Obote’s “Common Man’s Charter” and Museveni geniuses in shaping Uganda

The Common Man’s Charter was the first blueprint paper by the UPC government in 1969, describing Uganda’s development direction. The first of its kind during the post-independence period. Because it lacked full political commitment of leaders, coupled with poor strategy and planning, which marked its early demise, therefore becoming a non-starter.

The Common Man’s Charter lacked merit, and it failed to achieve an independent political ideology as most of the time we were operating from the orders of our neighbors who were socialists. Uganda didn’t have a spine, thus contributing to conditions of a failed state which allowed President Idi Amin to seize power in 1971. This marked the beginning of terror and economic collapse.

The Common Man’s Charter objectives were not realistic and unattainable given the fact that the leadership was used to short-term gains, lacked human resource skills on top of being serious amateurs. Their objectives included economic nationalization, redistribution of wealth, employment creation, cultural promotion, political unity, and anti-neocolonialism.

Thanks to God that the National Resistance Army (NRA) under the able and wise leadership of General Yoweri Kaguta Museveni identified those gaps, and decided to fix them after they liberated this country, under the auspices of the historic mission: prosperity of Africans, strategic security, and integration as their mega vision for strategically positioning Uganda as a competitive nation. That is why President Museveni received a peace and development champion award courtesy of Public Opinion. He is the first elite politician to come up with the first workable development plan to shape Uganda into a modern nation. This plan came to be known as the Vision 2040.

The Vision 2040 is the 30-year development plan and is a strategic framework plan for transforming Uganda into a modern and prosperous nation. It is split into various timelines such as NDP1 up to 6. In order to realize this great vision, President Museveni signed yet another blueprint called the 10-fold growth strategy, as a catalyst aiming to increase the economy from $50b to $500b in 15 years.

Precisely, Vision 2040 seeks to fully monetize the economy and create employment opportunities while the 10-fold growth strategy is focusing on industrialization and other sectors. In other words, it is designed to drive economic activity and create more jobs thus contributing to the monetization of the economy. Interventions such as PDM, Emyooga, industrial skilling, ONC self-empowerment tools among others are geared towards increasing economic activity in order to achieve Vision 2040.

Subsequently, some of the deliverables in these years are that our country has already shifted from a low-income country to a competitive low-middle-income country simply because of Vision 2040 which has already elevated us from a low-income country to a competitive middle-income economy.

In 2022, Uganda grew to a level of a lower-middle-income country as it was elucidated by the President, hence meeting the World Bank income threshold of US$1,046 per capita. According to the Statista website, the current per capita income stands at $1,338, and it is projected to grow to $1,837.87 by 2030. Subsequently, due to good planning, Uganda has achieved higher indices in human development. Uganda has registered 70% success in human development since the 1990s. This milestone could not be easily achieved if we were not intentional in our planning.

According to our Vision 2040 strategic framework, it is intended to leverage Uganda’s natural resources and strategic location for economic growth. That’s why many activities are taking shape like identifying new export markets and studying our existing ones in order to spur exports. Through that line, our oil exploration projects and other minerals are in high gear with much emphasis on adding value in order to create more jobs. Some of the priorities in Vision 2040 include infrastructure development, science and innovation, human capital development, peace, and security among others.

Many of our success stories such as Kiira motor vehicle production are a testament to President Museveni’s continued commitment to invest in science. The bananas initiative of PIBID where we manufacture Tooke flour, a substitute for wheat, is a great breakthrough for Africa. Increasing salaries for our scientists among others is one of the strategic interventions made in order to achieve Vision 2040. The investment in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) is what has managed to position China into a global economic giant of which we should also take as a path to greater success. Thank you Mr. President for walking the same direction.

Fast forward, planning helps to provide direction and focus, something the previous governments like for Amin failed to realize. If the Common Man’s Charter had set out its goals and priorities very well and ensured that resources were allocated effectively like NRM has done through planning, probably UPC would not have developed cracks that led to the deterioration of our state of affairs.

Furthermore, strategic planning improves decision-making, enhances resource management, fosters accountability and transparency but also builds resilience. There is good transparency during budget development processes in Uganda simply because this regime is ahead of time. Even when President Museveni retires, his successor is supposed to live up to the expectations of that plan until 2040, hence Uganda has continuity and a secure future.

In conclusion, when a country lacks human resources and political will to plan significantly, it hinders the country’s development and stability leading to challenges like weak governance, economic hardship, and internal conflicts. So, planning is a binding factor for building a resilient nation. We acknowledge General Yoweri Kaguta Museveni for this great milestone. However, our planning is facing challenges such as systematic public corruption, which is causing extreme poverty and socio-economic inequalities in some parts of the country, hence a big obstacle and barrier.

The writer is the Head of Research at Office of the National Chairman – Kyambogo.