President Yoweri Museveni last evening spoke to the Nation in a live televised address on issues pertaining security, the continuous increase of prices on household commodities and the mitigation measures the country is taking to curb these economic threats.
The address came at the time when the 45 million densely populated east African nation continues to dive deeper into an economic crisis as famine claims Karamoja sub-region following close to a two years disarmament efforts in the north eastern district that has spurred insecurities.
Museveni gave voice to Ugandans on the need to be more keen and skeptical for personal security but assured the country that the security forces are now more proficient than ever before. “Every Ugandan should be rest-assured that if anyone does harm to them, the doer of the harm will be dealt with without mercy,”.
In a disquisition on global warming, the president explained that the wild fires consuming Europe are as a result of human efforts to equal God by using fossil fuels like petrol and desiel that has over the year led to uncontrollable accumulation of carbondioxed. “Carbondioxed then builds a layer in the atmosphere which suppresses the heat emitted from the earth,” he said. Wild fires continues to wreck havoc in Europe with temperatures in Spain, Italy, Portugal, France and United Kingdom estimated at 42⁰C.
In his revelation, the president informed the Nation that during a conference in Scotland, a declaration was reached for countries to start embracing the use of electronic cars. This triggered a potential low demand for oil which saw companies reduce oil exploration and production. “The producers of petrol and diesel reduced production and this led to the scarcity of fuel which in turn dictated the high prices early this year,” Said Museveni in a televised address to the Nation.
“The other reason is the embargo on Russia. As the world’s largest oil producer, this embargo meant little fuel on the market which further pushed the fuel prices even higher,” He added.
He tipped the Nation on the country’s effort to move to electronic cars as the immediate high price mitigation course. “The medium and long term solution to these gruesome prices is to move to electronic cars and Railway means”.
The parish development model is one of the economic tools the president believes will resurrect the country’s ailing economic muscles and ursher in parity. Income inequality, as measured by the Gini coefficient, has also remained stagnant at 0.41 over the years.
The Gini coefficient uses a scale of 0 to 1, zero being an equal income distribution and 1 denoting perfect income inequality. Uganda’s measure shows a wide income gap between the poor and the rich.
The parish model is being touted as the path to bringing the poverty level down to the third national development plan’s target of 18.5%, and income inequality to 0.37
The country is in an economic crisis that has affected mostly the low income earners and the less privileged.
Currently, the price of fuel is above 6000 at most petrol stations which has forced many Ugandans to park their cars. Fuel continues to be the key factor influencing the increase of prices for other commodities.
In his most recent address to the nation regarding the ongoing economic crisis, the president told Ugandans to tighten their belts because the government was going to do nothing about it since the drastic commodity prices stem from global factors. The address on Wednesday delivered a glimpse of hope to many Ugandans.
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