Museveni should make Uganda work. Obasanjo is thinking for Africa

We all sometimes deceive ourselves. And when you are surrounded by people who dare not blame you for your failures if there is a scapegoat, you are a very high-risk candidate for self-deception.
So, every time you think of a task and convince yourself that you can do it, step back and say: “Okay, I am the lord over this part of the earth, but am I really not deceiving myself?”
For instance, if you are President Museveni, start: “Once upon a time, I boldly announced that Uganda’s oil would be on the market by such a year; then I adjusted to another year, before adjusting again, and I am now issuing powerful notices that by such a do-or-die year... Really, am I not deceiving myself?”
Or, when you are completely alone, and you cannot see even the shadow of a functionary or family member, or hear voices or any clatter coming from wherever they have retreated, say to yourself:
“In broad daylight, I proclaimed that Uganda would have advanced to middle income status in global ratings by 2020AD, but now my best friends, including trusted Kisamba Mugerwa, people who encouraged me and wrote brilliant projections of how this middle heaven was going to happen; these people are now insinuating that I could have been taking my people for a ride! Bannange! Now, if I go on singing middle income... middle income..., will I not be deceiving myself?”
Talking to the South African television network, CNBC Africa (See Daily Monitor, September 7), President Museveni said he was having sleepless nights over Africa’s bleak future. But not over Uganda, which he said had “no problems at all”, thanks to the clarity of her 1995 Constitution!
Okay, I suppose Mr Museveni has a right to sleep soundly if the Constitution spells out clearly who takes charge should a sitting president pass on; for, if he were to fall at that hurdle, he would be destined to sleep even more soundly.
But there are many other things in Uganda that a patriotic president with a conscience would worry about before floating off in pan-African militarist idealisms that he cannot realise.
Take the mess wherever serious government money is involved. It is often so methodical that we can call it strategic incompetence; a type of deliberate bungling designed to open conduits for some of the grand thefts that have plagued the NRM government.
The September 12 government-owned New Vision carried a story of how the National Genetic Resources Centre and Data Bank (NAGRC & DB) bought eight exotic bulls from South Africa before constructing the shelters where they would be kept!
Maintenance and insurance costs on South African farms for four years, lost income for semen non-sales and undocumented sales, plus trading in the mature eight for seven young and cheaper bulls; this elaborate story reportedly translated into a loss of anywhere between Shs5b and Shs12b, and bringing the “price” of each young bull to at least Shs700 million!
There are far bigger stories in other agriculture-related agencies and different government departments. Uganda seems to work only as an experiment in cooperative dysfunction.
The wide-ranging effects of this condition threaten the security and stability of Uganda – and Africa – more than the hypothetical invasions of a disunited Africa by imperial armies that President Museveni claims keep him awake.
To the millions of today’s victims of internal conflicts, murder, rape, dispossession and displacement at the hands of their fellow Africans, it is not heartening at all to tell them that your obsession is fighting off “invaders who invaded Africa in the past”.
A few days ago, retired Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo was on the BBC, talking about Africa’s frightening demographic surge, corruption, agriculture and the challenge of feeding and housing more than two billion Africans in 2050.
Sounding with a clearer vision for Africa than when he was in office, I would rather look for a copy of retired Obasanjo’s Handbook: Making Africa Work, than for a full recording of President Museveni’s television interview; which suggests that a retired leader can be more relevant to a troubled continent.