While in school, we were told
to read sciences because the future of Uganda would be in innovation and
manufacturing. Like Malyasia and Dubai, we would soon need several engineers
and chemists. For some of us who loved long passages, plots and history; it was
a nightmare to spend nights balancing stubborn chemical equations or drawing
pie charts and deciphering alogarithsms. After an overdoze of posho
cabohydrates for lunch, we zombied through algebra, forgot where x and y were
hidden; mixed valencies and mis-defined isotopes.
It is disheartening to meet a
friend from school whose lifeblood was the sciences but after a grueling fifteen
or so years in the quest, he found no lifeline at the edge of the cram it, pass
it system. One told me that he pursued telecommunications engineering only to
realise that by the time he got his first class from the ivory tower, the few
telecom companies in the country already had engineers on permanent and
pensionable retainers. What happened to the Kiira EV project, what exactly does
AGOA do, what is the production ratio of
industrial parks and free zones?
The rudest awakening for me
was when I rode an UBER and eased into chitchat with my chauffeur. He told me
that he had got straight As in sciences, done an engineering course at Makerere
before two masters degrees in in China and the UK. One was in Petroleum Engineering and the other which I
cannnot accurately recall, something akin to Geological something for petroleum.
He worked for a Oil company in the UK and returned to Uganda after his contract
ended. He is waiting for the Oil E&P sector to pick up as promised. In the
meantime, he reads about farmdowns between Tullow and CNOOC, expensive tax
cases in the UK and golden handshakes like the rest of us, energy enthusiasts.
Whereas I cringe at the sight
of blood, do not fancy staring down people’s throats or combing through their
nether regions in medical procedures, I appreciate the need for medical
doctors. It takes over 10 years of specialised fractional distillation training
to get an expert doctor in a field. Unfortunately for some, they would rather
take the American or UK exam after their training if they are to earn a decent
wage. Who would want to work in a hospital that he/she cannot afford to fall
sick in?
Our Constitution and the 2006
legal regime for labour relations gives our doctors legitimate avenues to voice
their concerns and they have not overstepped this at all. Lawyers decry the
relevance of the Industrial Court and wonder why it is under the Ministry for
Labour and not that of Justice, minimum wage has been micro-debated and reduced
to a paralysis of analysis. We can only hope that NSSF is faithfully managing
our savings since we cannot regularly access them to buy salt and soap. Young
girls are lured to the middle east for work only to end up in abhorrent chores.
Ugandans are falling sick on construction sites of foreign companies with no
protective gear or medical insurance. Heaven knows what happens in Somalia or
Eastern Congo. Doctors and teachers are on strike one day, the next it is
prosecutors and judges but as Freddie Mercury sang, the show
must go on.
Fuel prices are high, basic
food stuffs are being rationed in homes, rentals are empty or in arrears but
wages are not increasing in the same proportion as living expenses. We have a
high fertility rate and the arduous task of raising a family of five on a civil
servant’s salary has driven many into wheelchairs whilst in their prime. We
have an interesting education system that is rigorous but questionable when it
comes to impartating basic skills like expression, critical thinking and
analysis, problem solving, basic computer packages and finance management. Our
highest performers in school seldom replicate their genius in the workplace.
Our innovators are experts at reverse engineering rather than originators of
anything patentable or bankable at scale.
The hustle is real but are we
employing the right antidote? If we are collecting on the “oil handshake” and moving
to tax internet usage, it can only mean that government coffers are hemorrhaging. Maybe we are chocking on a burgeoning public debt. Should we then
ignore the genuine concerns of our doctors? Don’t they have legitimate expectations
for reasonable pay? In his recent book, The
Bell is Ringing, Dr. Martin Aliker spoke of his long career in government
as a “ dog eat dog world”. He implied that we could have leadership in key
positions that is either out of touch with the reality of the people it serves
or merely interested in out-smiling each other to the appointing authority or
stashing away some money before they are fired.
To solve these issues, we
must be surgical on our systems even if it hurts. Maybe as the President
suggests, we should go back to the bush. As long as his metaphor refers to
rebooting our key sectors rather than shooting each other with AK 47s I am on
board. It is ubiquitous in our culture for schools to use Abacuba (mercenaries) in post primary competitions to gain unfair
advantage over the indeginous crop. Free movement of labour is in the spirit of
the East African Community and partnership everywhere but the opportunity cost
and impact on the native labour should not be ignored. I am not entirely sure that , Abacuba
will resurcitate our ailing health sector or address the octopus tentacles in
our workforce.
The writer is a lawyer and
author.
