My attention was drawn to a clip in which the Member of Parliament (MP) for Budaka County in Bukedi Sub-region, Mr. Arthur Waako Mboizi, was castigating the people (read voters) for not taking the fight against poverty seriously. I watched the clip several times. It was fascinating to hear a politician speak a very straight language while dealing with voters-a taboo among a certain class of our politicians who prefer sugarcoating issues, apparently, so as not to offend voters.
In the clip, MP Mboizi wondered why despite Government pouring in agricultural inputs- and other kinds of support-people have failed to transform their lives and develop the area. He said thousands of cows, goats and coffee seedlings enough to plant a million acres have been availed to the people, but they still remain poor. He seemed to attribute this grim situation to a lack of understanding (to put it lightly).
The MP should be commended for his bold language in addressing the all-important subject matter of the fight against corruption-and the involvement of the ordinary person (the one H.E the President usually says works for “Ekidha kyoonka”). Budaka is part of Pallisa district from which Kibuku district -where the Parish Development Model (PDM) programme was launched by the President in February 2022-was curved. The decision to choose Kibuku (in Bukedi) as the springboard of the flagship anti-poverty initiative may have to do with poverty levels in that part of the country, which makes it all the easier to be empathetic with the MP in his exasperation.
Fighting poverty should be a fulltime concept; we should be angry at it, fear it, loathe it and avoid incubating it through practices that deny our people a role in the money economy. We shall need a shock effect to truly awaken the people!
MP Mboizi’s “quarrel” reminds us of the relative futility of anti-poverty initiatives previously introduced by Government such as Bonnabagaggawale, Entandikwa, Plan for Modernisation of Agriculture (PMA), and so on. Certainly, these programmes did not rid Uganda of poverty and pessimists have used their example to give PDM a contempt card and predict a similar fate for it. Whereas the earlier programmes did not succeed in lifting everybody out of poverty, some of their beneficiaries made progress in their household income levels. Plus, every programme is a learning opportunity from which lessons are derived to inform the formulation of new interventions.
The question, therefore, is why people remain poor despite Government giving them “hooks and teaching them to fish.” One answer can be that poverty changes face and form; someone earning a certain amount of money today may find that the same amount will not afford them the same provisions in the future due to price fluctuation and other market forces. It’s not true that Government’s earlier initiatives had no impact. There was some impact but a lot still remains to be done.
That calls for a change in the tone with which the poor who should rise up against poverty are approached. Appeals to people to work for prosperity are standard but isn’t it time that we applied a tougher stance which makes failure to harness programmes or failure to utilise Government-provided resources well an act of subversion? For how long shall we lament about poverty when inputs have been provided only to discover that some of them are consumed instead of being invested as programmed?
MP Mboizi should do a “democratic audit” in his constituency on “who received what and when” to determine the extent of failure to utilise support received by beneficiaries meaningfully and the causes. Is it diversion of the resources, regarding them as handouts to eat and wait for another round of handouts, lack of knowledge on how to invest and reap profitably or is there an invisible hand working to keep Ugandans in poverty, despite best intentions of Government? Is there anyone accursed to poverty? What makes some people rich and others poor, even when existing in similar circumstances and given similar incentives? It has got to do with mindset, which is why “mindset change” is a key pillar of PDM.
The Legislator felt that it is wastage to keep pumping money to the hands of people and not bear results when it could as well go to do public projects.
Last Thursday, H.E the President addressed the nation on the subject of “Wealth Creation” as opposed to “Wealth Consumption.” For most Ugandans, the consumption part is most alluring and this tendency threats to destroy any momentum gained towards alleviating poverty levels among the populace. The President emphasised politics of economics and wealth creation, and rejecting the politics of parasitism and sectarianism. It’s time to conclude that no single individual should expect the economy to benefit them without them adding to it. If Government gives you a million shillings under PDM, will you multiply it or make it disappear with no trace? If you waste it, what do you think about others that have not had the opportunity of a million shillings coming to them but would wish for the chance? How about public projects where such money could be spent? These are questions which every Ugandans should challenge the self with!
If it is for lack of inspiration, what would we say of the President whose aim is to increase the number of cattle kept on a square mile from 300 to 6, 000? He is already a large scale farmer but has found a way to further expand his enterprise. Not lacking what to eat or a roof over his head, he still has the urge to rise up early or spend sleepless nights attending to his state duties, or tend to or monitor his farms and researching on better methods of farming and production-to earn an extra shilling. What is stopping someone in Budaka from pushing harder against poverty given the President’s example? Mindset!
The author is the Deputy Presidential Press Secretary
Contact: kirundaf2@gmail.com
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