a system that is too corrupt, inept and self-serving to do anything long-lasting about the perceived panacea.
Truth is, sustainable national development has never begun with industrialisation. It begins with the blossoming of its human resources and industrialisation must come only after. Nationals must be at the heart of the development of their country.
The current policy of focusing on FDI is largely turning our young people into slaves in their own country. The jobs at strategic level are still occupied by foreigners. Our people are just sweeps and cleaners…and small-time, two-bit paper pushers. Nothing really substantial.
If these industries survive infant mortality, our people will still be where they are.
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The real industries that we need to set up are those that manufacture people; industries that turn human beings into human resources. This tells you that the focus should be on having a solid education and healthcare system that makes it easy for nationals, regardless of their social status, to stay alive and well.
But when you look at the government schools – which the majority of Ugandans attend – it is clear the Museveni administration does not want good education for the citizens. That is why neither the President nor his officers take their children to government schools; for the simple reason that they love their children very much and have big dreams for them.
But then again, this is how despots play their game. When you give your people a great education, they begin thinking and reasoning. They get empowered and wealthy and independent … and then you will have kissed them goodbye, because it is hard to do what Mr Museveni does to Ugandans, if the population is educated, empowered and wealthy.
In backward republics, poor education and poverty are, therefore, both a form of governance and a strategic objective of the ruling junta. When you have a critical mass of complete idiots that are poor and dependent, you are able to manipulate them, even while taunting them, quite safely… till death do you part.
Mr Tegulle is an advocate of the High Court of Uganda
