Letter To Graduands: Don’t Pester Government for Jobs Because Uganda Is Operating a Private Sector-Led Economy
Dear graduands I congratulate you on this historic occasion of your graduation. A close estimation (actually a rough estimation) shows that you have invested not less than twenty years of continuous academic work to reach the level of graduation.
It’s therefore a milestone achievement to wear that black and red gown and be honored with a degree or diploma. I actually share an empathic sentiment with you because I have been through a similar academic struggle before and realized how tough it can be.
That is why I have found it imperative that I share with you some crucial information that will guide you through these tough economic times. One of the most critical bits of information I want to share with you is that our leaders have not been honest enough to prepare you for life after graduation.
There is a famous saying that ‘statesmen prepare for the next generation while politicians prepare for the next election.’ Most of what we have are politicians who are very worried about the next election and not the next generation like yours. Am very sure that these politicians have already exploited you to push them through their elections
The reason why am discussing our political leadership is because they share responsibility for the state of affairs in this country. It was these politicians who changed the settings of this economy from serving peoples’ interests to serving the next bidder.
Let me do some more explanation… when President Yoweri Museveni was still fighting the dictatorships of that time, he used to associate himself with socialism-he was actually referred to as a Marxist. Why was it so?
Socialism Was Fashionable
This was because the word socialism is derived from the word society. Just the same way the communism is derived from the word community. Both socialism and communism philosophies were very much adored by not only Museveni alone but by most of the African leaders because the African societies had not matured to embrace the injustices associated with capitalism which rides on survival of the fittest.
The chronic poverty that had embedded African societies meant that a patriotic leader had to first plan for his country using socialist or communist principles. That is the reason why Independence Day African leaders like Tanzania’s Julius Nyerere embraced socialism and tried to implement it through Ujaama villages.
Our own president Milton Obote also embraced socialism and tried to implement it through his move to the left model. Congo’s Patrice Lumumba also tried to embrace the same but was killed by the capitalists before he could even implement anything.
The Evils of Capitalism
The reason for this obsession with socialism and communism was because Africans were too poor to deal with the capitalism whose principles operated on the values of free market economy. In a free market economy it means that you adhere to the market forces of demand and supply.
Operating on such a principle in primitive society is untenable because the forces of demand and supply can easily be distorted. At times they are even very harsh, as you will come to know after reading through this. How can the principles of demand and supply be distorted?
In a poor African country like Uganda, one rich supplier can distort supply by hoarding the goods which in turn leads to a rise in price of that product. He can create artificial scarcity of the product with the intention of hiking its price.
This happened towards the end of last year when some Ugandan entrepreneurs hoarded sugar, leading to shortage on the market that led to a 50% increase in sugar prices. And with that artificial scarcity of sugar took it from one dollar (Ushs3, 500) per kilogram to close to two dollars per kilogram (Ushs5000).
That is one good example of the danger or evil embedded in the principle of market forces. And that is the very reason why socialism took root in Africa in the early days of independence to shield the poor Africans against such exploitative measures.
Now when the Museveni’s took power in 1986 they came with a social approach and a social mindset. Mr. Museveni and his group had rightly diagnosed the problem of Africa as capitalism-which had hitherto propagated evils like slave trade and imperialism during the pre-colonial era.
The first African leaders knew that they had to first build capacity in form of infrastructure development like roads, power dams, schools, hospitals railway lines etcetera. They also had to make sure that government was running the economy directly through a nationalized program control all institutions mandated with service delivery.
That meant that government was the biggest employer of its citizens and would therefore guarantee you a job after graduation.
The Structural Adjustment Programs
But in the early 90s president Museveni embraced the structural adjustment programs that forced him to privatize and divest from all government institutions. Bu this dispensation meant that government stopped regulating the economy (in the pasty government used to set the prices of some products like sugar fuel etcetera) and sold off all the parastatals.
By doing this the government made a grand decision that meant that Uganda was operating private sector led economy. By this private sector led economy it meant that government ceased being the main employer of graduands like you.
Being a private sector led economy was not necessarily a bad idea-since it, on the other hand gave the citizens the opportunity to play a pivotal role in the economy. But the problem is that the Ugandan government failed to prepare its citizens for a private-sector led economy.
By adopting a private sector led economy, government should have changed the education system to arm its people with skills. It never did! Alternatively, by adopting the private sector led economy, government should have honestly come out and told its citizens that it was no-longer the provider of jobs.
It should have told the country that once someone graduated from any institution, s\he should engage in a start up rather than seek for jobs. It never did! Due to the hypocrisy involved in elective politics, your leaders keep telling you that they are creating jobs and embarking on service delivery.
How do you create jobs in such an oppressive economic system where taxes and electricity tariffs are high? How do you get involved in service delivery when you sold off all the parastatals that deliver the service?
If government was concerned about the plight of its people, it should never have embarked on a wholesale privatization process. By undertaking such an initiative, it meant that graduands like you had to look for jobs in the private sector.
Therefore, I urge you my dear graduands not to waste time pestering government for jobs because Uganda is operating a private sector economy. You either search for a job from a private organization or even create one for yourself.
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