Thread by @OfwonoOpondo

Excerpts: Address by President @KagutaMuseveni at the District Administrators and District Executive Committee members Congress at Uganda Polytechnic Institute Kyambogo – 1989 #OurHistory

.@KagutaMuseveni: You might not have the overall magnitude of the destruction that had taken place because nothing was moving and that’s why we have had to move from priority to priority in order to reactivate the system #OurHistory

.@KagutaMuseveni: But one of the biggest constraints which I have had occasion to mention to you has been the problem of limited tax revenue #OurHistory

@KagutaMuseveni .@KagutaMuseveni: The fact that the revenue of the government is very small; why is the revenue of the government very small? Because the tax base of the economy has been very small. Why has the tax base been very small? #OurHistory

@KagutaMuseveni .@KagutaMuseveni: Because the taxable items. Items which are normally taxed have been in very short supply. And therefore, that is what we have been concentrating on as a priority solving first of all the tax base of the country #OurHistory [1/2]

@KagutaMuseveni .@KagutaMuseveni: Increasing it, by opening up factories, so that they can produce commodities, then we tax them. I think I have had occasion to explain to several RCs this point #OurHistory [2/2]

@KagutaMuseveni .@KagutaMuseveni: Some people think it is up to the Secretary of Treasury to mint money. It is not up to him. Secretary for Treasury distributes money which is first of all collected #OurHistory

@KagutaMuseveni .@KagutaMuseveni: So money must be collected first before it is distributed (chuckles). So if you do not collect it. If your ability to collect enough money is limited then what you have got available to distribute is also limited #UGHistory

@KagutaMuseveni .@KagutaMuseveni: That’s why therefore the starting point for all of these problems we are talking about; problems for the RC officials; problems for the civil servants, problems for the school costs, problems for the health costs #UGHistory

@KagutaMuseveni .@KagutaMuseveni: All go back to how much revenue you can raise. And how much revenue you can raise goes back to how many items you have available for taxation. And how much items you have for taxation goes back to how big is your production #UGHistory

@KagutaMuseveni .@KagutaMuseveni: How much soap are you producing? How many tones of cement are you producing? How many crates of beer are you producing? If you are producing a limited quantity, you will get a limited quantity of revenue, and then the taxes will tend to be much higher #UGHistory

@KagutaMuseveni .@KagutaMuseveni: So this is the whole problem. But I am glad that we have been moving well on that front. From my assessment the way I have been moving around. Some of these consumer goods have begun to be available #UGHistory

@KagutaMuseveni .@KagutaMuseveni: Although they are costly, I am sure as time goes on, the cost will go down. There was one big problem. On the issue of crop finance, but this recently I assisted the Minister of Finance to solve it #UGHistory

@KagutaMuseveni .@KagutaMuseveni: This problem of crop finance I believe has been solved once and for all. Because the method we have used of ensuring that the six or seven scheduled crops must always be bought, and bought promptly and with cash. I think we will stand the test of time #UGHistory

@KagutaMuseveni .@KagutaMuseveni: . It may have not been implemented yet because of the logistics but I do not have any worry on that anymore. I am sure it will be implemented #UGHistory

@KagutaMuseveni .@KagutaMuseveni: I do not know the latest but the mechanism we have laid in place is not easily ‘flunkable’ by those who have been playing monkey tricks. Now this measure of paying for crops promptly will help very much by putting money in the hands of the wananchi #UGHistory

@KagutaMuseveni .@KagutaMuseveni: Once the wananchi have got money, then they will be able to buy more soap. Since soap is now available or beer/soda, whatever. Since these are now available. The moment the buy more of them, then government will get more revenue. So it is now a cycle #UGHistory

@KagutaMuseveni .@KagutaMuseveni: Mwananchi has money. Commodities are available. The more he buys, the more government gets as revenue. Because on every bar of soap which you buy. The government will take some money as revenue #UGHistory

@KagutaMuseveni .@KagutaMuseveni: Then in turn government will be able to assist. The people it wants to assist, the RCs, the civil servants, the social services like education and so on. So that’s why I have stressed you, so you as leaders #UGHistory

@KagutaMuseveni .@KagutaMuseveni: You should not be like leaders, what Baganda people call in the luganda language ‘Semuffu’. That word ‘Semuffu’ means. It means in English a scarecrow. You know when there is millet in the field normally birds come to eat it #UGHistory

@KagutaMuseveni .@KagutaMuseveni: Now when you do not have enough man power to guard the millet sometimes you get pieces of cloth and you tie them like a human being #UGHistory

@KagutaMuseveni .@KagutaMuseveni: So that when the birds come and see the image of a human being they fear and run away thinking that it is a human being, when in fact is not a human being #UGHistory

@KagutaMuseveni .@KagutaMuseveni: The same with leadership I don’t want leadership which is mere ‘Semuffu’. Somebody is a leader. He looks like a leader, but knows nothing about leadership #UGHistory

@KagutaMuseveni .@KagutaMuseveni: That’s why you must study these questions in detail. Running a country is a science. There is no guess work when you are running a country #UGHistory

@KagutaMuseveni .@KagutaMuseveni: It is like if you have a ‘Semuffu’ doctor. A doctor who is ‘Semuffu’! He is called Doctor, but doesn’t know anything about the physiology of a human being. He does not know what disturbs a human body. So you as leaders you must #UGHistory

@KagutaMuseveni .@KagutaMuseveni: I was emphasizing to Doctor @kizzabesigye1 and his people here that, you must help all leaders to have a scientific grasp of especially the economy. And then other issues, international issues and so on and so forth #UGHistory

@KagutaMuseveni @kizzabesigye1 .@KagutaMuseveni: . I have also emphasized to you so many times in the past that all this confusion we have been having in the past here in Uganda has been due to these ‘Semuffu’ leaders because they raise issues which are not important at all #OurHistory

@KagutaMuseveni @kizzabesigye1 .@KagutaMuseveni: It’s like the witch doctors. Someone is having malaria. And malaria means a definite thing #OurHistory

@KagutaMuseveni @kizzabesigye1 .@KagutaMuseveni: It means some animals called plasmodium have gone into your body and they are multiplying and eating part of your blood and so on; now someone who does not know that and wants’ to be called a doctor #OurHistory

@KagutaMuseveni @kizzabesigye1 .@KagutaMuseveni: Then he says the problem is that he has been bewitched by his stepmother. The enemy of the patient is plasmodium; but the prescription of the witchdoctor is that he has been bewitched by the stepmother #OurHistory

@KagutaMuseveni @kizzabesigye1 .@KagutaMuseveni: . Then you get a stick to go and kill the stepmother. Meanwhile malaria is consuming the man until he goes to the grave. That example is exactly what has been happening here in Uganda! #OurHistory