Reading about the announcement by the UN that Uganda has met the requirements to be classified as a Lower-Middle-Income country following improvements in health, education and income levels left me with a careless gaze. The kind of gaze that a rural voter has when a political aspirant walks onto the podium and starts telling him how service delivery has improved when the nearby Health Center can barely treat a malaria patient.
According to classifications out there, Lower Middle Income status is achieved when a country’s Gross National Income (GNI) per capita lies between US$ 1,136 and US$ 4,465.
GNI is defined as the dollar value of a country’s final income in a year divided by its population. As an example, if the aggregate annual income of Uganda is rated at 50 Billion dollars, that figure is divided by the total population which for arguments sake could be 40 million people thereby giving us a GNI of US$ 1,250.
Do you really believe that even 20% of Ugandans earn that much annually?
Honestly, whatever that claptrap means, I think we should be spared such talk in Uganda until a moment when we start walking the talk.
Why do I think this middle income status only applies to a select few individuals in Uganda?
- With a Bureau of Statistics that considers datasets as classified information!!
- With glaringly open and ever increasing poverty levels!!
- With the skewed income distribution that favors select regions!!
- With the questionable infrastructure development all over the country!!
- With the low savings that characterize the general public!!
- With the questionable prioritization of national resources distribution!!
- With a Parliament whose budget is bigger than 20 districts from Eastern Uganda combined!!
- With a Cabinet that is bigger than a Nursery School!!
- With infrastructure that is either poorly installed or never completed!!
- With a Parliament size bigger than a Secondary School
- With a political setup that rewards nonproductive individuals in society!! The likes of Fool Figa and defecting politicians!!
- With an economic environment that stifles local entrepreneurs!!
- With a workforce that is slowly but surely being filled with incompetent but connected individuals!!
- With well crafted projects like the Parish Development Model that are poorly implemented!!
- With rabid politicians who are turning into demi-gods!!
- With Highly priced projects that never take off!! Lubowa Hospital, Nakawa Estate aka Opec Prime Properties!!
- With natural resources exploitation whose output is unknown to the general public!!
- With rural dwellers in need of joining the moneyed economy being denied the requisite infrastructure like decent roads, electricity, piped water!!
- With a Tea industry on its knees and no one seems to care!!
- With a rice industry that has the potential to be a regional provider that is simply ignored!!
Come on!!! I could go on and on.
While the pronouncement gives some Government Officials a reason to chest thump, it is no different from a Primary 7 student vacationist whose parents return home to tell her that she passed highly when the real truth of the matter is that she has failed. All this simply because they want her to feel nice and good about herself.
There is nothing one can feel nice about such a proclamation in Uganda today until we see tangible steps towards the uplifting of livelihoods.
Look at the haggard transport system starting with the chaotic capital city.
Look at the poor shape of the road infrastructure with key highways like Jinja Road having turned into some of the worst roads in sane countries. You can see the effect of the near annual breakdown of the Katonga Bridge on the Kampala Masaka highway.
Off the highways is a myriad of poorly maintained murram roads whose functionality gets totally impaired during the rains as a minister advises farmers to keep their perishable produce until the repairs are done. Farmers without access to electricity or even machinery for cooling like freezers.
Take a look at the numerous entrepreneurs whose businesses hardly exceed six months of existence even when they are armed with all the knowledge from Kiyosaki’s book, Rich Dad – Poor Dad.
Delve into the general state of our Health infrastructure which leaves a lot to be desired as well as the operations therein that need a miracle of gigantic proportions to ensure proper and corruption free service delivery. A Medical Supplies agency that distributes drugs at will expecting patients to postpone falling sick until their deliveries are done.
Peep into the family income levels within your neighborhood. Look at how much families are able to have as disposable income and tell me if this cheap talk of middle income status makes meaning to the average Ugandan.
Message to the UN.
As you come up with these reports on Uganda, I want you to know that we the public question the statistics emanating from the Uganda Bureau of Statistics. Why?
- In the first place, the institution is secretive about the data it holds. Imagine, for a researcher to access datasets from there, one has to seek permission and clearance. In this day and age of Open Data Access they instead choose to classify what should be public information? Maybe we the local citizens given a chance can be able to extract better information out of those datasets than UBOS itself.
- In addition, word is rife that some of the figures are cooked to satisfy certain interests. Take a good example of the population. For anyone that moves around this country especially upcountry, it is hard to believe that our population growth is at a mere 3% annually. In Butaleja alone where I come from, I bet you, we more than double that.
- Furthermore, from a personal experience, during the last two Census counts, my home was never visited. Could this be the case with many other Ugandans hence leading to cooking of data?
I will choose to keep ogling at our southern neighbor, Tanzania that can justify its middle income status and do hope that when we eventually hit the reset button as a country, we can start a genuine journey that involves holistic and nationally crosscutting progress.
As of now, let us keep sleep walking into the middle income status.
James Wire
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