Uganda is a country of deep contradictions, vastly endowed at the same time appallingly impoverished. In many ways, this is the story of Africa since Independence, now more than half a century. Ours is a continent famous but also infamous for being at once rich in natural resource wealth yet the majority of citizens are trapped in poor living material conditions.
Away from this obsession with natural resources, when I teach politics of Africa to graduate students or speak at academic conferences on panels and as a keynote speaker, I like to underscore the most valuable resource of any country or continent, indeed of Africa – its people.
Having natural resources wealth is one thing, turning that wealth into prosperity and social transformation is entirely another matter, for the most dependent on a country’s human resources and the technological advances that can be mustered.
Compared to other countries most famous for minerals, metals, and oil, Uganda is not especially rich in natural resources, but has other endowments and material advantages, including agricultural production powered by high-quality soils and conducive weather, barring the climate-change onslaught that has increasingly become so pronounced.
The prospects of oil drilling and exporting will, of course, now place Uganda in the league of natural resources-rich countries with all the attendant implications – mostly negative for the African continent. On the other hand, there is something to say about the innovative and entrepreneurial spirit of Ugandans, particularly those who venture into business.
Across the country, one finds a rich array of small business ventures and impressive traces of business innovation, but often weighed down by the broader society’s limited drive, motivation, and low-quality human resources to turn things around.
Lifting a larger swath of society into a productivity mood and modus operandi remains one of our biggest bottlenecks. It is a challenge of getting a bigger chunk of society to be business-oriented and to value productivity over socially wasteful routines. But there is an equally important problem among the privileged classes and the thriving business groups, to which I shall return shortly.
Around Kampala, from Kulambiro and Kyanja to Kiwatule-Nalya and Kyambogo-Kireka, the surge in building, both business premises and private homes, is remarkable. There is a lot going on.
In my hometown of Mbale, now deceptively called a city, the level of economic activities has expanded stupendously from what it was a few decades ago. Yet, in the different towns and cities but also peri-urban and semi-rural settings, the utter absence of a sense of public spirit is astonishing.
The failure to recognise the value of shared spaces, the inability to appreciate that a properly planned road network is invaluable for everyone, and the lack of a commitment to a collective spirit in demanding socially desirable goods and services all point to the impoverishment of not just the poor but especially rich Ugandans. People selfishly build in road reserves.
They put up (unnecessary) tall concrete fences that make roads too narrow to serve their purpose adequately. Rather than pressure National Water and Sewerage Corporation to aggressively expand the reach of water supply lines, individuals resort to solo initiatives of providing water for their homes or businesses, exclusively.
The same has played out in the energy sector. Rather than ruggedly engineering quality healthcare systems, the ruling classes use largely ill-gotten financial power, including siphoning from state coffers, to seek medical services abroad. As public schools degenerate and the education sector totters under the weight of incompetence and financial abuse, the rulers and other privileged classes opt for private schools at home and abroad. For good or bad, change is inevitable. Society moves on, one way or another.
No doubt, Uganda is on the march, whatever the rulers do and regardless of the politics of the day. The challenge is to reflect on the bigger picture for the country, to think about the road ahead, and a sustainable future.
Personal enrichment without broader societal transformation is a recipe for disaster.
In today’s Uganda, those driving big, expensive SUVs have little regard for proper behaviour on the road in a manner that serves the public good: order and harmony. We are at a phase where the indifference to collective efforts and solutions to shared problems is a danger, sadly not well-appreciated, yet as much a problem as the poverty of the majority of citizens.
Moses Khisa
moses.khisa@gmail.com
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