Prime
Musevenomics as reflected in bodanomics
Author: Moses Khisa. PHOTO/FILE
What you need to know:
- The tragic situation on our roads in part results from his insistence on keeping ‘hands off’ the economy when it comes to issues of the common person...
Afew weeks ago, I indicated I would return to the question of why, despite close to four decades of uninterrupted rule, President Museveni has not overseen the kind of socioeconomic transformation he would have been expected to.
The simple reason, with a bit of hindsight, is that Mr Museveni was from the onset interested in securing for himself the place to rule Uganda for life. This is the primary goal. All else is secondary.
The time President Museveni has been in power is greater than what Lee Kuan Yew or Mahathir Mohamad took to engineer economic transformation in Singapore and Malaysia, respectively. Closer home, Museveni’s tenure is a time fraction of what John Magufuli took to deliver huge results for Tanzania. With his eye on keeping power for life, Museveni has tended to operate with ad-hoc and token approaches to Uganda’s economy. No long-term strategy.
Over the last two months, I have attempted to cast the spotlight on the boda-boda trade to draw attention to what I consider an epidemic not just on Ugandan roads but something that has far-reaching ramifications, especially as it afflicts the very basic moral fabric and cultural foundations of our society.
In a sense, Uganda’s precarious economic state can be deciphered through the lens of bodanomics – the place, presence and impact of the boda boda (passenger motorcycle) trade. Museveni’s approach to the economy and the overarching logic of his government’s economic policy framework for the last decades, arguably has its biggest manifestation in bodanomics.
The boda boda trade is seen as a quick fix to both youth unemployment and the deep problem of public transport, especially for urban commuters. Also, boda bodas operate in a largely unregulated and chaotic environment – no regard for any rules, no sense of shame, total disregard of basic decency and courtesy.
Despite the inordinate presence of boda boda on the roads, Kampala and the country at large still faces a huge unemployment conundrum and mass transit problem. One can argue that without the boda boda, both problems would be worse. I don’t think so. I will return to this in a future column.
But it is difficult to conclude any other way other than Museveni’s embrace of vulgar neoliberalism and free market economics has its mirror image in the boda boda landscape and the broader bodanomics that permeates society.
The tragic situation on our roads in part results from his insistence on keeping ‘hands off’ the economy when it comes to issues of the common person but not those of business corporations or the politically connected, which benefit from government interventions. The operations of the boda boda trade illuminates the vagaries of Musevenomics, the crude laissez faire and runaway libertarianism that insists on leaving human beings to their devices. Yet, left on their own, human beings hurt other people’s interests and the general public good in pursuit of their narrow, individual interests. This has long been apparent in a great many scandals in both the public and private sectors in Uganda.
FIND ARTICLE: Responding to hard economic times
Not one who entertains sound advice and ideas that challenge his entrenched, even if illogical convictions, Mr Museveni has dug in and stuck to his crude neoliberal beliefs at a time when majority Ugandans face grim economic conditions.
His attempts to explain the roots of the current economic crises, and the solutions to pursue, betray a president who is removed from the actual conditions of majority Ugandans or is at any rate simply indifferent.
The most recent presidential address, broadcast live on television and radio on Wednesday night, was totally unable to address the immediate economic pains people are wrestling with and instead wallowing in some futuristic fantasy.
One is at a loss as to whether President Museveni, who otherwise would ordinarily command a firm grasp of economic fundamentals, is actually fully aware of what he is dealing with and what he puts out there in public addresses.
After close to four decades in power, Museveni presides over a paltry national economy in a country facing a youth population bulge. The modest growth we have had over the years cannot keep pace with the social and demographic demands at play. We have as yet to muster an aggressive and robust economic growth trajectory that can turn around things. The President then has to turn to a rather pathetic attempt at claiming middle income status by fiat of presidential pronouncement!
Musevenomics has the uncanny tendency to insist that when things aren’t going well, when there are scarcities, when fuel pump prices soar and when citizens die of hunger, it is because of all other external causes other than the failed policies and programmes of the government.
The tactic of hiding behind a neoliberal posture is precisely to disavow responsibility for failure yet cavalierly claim credit for any positive outcomes and overall progress.
