Uganda’s major challenge is failure to prioritise
Mulago intern health workers on strike over unpaid allowances earlier this year. FILE PHOTO
When doctors went on strike, the media reported that the government was under siege because its not only medical workers who are protesting over low pay.
Prosecutors have also laid down their tools. Surprisingly, according to media reports, Senior Presidential Press Secretary told The Observer that the bottom line is the resource envelope. And that is where I want to focus the debate.
First of all, many analysts have said the NRM government lacks the capacity to run a resource-rich Uganda and take it to the prosperity level it deserves.
Secondly, the salary increment doctors, judicial officers, prosecutors, teachers, etc, are demanding would not have been a problem if Ugandan leaders set proper priorities.
Imagine some resource-poor countries even within the region are paying their civil servants far better than Uganda.
Yet if Ugandan leaders since independence had set the right priorities for the country, we would have registered better economic performance comparable to Taiwan, South Korea, Malasia, Singapore, etc, some of which were reportedly at the same level with Uganda in the 1960s.
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