SO I MADE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF UGANDA...

By a strange turn of events I wake up and I am the president of The Republic of Uganda. The Parliament had just passed a law giving the Presidency power of decree in cases that were obvious for national transformation. I never imagined the work required to transform Uganda was so immense; now here I was, president! I picked up my list of priorities again and went through them. The State of the nation address was due in the next 3 hours. Uganda was in for a ride. I have been told before that transformation at this speed was impossible and attempting it is simply crazy. My challenge though is that we had already seen enough drama. The people were tired of the corruptions rife in almost every facet of society, both public service and private enterprise. Somehow everyone keeps wondering how we fell into this pit so deep and dark. Anyhow It is not important how I got here, but here I was anyway with a nation on my hands, and the world watching.

On my work list I had laid down several things; these would be my priorities for the nation for the next 5 years. I remembered a quotation from John C. Maxwell, a leadership mentor that I followed quite often; he says, "everything rises and falls on leadership". The sound of the statement reverberated in my heart as I contemplated this crazy plan I was about to announce to the nation. The quotation reminded me that I now had no one else to blame, but myself; I realized I was the ultimate decision maker. I could make or further break Uganda: I could suddenly opt to take a break and slip into the status quo. After all I never participated in bringing us here! But no; John C. Maxwell would not let me go. This had always been my plan in the past that I had carefully written down as I analysed the. But each time I reviewed it, I shut down the document as it felt like a dream that would never be; now here we were about to flip the switch for the roller coaster. I knew it worked, but I had not proof of having ever done it else where. But anyway, who cared; it was now me that everyone was looking at, ready to see if I was "just like them" that had been before me. I finally decided that this was it, the plan had to begin rolling. My priority list was going to be implemented. The bottom line would be to drive Uganda's GDP/Capita to US$3,000 in 10 years. Of course, that had serious implications further down stream where the action happens. It simply meant that it is time for our new government to really work.

The first thing we planned would be to lock down on government expenditure. To be clean, lean and mean as some of the confidants had put it. Why would government be spending like an irresponsible spoilt child? After all nature shows us that you should not spend what you do not have, or what you cannot afford, otherwise you will quickly be making your way to the servants’ quarters of your creditor. Most sane people I know live within their means. So, what will be my strategy on government achieving that? the easiest, and cleanest way to do that anywhere is to cut down on Human resource cost. But if you are going to cut down on resource some compensating factors must apply:

a) Automation must kick in

b) Those that stay must want to stay

c) Those that stay must be paid well

The previous Uganda government had been trying various permutations to solve the problem. "There is simply too much spending and little income" my Prime minister said. "It is not hard to manage a country if you have learned to manage people. People love effective and efficient systems" he added in encouragement. Clearly such a program may take about 3 years of concerted effort to execute, I thought to myself, if so, well orchestrated. It would take resolve to have a leaner governmental system legislated, approved and then implemented. The implementation of this system needs to be closely monitored and followed by a good performance management system that must include good and objective 360-degree feedback mechanisms. It must be setup to be a self healing system that will not tolerate poor workmanship nor poor integrity.

But before we even get there, the cabinet itself had to be lean. I was about to announce to Ugandans the first of those changes; my clean, lean but functional cabinet. I had decided the number would be 12, like the disciplines of Jesus. Some argued that this would never work. However, my view what that this is part of the reasons we never saw much accountability from Cabinet ministers as many hid their non-performance behind others. I also opined that the rest would be setup as departments under each cabinet secretariat. I had my list of 12 cabinet secretaries ready, and below was the list of the Secretariats:

1) DEFENSE, BORDERS AND SECURITY

2) FOREIGN AFFAIRS

3) FOOD SECURITY & INDUSTRY

4) WATER RESOURCES & ENVIRONMENT

5) INFRASTRUCTURE & TECHNOLOGY

6) ICT, E-GOVERNMENT & AUTOMATION

7) FINANCE & TREASURY

8) PRIME MINISTERS OFFICE (INFORMATION & COMMUNICATIONS, NATIONAL GUIDANCE, STRATEGY, INNOVATION & ECONOMIC GROWTH, INVESTMENT)

9) VICE PRESIDENCY (INTERNAL AFFAIRS, GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS (Local Government))

10) JUSTICE & CONSTITUTIONAL AFFAIRS

11) HUMAN CAPITAL AFFAIRS - HR, YOUTH, GENDER & CULTURE AFFAIRS

12) PUBLIC HEALTH AFFAIRS

Each of the existing ministries will fit into those positions (discussion for a later time); each Cabinet Secretary will have Agencies under their ministry to drive the various arms of delivery. Meritocracy will also be the order of the day for promotions and career opportunities.

Next, how do we make the GDP/Capita to US$3,000 in 10 years work? Following below are the other progressive Economic drivers that will form my governments priorities:

1) Tourism: It is amazing that Singapore a city state with less to see that our Uganda, gifted by nature, rakes in a whooping over US$5bn a year. Singapore's Tourism Revenue reached 5 USD bn in Jun 2019, compared with US$5bn in the previous quarter, (https://www.ceicdata.com/en/indicator/singapore/tourism-revenue). Uganda can surely do much better as we have so much in nature going for us. This requires only better and focused management to begin raking in the earnings. Many players though to coordinate.

2) Farming: Some of the figures show that in 2016, arable land as a share of land area for Uganda was 34.4 %. Arable land as a share of land area of Uganda increased from 18.9 % in 1967 to 34.4 % in 2016 growing at an average annual rate of 1.25% (https://knoema.com/atlas/Uganda/topics/Land-Use/Area/Arable-land-as-a-share-of-land-area). This only happens in Uganda (maybe Israel as well) where Arable land keeps growing. The demand for food will not be overtaken by the 4th Industrial revolution or any tech advancements currently overriding the world; people need to eat their food and they want it good and fresh.  In fact there is a growing craze for natural, organic and non-GMO food globally. We shall add value and begin to export. This possibly will be one of our key investment and growth areas, but we are determined to earn place next to the garden of Eden.

3) Environment: This will be a key driver for the above two development areas. We cannot grow this crazy if we keep with our current trends on environmental degradation. The trends must stop, and the recovery of the environment program must begin. What is at is stake is much higher: The lakes threatening to dry up, the increased incidences of dirt related diseases, etc. But what is key is that if the lakes dry up, then the rain cycles will be affected and then no meeting our Agric objective. The other thing that happens when the lakes dry up is that even basic food becomes a rarity; So, no water and no food means we have the biggest security issue on our hands. So, environment recovery is a top security agenda as well for my government.

(To be continued...)