I read President Yoweri Museveni’s address to the ruling party’s National Executive Committee about political ideologue, what needs to happen in Uganda for it to become a rich modern economy, and what his government has done since it seized power in 1986.
To move this discussion forward quickly, let’s agree there were interesting insights and broadly I agree with most of the things he said – my unease with his suggestion that government can do electricity better than private business notwithstanding.
However, what is interesting is what was missing. A few days before Museveni’s write up appeared in the media, a young Kenyan journalist Osman Mohamed Osman, wrote a blog on the Al Jazeera (English) website entitled Boats over books for many of Uganda’s children. The article touches on a problem many are aware of. Yes, millions more children go to school and, yes, thousands of more classrooms have been built over the last 25 years.
The problem is that outcomes and opportunities for these students haven’t changed much, which is why in the Al Jazeera article, in the Lake Victoria fishing communities of Maluba, there are schools but no students.
A brave teacher, Gracious Omondi, who refuses to give up, still cannot hide the despair in his tone. His school started the term with 150 students, and by the time Osman talked to him, only 30 were left.
So I ask Museveni, and other candidates in the 2016 race, how do we get these children back in the classrooms and what is your plan for deriving better value for the money that is being poured into education? There are also right-sounding things about investing in technology, business parks, infrastructure, and the need for access to the East African market in the speech.
Some years ago, Andrew Mwenda and I used to muse over what we called the “Sheema Puzzle”. Why, with then lousy roads and everything, was Sheema in Bushenyi the richest constituency on several indicators outside Kampala? Does infrastructure and all those wealth-creation schemes really deliver bang for the buck?
An example will suffice. Chris Blattman is an associate professor of political science and international and public affairs at Columbia University. Writing about innovation policy in an article that captured the imagination and is much quoted, he noted that in 2011, the Nigerian government dished out $60 million to about 1,200 entrepreneurs. Three years later there are hundreds of new companies, generating tonnes of profit and employing about 7,000 new people.
Here was the real winner for me: Some of the $50,000 grants were given out at random. Then he asks, subversively and delightfully, “What if all the struggle to build infrastructure and services and other stuff was bullshit, and all along we should have just been funnelling more cash to the middle and bottom?”
A chap called Sachin Ahuja, who was impressed with Blattman noted, “Given half a chance, a well-meaning person with an idea can help move the needle. Opening up this ‘half a chance’ is what emerging economies should concentrate on instead of poor attempts at recreating Silicon Valley everywhere.”
Some insane and popular things were done with the coffee industry in Uganda some years ago. There was blood on the floor and chaos in subsequent years, but we are in a good place now, aren’t we?
Finally, nearly everything the President prescribes, is also being done by other East African countries. Who will buy whose goods if, as of old, we are all making the same things?
So, I ask of Museveni, and other candidates, where is the crazy and bold idea that, if it doesn’t fail, has a chance of spectacular success?
I ask, but you don’t have to answer.
Mr Onyango-Obbo is editor of Mail & Guardian Africa. Twitter@cobbo3
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