Keynote Address FDC Policy Agenda
Content
ANNA EBAJU ADEKE, KEYNOTE ADRESS
Your Excellencies
Invited Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen in your respective capacities good afternoon,
Allow me to extend my immense gratitude to the Forum for Democratic Change for
providing leadership on setting a new policy agenda for our country as well as
recognizing the importance of involving the youth in this process.
Needless to say, the progress of any society rests upon the shoulders of its youth.
This afternoon, I have the honor and privilege of addressing this most distinguished
audience of Ugandans here and those following via television, radio and social media
live streams about where we find ourselves as young people today and the horizons
that we see ahead of us.
I stand before you today to speak for a people shouting in the dark whose cries have
fallen on deaf ears. As a young woman I have had the benefit of learning through my
own experience and that of my peers, the anguish of what it means to grow up in the
Pearl of Africa. A country defined by division, where our education is so half baked that
we are caught chasing the wind after its completion. I stand before you to articulate the
dire situation that millions of young Ugandans in this country find themselves in but
most of all, I stand here to share the boundless dreams and aspirations that we have as
young people.
It is incumbent upon any person listening to me to appreciate the gravity of the
situation that the youth of Uganda find themselves in as I will now explain:
From the outset, I must state in no uncertain terms that the obtaining political and
socioeconomic state-of-affairs in our country today runs counter to the creation of an
environment that can facilitate the growth of private enterprise, innovations and gainful
employment.
The prohibitive taxation regime, the high cost of doing business and the unrestricted
foreign capital—the so-called investors—form an unholy trinity that stifles
entrepreneurship and innovation.
As a result, thousands more of our brothers and sisters have had to run away to foreign
lands in search of a decent life, only for most to be reduced into economic slaves and
other forms of indignity.
The same circumstances are responsible for the fact that a staggering eighty three
percent of young Ugandans are unemployed and that for every business that is started,
another is closed.
On the political front, our contributions to the political processes of our country have at
best been ignored and reduced to pawns on a chessboard, available for the most
cunning player to seize. This is a situation that we must, as young people, take
exception to.
Needless to say, the majority of us are youthful Ugandans below thirty five years of
age; our demographic accounts for up to 78% of Uganda’s population, half of which is
below the age of fifteen. Therefore, the significance of the address we are going to make
need not be emphasized because we are in effect, speaking for Ugandans as a People.
No one bears the burden of the current situation or faces the greatest danger of a bleak
future more than us.
While the older generation is scared of losing their physical investments in terms of
money and the jeopardy that the prospect of a peaceful retirement might face in the
event of a political crisis, we the youth are concerned about the fact that our future, our
careers, our lives are in grave danger if we don’t take any steps towards correcting this
situation. The present leadership is robbing our future through the wanton destruction
of the environment, corruption with impunity and the ever increasing national debt.
I implore all the youth in Uganda to be concerned about the fact that while our age
mates in Ghana, Botswana, Mauritius, Namibia and lately, next-door Kenya are steadily
getting their acts together and increasingly progressing in their respective fields of
human endeavor, we have not made a clear departure from poverty, ignorance and
disease.
We are deeply concerned that our younger brothers and sisters in the UPE system have
to endure school days on empty stomachs; women like myself die in hospitals everyday
as they give birth; 83% of us are unemployed, under-employed, or simply exploited by
unregulated foreign multinational capital. Consequently, millions of Uganda’s young
people have sought refuge in sports-betting, drug abuse and petty crime. Others are
being trafficked as sex slaves or casual laborers in the Persian Gulf and world over as
though they don’t have a country to which they belong. By any measure, this is an
unacceptable state-of-affairs and to excuse it would amount to complicity.
Political freedom and liberty are consistent with economic progress and social
advancement as the above countries prove and as such, are ready to work with all
progressive forces whose objectives are consistent with the ends that we aspire for.
There is no reason why Uganda cannot be the next frontier of growth, innovation,
science and technology and bastion of regional stability.
My remarks this afternoon would be incomplete if I do not address us about the
deliberate crippling of the youth movement by the incumbent regime through its
patronage network and destructive policy of handouts, brown envelopes and sacks of
money! I often wonder to myself and I must ask the entire political leadership in
government today whether if they were given handouts and receiving education under
the obtaining system could have made it to what they are today.
Certainly, none of the current leaders would have become what they are if previous
governments had resorted to handouts, brown envelopes and sacks instead of quality
public education and a decent social security system.
On that note, I would like to resound a call to the youth across the country and across
political divides, social movements, pressure groups and civil society organisations to
take a centre stage in shaping the policy agendas of these parties for we are responsible
for shaping our present and future. I implore the youth to reject this humiliating,
dehumanizing and callous misrule by the leadership of the ruling party. But even most
importantly that you take up the struggle and achieve the Uganda we want to live in for
it is only us that can create it. It is the singular and only country we have.
I wish to congratulate the FDC Youth League and other young people from various
formations upon having participated in the development of the agenda that we are
gathered here today to deliberate upon.
I hope that the FDC Policy Agenda about to be unveiled in a few minutes is consistent
with our individual and collective dreams as young Ugandans that it will provide a
genuine inclusion of the youth in managing Uganda.
