I don’t know what happened in the 80s that at some point, the Dr Obote’s regime was blamed for widespread scarcity of basic commodities like sugar and salt. In fact, I recall Museveni lambasting Dr Obote for not having had prudent economic policies to enable Ugandans access sugar, salt, soap and other basic household supplies. To him, neo-liberal economic policy of open market could have answered all the challenges of basic human needs. What I saw in Museveni’s denigrating speeches against Obote have returned to haunt him. In Acholi, we mock the monkey that laughs at the other for having a tail, forgetting that it also has one!
Sugar is very important commodity and it forms primal part of everyday life of typical working class Ugandan irrespective of the job or social status. Sugar has become a fetish of some form. Ugandans are avid consumers of tea and coffee and no matter what daily temperature they may endure, they must have tea or coffee in the morning and in the evening.. Majority of sugar users have some form of addiction to it. Sugar defines the taste of the day for them and gives them hope and inspiration. Sugar even defines breakfast and sets a man’s day.
In Uganda, you got to understand how sugar is very crucial in a man’s daily life before you just hike the taxes or the price on it. In fact, Ugandans cherish two things; sugar and their beers. The reason is that despite the adversities that they endure on their daily endeavors, the prospect of having tea or breakfast with sugar in it, and few bottles of beers at the end of the day, really consoles them. I mean, sugar occupies a special role in our society in a way that salt does not. No one can imagine not having salt for a day, but to not have sugar is the litmus test of one’s absolute poverty level. And when they say some Ugandans live below poverty line, try to understand it that they already forgot about sugar, but they still always have salt.
Having sugar or being able to provide sugar for the family is also a measure of class. One would rather not have lunch, but spare money to buy a few kilograms of sugar for breakfast and evening tea. And a lot of men know for a fact that for those who cannot buy sugar, their marriages and relationships can seriously get threatened. When an ordinary Ugandan wakes up, they will not think of different and creative ways of eating breakfast, but tea. That poor woman, who stays home and does all the unpaid chores; she strives to make breakfast for her family, if she has no sugar, she feels powerless and a persistent sense of failure.
So, here comes President Museveni with his so-called “robust” economic success story but the one who cannot provide sugar to Ugandans. Even when he should, he does so at an astronomical price. I was personally amazed that while at Kakira sugar works, Museveni blamed Acholi elders for having caused the sugar scarcity by refusing to give Madhvani land to farm for more sugar.
Museveni can be comical at times, but the pity is on those who take his jokes a little too far. The Madhvani land grab attempts were in a period not exceeding three years ago. Sugar canes take more than three years to mature. This implies that even if Madhvani or Mehta were to acquire that land and had they planted their sugar canes, most probably, they would not have started harvesting it or producing sugar from it by now.
But the twist of the matter is here; how come in the last twenty five years of NRM rule, Sugar has not been this expensive? I contend that the scarcity of sugar and its high market price signifies the beginning of the collapse of the Museveni era bubble economy. First, it was the inflation and then high gas prices and these things have capacity to spiral and reverberate to impact on all commodity costs. Petrol and Diesel (gas) are the key determinants of availability of goods and services on the market to the masses. If a nation has poor policy on management of gas, every service becomes unstable since for a landlocked country like Uganda, we have to move commodities from far.
Must I remind you, Mr. President, that the boda boda man and the students cannot have Butunda lager which has no sugar? Wala!!!
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