Former presidential candidate and the leader of the National Economic Empowerment Dialogue (NEED), Joseph Kabuleta has said the newly introduced Parish Development Model(PDM) is doomed to fail.
President Yoweri Museveni last month launched the Shs490 billion Parish Model as a vehicle meant to eradicate poverty through execution of development activities at the parish level.
However, addressing the people of Tooro Sub-Region on Friday, Kabuleta said the program is already a failed one, just like the other past initiatives such as Operation Wealth Creation and Bonna Bagaggawale among others.
"I don't have so much hope in Parish Development Model but I wish I did because I would love to see you people develop. The truth is, it was launched amidst blaze of publicity, a lot of money was spent in publicizing it. Almost Shs300 billion was taken to the Ministry of Agriculture to go and do what they called mindset change which is important, but then you see they are spending too much money on training you than what they are going to give you,"Kabuleta noted.
".... so you see in certain areas, people are going to be given Shs500 million but the amount of money used to train them is Shs3.3 billion. So they are using Shs3. 3 billion to train people on how to use Shs500 million. I don't think it is going to be any different from the other failed government programs. Its just a new one, a new kid on the block which is doomed to fail.”
Kabuleta also lashed out at government for allegedly keeping Ugandans in poverty deliberately.
"President Museveni's government destabilized the market for our agricultural produce like coffee, tea, and vanilla. Every money generating enterprise which you could use to get money, government killed it and now they come pretending that they want to give you free money so that they alleviate you from poverty, that is not right," the former journalist said.
"In NEED, we say all the agricultural ventures which you people undertake can help you generate a lot of money from them since they can be sold at relatively good prices in markets but government is making it impossible for you to benefit from your sweat by destabilizing the market through levying heavy taxes and hiking prices of commodities. All this is done to keep you poor."
President Museveni said during the launch last month that through the program, government will take services to the people in a more effective way and receive actionable feedback from them on wealth creation and government-provided services to quicken socio-economic transformation.
“I urge leaders at all levels to support the implementation of this intervention. What we are launching here is a strategy which has got two packages of medicines i.e. to our people with both big and small pieces of land,” he said.
However, Kabuleta advised the NRM government to sensitize, create an enabling environment for Ugandans to work and benefit from their natural wealth.
To Kabuleta, if government does that, the abject poverty among citizens will be no more.
"These heavy taxes which government levies discourage farmers and business people. How are we going to reduce them in that the ordinary people like you benefit from your sweat without being mistreated economically?" he wondered.
"Government can do alot of things to empower you without giving you free money which in the end just distracts you. As NEED we believe that instead of giving people fish, government should give them a hook so that they can go fishing by themselves. That's is the only way you can escape poverty."
Locals speak out
Simon Mugisa, an administer of Tooro Kingdom said, " You cannot alleviate people from poverty when prices of commodities are so high yet people are earning less. Now we have the Parish Development Model but I dont think it will help to improve the livelihoods of Ugandans. We have had many government programs such as Emyooga, Bonna Bagaggawale, Youth Livelihood but they did not save the situation. Such programs are used to misuse taxpayer’s money."
He added," We don't need free money from government, we can work for ourselves as long as the authorities create an enabling environment for us to carry out our businesses. You cannot manage well something which you have not worked for."
Ssetumba Godfrey Tamale also noted," Parish Development Model is not going to help just like the previous programs which also didn't help. These people are just distracting us to keep us in poverty.
Currently, Kabuleta is on nationwide sensitization campaign premised on protecting Uganda's national deposits that could be used by citizens to alleviate themselves from poverty.
Launched last year, NEED, a political movement under the stewardship of Kabuleta has so far managed to spread the economic empowerment message to Busoga, Buganda, Bugisu, Bukedi, Teso, Sebei, Lango, Acholi, West Nile and Tooro sub-regions.
