OPINION: President Museveni Servant Leadership Budget FY 22/23

Ben Ssebuguzi

The COVID-19 pandemic created extraordinary challenges for governments to safeguard the well-being of their people. Some government officials in public service rushed to bring a report proposing reducing government expenditure through rationalizing some of the government agencies including those that act as arteries and tributaries to the economy like UNRA which manages our roads.

I want to thank God for giving us a leader with equanimity and calmness that helped us navigate through covid 19, and steadily took us through post covid despite a high brunt to the economy. Thank you President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni for your imperturbability.

Growth recovered from a contraction of 1.5% in 2020 to 6.0% in 2021, Uganda’s annual inflation eased for the fifth straight month to 9% in March 2023, down from 9.2% in the previous month. Although figures may look small, they are very significant.

Subsequently, like any good student of political science and economics,the Fountain of honor has continued to play his cards right by making Human capital development as the priority areas of FY 2022/2023 budget. Human capital development is also highlighted as a key fundamental in realisation of Vision 2040.

Human capital development means reinforcing education like vocational and skills development,you can not underestimate the effective and efficient access to water in the country, and that’s why NWSC strategic plan of Water for All is aligned with government agenda. Ventures like Emyooga,Parish Development model are all hinged on improving the lives of people from peasantry to money economy.

Further more, in modern growth theory,accumulation of human capital is a crucial contributor to economic growth.Harming Human capital in order to cut costs has far reaching consequences to the economy,that is why during the economic forum by the Ministry finance, many contributors especially World Bank warned government against retrenchment of government agencies in a harzadous manner! Anxiety disorder from proponets of this report should not be taken lightly, instead they should remain calm. Human technologies are the fulcrum of any organization because they also run robots.

Lastly, I want to thank President Yoweri Kaguta Museven for the servant leadership that puts people before profits. When Mr. Robert Kabushenga retrenched New vision staff in a harzadous way,he lost his job. Because President Museven believes in people and he knows that effects of covid 19 are temporary and therefore can not stand in the way of efficient service delivery.That is why the Head of state rejuvenated the NRM Office of the National Chairman under manager, Hajjat Namyalo Uzeiye, where thousands of youths have been empowered to cause transformation and development. That’s all empowering people.

Ben Ssebuguzi is the SG of Uganda Poor Youth Movement and a Researcher at ONC.