Your Excellencies
Invited Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen in your respective capacities good afternoon,
Allow me to extend my immense gratitude to the Forum for Democratic Change for
providing leadership on setting a new policy agenda for our country as well as
recognizing the importance of involving the youth in this process.
Needless to say, the progress of any society rests upon the shoulders of its youth.
This afternoon, I have the honor and privilege of addressing this most distinguished
audience of Ugandans here and those following via television, radio and social media
live streams about where we find ourselves as young people today and the horizons
that we see ahead of us.
I stand before you today to speak for a people shouting in the dark whose cries have
fallen on deaf ears. As a young woman I have had the benefit of learning through my
own experience and that of my peers, the anguish of what it means to grow up in the
Pearl of Africa. A country defined by division, where our education is so half baked that
we are caught chasing the wind after its completion. I stand before you to articulate the
dire situation that millions of young Ugandans in this country find themselves in but
most of all, I stand here to share the boundless dreams and aspirations that we have as
young people.
It is incumbent upon any person listening to me to appreciate the gravity of the
situation that the youth of Uganda find themselves in as I will now explain:
From the outset, I must state in no uncertain terms that the obtaining political and
socioeconomic state-of-affairs in our country today runs counter to the creation of an
environment that can facilitate the growth of private enterprise, innovations and gainful
employment.
The prohibitive taxation regime, the high cost of doing business and the unrestricted
foreign capital—the so-called investors—form an unholy trinity that stifles
entrepreneurship and innovation.
As a result, thousands more of our brothers and sisters have had to run away to foreign
lands in search of a decent life, only for most to be reduced into economic slaves and
other forms of indignity.
The same circumstances are responsible for the fact that a staggering eighty three
percent of young Ugandans are unemployed and that for every business that is started,
another is closed.
On the political front, our contributions to the political processes of our country have at
best been ignored and reduced to pawns on a chessboard, available for the most
cunning player to seize. This is a situation that we must, as young people, take
exception to.
Needless to say, the majority of us are youthful Ugandans below thirty five years of
age; our demographic accounts for up to 78% of Uganda’s population, half of which is
below the age of fifteen. Therefore, the significance of the address we are going to make
need not be emphasized because we are in effect, speaking for Ugandans as a People.
No one bears the burden of the current situation or faces the greatest danger of a bleak
future more than us.
While the older generation is scared of losing their physical investments in terms of
money and the jeopardy that the prospect of a peaceful retirement might face in the
event of a political crisis, we the youth are concerned about the fact that our future, our
careers, our lives are in grave danger if we don’t take any steps towards correcting this
situation. The present leadership is robbing our future through the wanton destruction
of the environment, corruption with impunity and the ever increasing national debt.
I implore all the youth in Uganda to be concerned about the fact that while our age
mates in Ghana, Botswana, Mauritius, Namibia and lately, next-door Kenya are steadily
getting their acts together and increasingly progressing in their respective fields of
human endeavor, we have not made a clear departure from poverty, ignorance and
disease.
We are deeply concerned that our younger brothers and sisters in the UPE system have
to endure school days on empty stomachs; women like myself die in hospitals everyday
as they give birth; 83% of us are unemployed, under-employed, or simply exploited by
unregulated foreign multinational capital. Consequently, millions of Uganda’s young
people have sought refuge in sports-betting, drug abuse and petty crime. Others are
being trafficked as sex slaves or casual laborers in the Persian Gulf and world over as
though they don’t have a country to which they belong. By any measure, this is an
unacceptable state-of-affairs and to excuse it would amount to complicity.
Political freedom and liberty are consistent with economic progress and social
advancement as the above countries prove and as such, are ready to work with all
progressive forces whose objectives are consistent with the ends that we aspire for.
There is no reason why Uganda cannot be the next frontier of growth, innovation,
science and technology and bastion of regional stability.
My remarks this afternoon would be incomplete if I do not address us about the
deliberate crippling of the youth movement by the incumbent regime through its
patronage network and destructive policy of handouts, brown envelopes and sacks of
money! I often wonder to myself and I must ask the entire political leadership in
government today whether if they were given handouts and receiving education under
the obtaining system could have made it to what they are today.
Certainly, none of the current leaders would have become what they are if previous
governments had resorted to handouts, brown envelopes and sacks instead of quality
public education and a decent social security system.
On that note, I would like to resound a call to the youth across the country and across
political divides, social movements, pressure groups and civil society organisations to
take a centre stage in shaping the policy agendas of these parties for we are responsible
for shaping our present and future. I implore the youth to reject this humiliating,
dehumanizing and callous misrule by the leadership of the ruling party. But even most
importantly that you take up the struggle and achieve the Uganda we want to live in for
it is only us that can create it. It is the singular and only country we have.
I wish to congratulate the FDC Youth League and other young people from various
formations upon having participated in the development of the agenda that we are
gathered here today to deliberate upon.
I hope that the FDC Policy Agenda about to be unveiled in a few minutes is consistent
with our individual and collective dreams as young Ugandans that it will provide a
genuine inclusion of the youth in managing Uganda.
