Common Denominator in Mr. Museveni’s Industrialisation Rhetoric.

ELIAS BIRYABAREMA



KAMPALA--President Museveni and a shrinking brigade of his die-hard loyalists within the NRM routinely harp about industrialising Uganda—something so basic a primary pupil would discuss it with an effort no more than he needs to lick candy—as though the subject were esoteric.

In fact, Museveni pursues his industrialisation crusades with such fervour it’s as if he invented the concept, fooling many into believing that he has an honest interest into expanding Uganda’s manufacturing capacity and thrusting the country into a modern age.

And yet Museveni and his NRM’s rants about building Uganda’s industrial capacity are mere gimmickry contrived to con Ugandans into swallowing assertions that the administration is spending our taxpayer money to transform the country when actually they are busying themselves with primitive accumulation evident in the mounting corruption epidemic.

One stark example— the infamous Tri-Star Apparels firm—bares the deception of Mr Museveni and his NRM’s proclamations on industrialisation and the immense harm they have done to this country under a clever guise of transforming it.

If there was any generous chance for this administration to demonstrate its commitment to uplifting this country, it was the African Growth and Opportunity Act, Agoa, the law enacted by the US Congress in early 2000 to let impoverished African nations like Uganda export, unencumbered by quotas and tariffs, cheap goods to the US market.

There are dozens of goods eligible for export under Agoa, but there’s only one area where Uganda had a breathtaking advantage—organic cotton production—and the country, if well led, should have become a mass producer of nice garments for both the US domestic markets. But a sadistic government, the NRM, would not let us be what we wanna be (to borrow a phrase from the American rapper, Nas’ song: I Can) and instead seized what was a profound, historic opportunity and turned it into what FDC’s Dr. Col. (rdt) Kizza Besigye famously described as a “costly fiasco.”

Before we could brink, instead of the thousands of jobs and millions of precious dollars in export earnings we had been promised by Mr Museveni while haranguing us to embrace Agoa: Shs 24 billion of scarce taxes had been made to disappear through a corrupt nexus, whose public face was a Sri Lankan shark, Mr Vellupilai Kananathan but whose masterminds appeared stationed around Nakasero.

These days whenever Mr Museveni is challenged about his reckless destruction of this nation through displacement of public institutions to give the land to his purported investors, he berates us for not appreciating the need for industrialisation and, well, lacking vision.


But the Tri-star Apparel swindle showed the nation what in fact Mr. Museveni has in mind when he speaks of industrialisation—a pipeline to siphon off the nation’s taxes by those that have a “vision.” This is what we should always have in mind whenever Mr Museveni takes to the podium and launches into his lectures on boosting Uganda’s industrial capacity.

And when we grasp this important connection between the numerous industrialisation/modernisation projects (Tri Star, Mabira giveaway, former UTV land, Shimoni land, Kalangala forests for oil palms etc) and the endless loop of loss to the taxpayer, it will become easy for us to comprehend some of the most bizarre acts like the looming despoliation of the source of River Nile.

Uganda’s Founding Father, ex President Dr. Milton Obote once arrived at an accurate characterisation of Mr Museveni (as a violent man) by rooting for a constant factor in all of the wars where Museveni has been involved. He observed that the theatres and times of those wars had been varied as had been the causes and several other aspects. Only two elements remained strikingly constant: Mr Museveni and the atrocities against non-combatants.

That’s a helpful clue to understanding today’s Mr Museveni and his supposed efforts to expand industrial production in Uganda. Over the time he has been pressing this cause: the projects, years, investors involved, sectors etc, have been different. Only two elements that have not varied whatsoever throughout: Mr Museveni and the loop of loss to the taxpayer.

There’s no gainsaying that Uganda needs industries. We need to create formal jobs for the hordes of youth streaming out of universities. We need to expand our technological capacity. these are no small tasks and if there were any Asian, Arab, European, American or any person of any race or from any region willing to come and lend a hand in efforts to realise these achievements, that person deserves maximum goodwill and support from us citizens and our government.


Nevertheless, when Mr Museveni and his NRM start to switch public land from this use to that and lavish incentives to investors: it is time to start worrying by any one who knows those two common denominators in this administration’s industrialisation effort