WORLD BANK SANCTIONS; How Will President Museveni Run Government Without World Bank Money?
The budget is the most important instrument of systems-control for
And it goes without
saying that the quality of life for the citizens of an individual country depend
largely on the size of the budget at its disposal. In other words, you are
nothing without a budget and anything that negatively affects your budget must
be resisted.
Therefore, anything that
negatively interferes with the budget flow is obviously deemed to be detrimental
to the stability of the country and the overall welfare of its citizens.
And to emphasize this argument
I think we should revisit directive that was issued by the Ugandan ministry of
finance this week to the effect that they were going to review the 2023-24
budget because of the sanctions that had been unleashed on Uganda by the World
Bank for passing the anti-homosexuality bill.
WHAT IS THE WORLD BANK?
Anyone who
underestimates the world bank is out of his mind because the World Bank is an
international development organization owned by 187 countries whose role
is to reduce poverty by lending money to the governments of its poorer
members to improve their economies and to improve the standard of living of
their people.
It also promotes
long-term economic development and poverty reduction by providing
technical and financial support to help countries implement reforms or
projects, such as building schools, providing water and electricity, fighting
disease, and protecting the environment.
Therefore, by its definition
alone, you realize that no country can thrive without the blessings of the
world bank.
When the extremely
reckless Ugandan parliament legislated and passed the law on homosexuality,
some ignorant MP’s thump chested and said that Uganda did not NEEED funding
from the world bank! They also asserted that life can go on with or without the
foreign donors!
Interestingly None of
them sat down to make a breakdown of what the world bank contributes to the Ugandan
economy.
WORLD BANK CONTRIBUTION
For the sake of statistics,
it’s a fact that every five years the world bank disburses $16
trillion to the Ugandan government to finance areas of education, health etc.
The World Bank currently
provides $5.5 billion in multi-year financing to the Ugandan
government, whose total annual expenditure budget is $13 billion- as of 12 Jun 2023.
Most important of all
is to realize the critical issue of the overall composition of the world bank which
constitute of governments of member nations, which have the ultimate
decision-making power within the organizations on all matters, including
policy, financial or membership issues.
This alone implies that
when a government like out poor Uganda is slapped with sanctions by the world
bank, it ultimately means that it cannot undertake any activity with the 187
members.
This obviously means
that Uganda’s foreign policy has been thrown into an absolute dilemma because it
cannot technically engage with 187 countries out of the 197 countries (that
constitute the united nations) in the world.
This means that Uganda is
largely on its own because 90% of the countries of the world consider it to be
out of their league of the world bank.
Now,
this is the predicament that Museveni has put Uganda. We know that president Amin
was slapped with sanctions and he survived to rule for 8-9 years, but the Ugandans
who lived at that time have not forgotten how they suffered due to lack of
basics like sugar, soap, cooking oil etc.
Although
Amin is praised for leaving no debts behind, he also actually left the Ugandan economy
bare on its knees in a total mess.
Is this what Museveni wishes for us?
Although
he makes arguments about social transformation, he has at the same time made a
fundamental contradiction to the mission by infuriating partners in actualizing
the same mission (of social transformation). Although the world bank funds are
loans that can be repaid, they ae crucial in contributing to the idea of social
transformation.
There
are some people who argue that loans are not gifts and therefore countries shouldn’t
be held under ransom for the sake of loans. But remember that great countries like
Germany rose from the shambles of the second world war through the marshal plan
in which the United States proposed to provide assistance to restore the
economic infrastructure of postwar Europe.
INTRANSIGENT MUSEVENI
African
leaders can be very amusing. Leaders like the late Robert Mugabe managed to
inflict terrible suffering to their citizens because of their intransigence to
the West.
Although
Zimbabwe has the most literate citizens, it has never settled economically because
of its intransigent leadership todate.
Last
month Museveni –in show of defiance to the West -went to Russia and met
president Vladimir Putin. But from what is known as a fact, Uganda gets more
funding from the West than it does from Russia!
A
good leader has the wisdom to choose useful partners. What does Museveni want
from Russia, -which is on the verge of a total downfall, by the way.
Apart
from the AK47 Kalashnikov rifles, Russia exports nothing to Uganda and vice varsa.
I don’t know what Uganda sells to Russia!
In
other words, Russia is not a trade partner to Uganda in any way since there is
no item of trade between the two countries.
On
other hand the US trades directly with Uganda, under the AGOA pact. The
United States also provides significant health and development assistance to
Uganda, with a total assistance budget exceeding $950 million per year.
Now
when you hear president Museveni claim that we shall survive with or without foreign
assistance, then you know that the country is in very wrong hands of a leader
who has lost it completely.
BLACKMAIL
Some
overzealous Ugandans may try blackmail us by saying that some of us are pro-gay
and therefore don’t care about the moral campus of our country. But we also
have children whom we have to protect by all means.
But
we are also saying that homosexuality was already a criminal offence in Uganda and
there was not need to pass a law that had the repercussions of infuriating our
development partners to deny us crucial funds.
In
any case I don’t think that it was the most critical issue in the country because
there are parts of the country where it has never been heard of before.
WHAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN DONE?
What
we needed to do was to make aggressive crusading against it (homosexuality) and
stop it from spreading through absolute vigilance in schools, social places. We
could also have put placards at the Entebbe airport that pronounces that NO GAY AND LESBIAN activities ALLOWED IN
UGANDA!
The
same measures should have been used to make sure that public places like bars
also have strict instructions not to permit gay activities.
Passing
the law was one of the most reckless acts president Museveni has ever made. In fact,
with time he will live to regret it because it is going to have downhill effect
on his government.
CONCLUSION
Looking at the circumstances under
this law was passed reveals that the Ugandan president doesn’t have sufficient intelligence
that can guide him to take appropriate measures.
It also shows that he can easily be
moved by rumors and plunge the country into chaotic situations.
Lastly but not least, am still
wondering how Museveni could fall prey to a well laid trap (of bringing down
his government) and assent to a bill that was presented by an opposition member
of parliament Hon Asuman Basalirwa! Yes , I don’t think Basalirwa can work in
the good interest of a leader he has wanted to overthrow for very many years, I
don’t!
This means that at this moment Museveni
is like a cow that eats everything whether its grass, thorns kaveera etc to the
extent that he even forgot to cross examine who passed the initial motion for
this bill.
But it will be interesting to see how
he will run the country without the funds from his development partners. Obvious
evidence shows that he has already invited unnecessary and avoidable pressure on
himself.
Fred
Daka Kamwada is social critic, blogger and a journalist
kamwadafred@gmail.com
