Leaders should think through their statements

On Wednesday January 24, while appearing on NTV  flagship morning programme, Henry Oryem Okello , the junior Foreign Affairs minister said; “Those dying of hunger in Uganda are idiots because there is enough food, land and the right climate.” 

It could be true, the land is enough, but whether the climate today is right or the food is enough, are subjects to debate. In a country where parents are failing to feed their children in schools, some families can hardly have three straight meals a day, patients are dying of starvation in hospitals, and universities scrapping food rations; it is absurd that a leader of that stature can appear before national television to abuse the starving population.

The minister further disregarded the fact that a number of Ugandans  face food insecurity due to consecutive rain failure and poor harvests .
Today, more than ever before,  food or its absence is a national security matter. Infact, a couple of years ago, brought down the regime of President Omar Bashir next door in Sudan just because of increasing prices of bread.
 
Whereas the land might be available and arable, farmers have a litany of issues they have to deal with. From unreliable seeds, unreliable weather patterns, poor food storage facilities, fake acaricides and pestcides, government does not seem to be taking  food security as a major threat.

Norman Ernest Borlaug, an American agronomist who led initiatives worldwide that contributed to the extensive increases in agricultural production termed the Green Revolution, once said ,  “You can’t build peace on empty stomachs,”—a statement that directly reflects on the backlash that the Mr Oryem Okello met on Social Media.

Uganda boasts of being the food basket for the region , but where is the government hand to protect its citizens against the fake seed dealers, provision of food processing and storage plants?

Uganda used to boast of companies such as the Uganda Grain Milling Company which processed and stored excess produce from farmers and ensured some form or food security and safety for the country. 

Today, staple food such as cassava, maize, groundnuts, sorghum and rice, has become the major source of cancers because of Aflatoxins due to the poor post-harvest handling of the food, because of ignorant farmers who cannot read and write as a result of a poor education system which has instead impoverished the hungry Ugandans the minister was referring to.
  
The government is encouraging Ugandans to venture into commercial agriculture, but if a farmer cannot feed himself, how can he think of venturing into commercial farming? At this point one wonders who of the two, is the idiot? The government which isn’t planning for its people or the hungry Ugandan.