Yesterday, Bukedea Teaching Hospital received its first batch of patients as it began its operations.
This is a private hospital founded by the Speaker of Parliament, the Rt Hon Anita Among and it will largely offer free services save for specialized medical services which will be offered at a highly subsidized cost. The hospital is expected to serve people largely from Bugisu & Teso sub regions who boarder with Bukedea.
This is in addition to Bukedea Comprehensive Academy, a Secondary School project that the Rt Hon Anita Among set up in her first term as a Member of Parliament.
Whereas these are private projects, they contribute to the national development through various ways; first they pay taxes which increase government revenue; secondly they create job opportunities for the youths which is consistent with the National Development Plan; three they offer much needed services to the population like training medical workers to address the human resource gaps in the health sector or indeed quality education like the case of Bukedea Comprehensive Academy.
Assuming the two projects have created 100 direct jobs, that means 100 households whose incomes have been enhanced! That is what we call transformation.
Imagine if each of the 500 MPs could do the same, what would be the impact? It doesn’t have to be a hospital like Among has done, It could be a mini or large factory in agro-processing, a health facility or vocational training School, a furniture workshop, or anything else.
If each MP could have a project employing 50 people in his or her constituency that would translate into 25,000 jobs. If Ministers, Commissioners, Heads of Missions, MDs of government agencies etc could do the same in their communities, our country would be far!
Unfortunately some politicians don’t want to invest back home, they invest all their money in Kampala, often in projects like apartments which do not create jobs. Others even invest in foreign countries while others chose to enjoy their money in luxuries & driving expensive cars!
Speaker Among’s approach should be applauded and embraced by othe leaders and government servants. Indeed she is a leader that has set the pace and others should follow!
The leaders should give back to their communities through such initiatives, it’s not important for the leaders to spend their money in burials & attending parties for political capital, they should invest in ares that add value to national development!
George is a policy analyst!
