KAMPALA — The Leader of the Opposition in Parliament Mathias Mpuuga has on Wednesday August 4 responded to the State of the Nation Address delivered by President Museveni on June 4, and the president’s poor handling of coronavirus situation especially the second wave.
He also accused government using Covid 19 as an excuse for their recent failures.
“COVID19 has become a cover-up for almost every gov’t failure. Of late the President and his government attribute to the pandemic the contraction of the economy, rising poverty levels, escalating public debt and poor service delivery among others,” said Mr. Mpuuga, backing his statement basing on the budget allocation.
“This is exhibited in the budget allocations towards the tourism and hospitality sector. Irrespective of its present capacity of generating US$ 1.6 billion per year, the gov’t only invests shs100 billion.
“This has been the case for years. The sectors of tourism, hotels, banking, music, sports and professional services, irrespective of their potential have for a long time been neglected by government. The President has even referred to them as luxurious,” said Mpuuga
Mr. Mpuuga said the President is silent about the increased youth unemployment in the country yet it is a security threat that requires urgent and deliberate attention.
“The educated youth are increasingly getting frustrated due to lack of employment opportunities. Initiatives like Youth Livelihood Programme, Youth Enterprise Scheme & Skilling Uganda and Youth Venture Capital Fund have failed to bear satisfactory fruits. They have failed to stimulate labour demand and uptake. Cases of sexual harassment, trafficking, non-payment and underpayment are reported but not adequately addressed,” Mpuuga said.
He also said that government seems to have embraced externalization of labour as an escape route of dealing with the youth whose aspirations it failed to fulfil.
“Millions of people have become secondary citizens in their own motherland. Corruption is responsible for trimming their aspirations to survival instead of prosperity,” he said.
Here is a full response to President Museveni’s State of the Nation Address
