Early this week, the World Bank issued a statement to the effect that it had suspended any future funding for projects in Uganda, citing human rights violations from the recent enactment of the anti-homosexuality law.
A statement from the Bank says further funding is being frozen until authorities in Uganda provide adequate policy to protect minorities, including the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and other groups commonly categorised as LGBTQ+.
“Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act fundamentally contradicts the World Bank Group’s values. We believe our vision to eradicate poverty on a liveable planet can only succeed if it includes everyone irrespective of race, gender, or sexuality,” the Bank said on Tuesday.
“This law undermines those efforts. Inclusion and non-discrimination sit at the heart of our work around the world.”
In May, President Yoweri Museveni signed into law the Anti-Homosexuality Act, providing penalties as high as a death sentence for “aggravated homosexuality.” It drew condemnations from rights groups and Western countries such as the US who threatened sanctions. The US is a key shareholder in the World Bank and has almost always produced its president.
The announcement has duly sparked a debate on how it could impact the country’s development in both the short and long term. Similarly, questions regarding whether or not the goverent should swallow its pride and accept to compromise its moral/ cultural values in exchange for development financing from the global financier. This question has exhaustively been answered by President in his precise response to the development in a statement released on Thursday, 9.
In a strongly worded response to WB, President Museveni tabled the Private sector in farming and manufacturing as the ones developing and transforming Uganda, accounting for the highly impressive low inflation figures which now stands at 3.9%, one of the lowest in the world. The President gave a message of hope to Countrymen, and Women “especially the bazzukulu” that Uganda has emense potential to develop with or without funding from external forces. He also downplayed the impact of loan money received in the past which has been mismanaged, indicating that it wouldn’t be much of a bother is its not available anymore.
“Last night an official from the World Bank rang me to alert me about the statement from that Bank regarding the suspension of any new requests from Uganda for loans. I want to inform everybody, starting with Ugandans, that Uganda will develop with or without. As a matter of fact, many of the loans in the past,were being carelessly entered into by officials behind my back when they were completely unnecessary.
That is why some years ago, I put down my foot and forbade agreeing to any loan before my approval. Hence, we are now borrowing less and cautiously. Yet our economy is growing, other global challenges such as the war in Europe, corona, etc.,notwithstanding.”
If there is absolute need for borrowing, the president said that there are a number of non Bretton Woods sources from where we can borrow.
With the prospect of the country starting to reap dividends from its oil industry in 2025, the news from WB couldn’t have been any more timely. This, besides the growing industrial capacity of the country, will provide an additional revenue source for the government in addition to patching the leaky public service to avert hemorrhage of public resources into the pockets of greedy officials.
As the President rightly put it, It is apprehensible for the World Bank and other actors to dare to coerce Uganda into abandoning our faith, culture, principles and sovereignty, using money.The President calls thus an act to “under estimate all Africans.”
A War for all of us
What then do we need to do? I remember one incident that happened over two decades ago while I was still in primary school. One friend of mine was assigned by the form master to jot down names of noise makers. I was in either P4 or P5. His name was Ofwono. I can’t recall the other name. He was one of the most prominent noise makers in our class. We all believed in the saying that “Work without play makes Jack a dull boy.” Why not talk a bit when there is no reacher in class! This was injustice. So, this particular time, Ofwono accepted the task but when the teacher returned, there was only one name on the sheet provided. It was his name. Ordinarily, he would have written more than a half of us. But he accepted to take the bullet on our behalf. He was a hero. So what did we have to do? We stuck by his side. We never betrayed his loyalty and selflessness. We stood together and spoke out against our teacher’s injustice. We need some freedom. And so that’s how we over came.
This time too, an opportunity is presenting g itself for all of us to show appreciation for the man who has courageously stood tallest against the odds.
The President’s Gospel of having all of us in the mo ey economy is the complete solution for the threat of having ourselves bow for whoever even when it threatens our very existence. I have followed the Gospel on the four acre model. If this ne is followed religiously, more than a half of the rural.population with access to arable land would have their lives transformed within no more than one year. Besides, it would improve on household income for the ordinary poor and increase disposable income which would in turn increase demand for goods and services, thereby boosting the economy.
The best news in this regard is that there is the Parish Development Model currently running where each parish is allocated Shillings 100 million annually. If this money is effectively disbursement into productive ventures, there is no way we would fail to transform economically and socially, with or without foreign loans that will ultimately pass repayment burden onto the next generations.
The other avenue of hope lies in value addition. As the Head of State has always preached, selling our merchandise abroad as raw materials doesn’t help us in anyway. Forinstance, if we sell unprocessed coffee to China, or America, we would be passing 80% of the value to the importer which disadvantages us emensely. That’s why the Government has stuck to its guns that the country’s oil, gold, iron, copper, etc should be processed locally and sent abroad as finished products in order to fetch better profits.
With those measures fully applied, there is no way at all that we will feel the pinch of this systematic economic aggression. We need to take lessons from countries like North Korea whose economies have managed to transform drastically even in the face of big sanctions from the West.
Edrine Benesa is the Deputy RCC for Soroti Division
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