TMCnet News
Uganda Trapped in a Spider's Web [opinion](AllAfrica.com Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Naturalists have long been impressed by the sophisticated mien by which the web-weaving spider entraps and subdues its catches. It oozes out thin, silken and sticky curtains of fine thread which it strings in beautiful net patterns at vantage points of intersections. The spider then lurks obscurely in the shadows of its tensile basketry as it ogles at flying or crawling insects. Contact with the clammy net inevitably holds the unsuspecting victim to the unbreakable web. The more the insect writhes to disentangle and free itself, the more embedded and stuck it becomes to the gluey embrace. The spider's own legs can effortlessly shuffle crabwise over the web-strings. It swaggers ponderously to its kicking quarry to subdue it even further, spinning more sticky yarn to swaddle its victim into a hapless wrap. The spider can then feed at leisure from its securely immobilized victim. Insects that fall on the spider's web are condemned to a certainty of no return in the same way Ugandans fell at the notorious dens of the State Research Bureau at Nakasero during Amin's reign. At the earlier advent of the colonial era, foreign adventurers used to make huge gains from Africa by carting away anything of value, virtually at gun point. The recognition of the long term importance of annexing the colonised world to the growth of wealth of the rich empires brought a new realisation in which economic life in the colonies would be deliberately nurtured to sustain the imperial life. During a visit to East Africa in 1908, the celebrated British statesman, Winston Churchill, saw for himself what a captivating country the Uganda possession was for Britain. He referred to it as the 'Pearl of Africa'. This has become the unanimous synonym that is proudly savoured up to today by Uganda's politicians. Churchill was enamoured by Uganda's unique geography, its pristine forests, verdant hills, lush grassland and the great out-flowing Nile from Lake Victoria with its breathtaking falls at Kiira. He urged that Kiira Falls be exploited as a cheap and inexhaustible source of electricity to power the entire region using what he termed "state capitalism". In the scale of colonial planks, Uganda was still a mere outpost in Africa's hinterland which could not endear private entrepreneurs to risk investment in huge infrastructural outlays. This is why Uganda's economic path was pressed, from the very beginning, from construction of the railway line and the itinerant services like Postal and Telecommunications services, Airways, harbours, etc, from public resources to kick-start strategic flow. The Uganda Development Corporation (UDC) was also initiated by the colonial authorities to spearhead vital supplies to the operations of the colonial monopoly rights. It enabled the creation of industries by the state or jointly with private financiers in the country and provided a crucial employment avenue for the budding local elite. It was hardly foreseen that this rolling out of vibrancy would end up being way-laid by a spider's nest, much less under our watch during the NRM-proclaimed rule. The UDC has been unceremoniously consigned to its death-knell, though President Museveni has undertaken to revive it. In our present panache for cultivating extreme self-centeredness which drives our political apparatus, it is questionable whether the sparkle of public spiritedness that pervaded the hey-days of the UDC can be re-ignited by the same forces that destroyed it. The railway line has been ditched into oblivion. The famous UEB was dismantled and sold piece-meal. All these were done under the pretext of privatisation. The spider's web always presents itself attractively. The Minister of Energy is discovering to his chagrin that far from the enjoyment of the bliss of increased capital investment, the surrender of UEB to UMEME has only increased extortion. Every attempt to tame the wild excursions of UMEME is warded off with stiff contract clauses which invoke choking penalties in case the country asserts any national rights as the NSSF bitterly experienced. The spider's web clutches its victims into a vicious helplessness. The hyped future generation of cheaper power from planned construction of new power dams cannot promise to weaken the UMEME hold on the power sector. Any generated power is to be entrusted to the same unyielding UMEME grip. As long as we have not learnt to identify our own national interests amidst the myriad of predators, our country must be sure to remain easy feast for the baiting spiders. The author is a member of NEC (NRM) representing historicals (c) 2009 AllAfrica Global Media. Provided by Syndigate.info an Albawaba.com company |