My dear friend Elly Kamugisha
My fellow East Africans and Africans here
Representatives of Diplomatic community here in
Kampala
Comrades
Before making these remarks, I heartly send to
all Ugandans in general, Parliament of Uganda and the family of the late
Cerinah Nebanda, MP my condolences for the shocking loss of the latter. As
young legislator from Tanzania the death of Cerinah reminds us the death, in
unexplained circumstances, of an outspoken young MP Ms. Amina Chifupa in 2007.
Amina and Cerinah shared one fundamental principle, telling the truth as it is.
As Amina, Cerinah has died very young. Uganda has lost one of its future leaders.
But struggle must continue. The struggle for a transparent and accountable
government shall be the cause all legislators in the region must carry. It is
not an option. It is a duty.
On the 7th of December 2012, I
landed at O R Tambo International Airport.
As it is my routine, I went around bookshops and saw a book titled Why
Africa Fails. I smiled, picked it and turned to its back. I quickly glanced at
it. The Author was an African from East Africa. I bought it immediately. When I
started reading it I could never stop. The next day I was travelling to Germany
and there I met the author. I didn’t hide my happiness. Within a week today I
am here in Kampala to officiate the launch of this very critical book about our
own development, Africa’s development. Thank you Elly for making this possible
as through this we are enhancing the spirit of East African Community.
It is unfortunate that Africa has been
struggling with economic, political, and social issues. The continent is
extremely rich in natural resources and potential for competent human
resources. However, this richness has only remained on paper and inside the
pockets of some few individuals connected to the powers. The continent, as we
all know, has been experiencing poverty, civil wars, epidemic diseases,
corruption, dictatorships, and coups. All these have led to the labelling of
Africa as a ‘poor continent’ ‘black/dark continent’ and ‘a scar on the conscience of the world’ among
many other negative phrases. The
continent forms largest part of what Prof. Paul Collier calls The Bottom
Billion.
Since late 1960s there have been many scholarly
and political attempts to explain the poor state of Africa. These include
academic theories such as the World System Theory (which blames Capitalism and
the Western World - as responsible for Africa’s poverty). Walter Rodney, for
example, published a masterpiece titled ‘How Europe Underdeveloped Africa’,
which analysed the adverse impact of slavery, colonialism, and other European
intervention on Africa. Other explanations focus on inward problems including
corruption, undemocratic regimes, and failing states. The World Bank and IMF,
for example, link the problems of Africa with ‘poor’ policies that do not comply
with the market economy and democratic ideals. Of late, Prof. Acemoglu and
Prof. Robinson published a book ‘Why Nations Fail’ which attributes success and
failure to the type of institutions a state has in place. Thus, from their
arguments, Africa fails because of African states have institutions that are
extractive and exploitative to its people. By and large, the kind of policies
that Acemoglu and Robinson recommend are those that conform to the market
economy or in modern times, we can call them neo-liberal policies- These,
according to them, are inclusive institutions.
All these explanations for the failure of
Africa are apportioning the blame to different actors.
The attempts to explain the failure of Africa
are often attached with recommended policies that often comes with strings
attached- which, at best, perpetuate the same issues. The World Bank and IMF,
for example, came up with the Structural Adjustment Policies (SAPs), which, by
and large, did not work. Efforts to
solve African problems have been numerous and most of them do not result in
sustainable improvements. Thus the
question remains - Why Africa Fails?
This is why Dr. Kamugisha’s book is timely and
of extreme importance to the development of our continent. This is especially
so because Dr. Kamugisha is an African, full of insight into what the African
problems are, hence he is equipped with all rounded knowledge to recommend
relevant and sustainable solutions. As a
result of his education, research, and experience as an economic adviser, Dr.
Kamugisha brings us an analytical book that, if taken seriously, can help
Africa to change its status from ‘a scar’ to ‘a beacon of hope’.
Dr. Kamugisha stops the syndrome of
‘apportioning the blame’ and call upon Africans (ourselves) to deal with our
problems. He argues that African malaise is due to our own blunders. Indeed there are a number of mistakes made by
African governments that cannot be attributed or blamed to external factors.
These are such as corruption, illicit money transfers, unfair contracts, and
brain drain.
Many a times, as a Member of Parliament and a
Shadow Finance Minister, I have moved private motions in Parliament as an
attempt to deal with issues that are stagnating our economies. The latest
motion I moved was on the illicit money transfer. This issue, for example, has
nothing to do with external intervention, and so we cannot blame anyone apart
from ourselves. Millions of money are transferred from the government/country
to private accounts abroad by our fellow Africans. Such malaise actions are
facilitated by poor policies and corruption that is rampant in our
governments. We can correct this
ourselves through right legislations and policies.
Studies have shown that billions of US dollars
are illicitly transferred from Africa annually. Recent study published by
Global Integrity Report shows that around USD 560 billions are transferred from
Africa annually. If we compare this figure with the total amount of foreign Aid
as well as Foreign Direct Investments flowing to Africa it a factor of 1:7!
UNCTAD reports that Africa receives an average of USD 37 billions every year as
FDI. Similarly around USD 37 billions flows into Africa annually as foreign
aid. Therefore, in every one US dollar coming to Africa, seven US dollars
illicitly leaves Africa.
It is our duty as Africans to end this through
strengthening institutions that oversee our economic sectors especially
extractive sectors like minerals and Oil and Gas.
I have learnt that in Uganda, the Parliament
has just passed a legislation to govern its Oil wealth. It is very
disappointing that Ugandan Parliament has vested the management of the sector
to an individual in the name of the Minister. In Tanzania, the move is towards
establishing an Authority to regulate licencing and the whole upstream and
midstream as well as downstream sections of the hydrocarbons.
The sub-title of the book ‘The Case for Growth
Before Democracy’ is the catchiest. I
asked Dr. Kamugisha if he advocates growth before democracy as I didn’t find this
argument in the book. The sub tittle is supposedly a question mark rather than
an argument. Democracy and economic development have to go together. Most of
the African countries tried dictatorship for almost three decades and it didn’t
bring people out of poverty. I always
tell my colleagues in Tanzania that our country is poor out of choice. We have
chosen to be poor. Africa’s is Optional Poverty.
In light of the above, Dr. Kamugisha challenges
us all to look inward and come up with the right policies that will make Africa
a success story. The meagre state of Africa is not natural, it’s optional and
we can change it. Again, I am grateful
for such a timely book. I urge everyone to read it so as we can be a change we
want in our continent.
Thank you very much for listening and I wish
you a good read.
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