The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
We don’t own much. Not the technology we use. Not the knowledge we teach. Not even the ideas we quote in our development plans.
COMMENT | APOLLO BUREGYEYA | We already entered an era where knowledge and technology ownership define wealth. Yet here we are, still fascinated by cars and plots of land, while the rest of the world is owning patents, code, chips, and software. Africa, particularly Uganda, is not poor by nature. We are poor by polity and policy. Because for decades, our leaders have worshipped foreigners, recycled colonial logic, and never built systems to help us think for ourselves.
We don’t own much. Not the technology we use. Not the knowledge we teach. Not even the ideas we quote in our development plans.
We’ve remained stuck, building economies on extractives (gold, oil, coffee, cotton). And that’s 19th-century logic. It worked once, yes. But the world moved on—to industrial machines. Then to digital networks. And now, it’s algorithms, AI, and automation. Meanwhile, we still take pride in the same old five textbook factors of production: land, labor, capital, entrepreneurship, and cows. Maybe we should add AK-47s to that list. Because our leaders still believe power, not productivity, is what sustains economies.
They promise roads and dams. Borrow billions. Deliver mediocrity. Then borrow again to cover the shame of failure. They speak with thunder, like prophets but with no gospel. If they believed even half of what they say, Uganda would be a middle-income country by now. But we are ruled by men who perform intelligence instead of practicing it. Empty charisma wrapped in incoherent policy.
Then comes the East African Federation talk, another false messiah. Bigger markets for who? The matooke farmer or the Chinese factory? If you’re just a consumer, not a producer, scale means nothing.
Let’s also be honest about the global labour game. We don’t even have a chance at manufacturing jobs. AI-powered robots are making it easier, and cheaper, for global companies to move factories back to Asia, especially China. Low-wage African labour is no longer an incentive in a world where robots can perform tasks ten times faster, with no breaks and no politics. And these robots are getting cheaper by the day. You can now buy one at 75 million UGx and this price will fall to 10 million in the next 1 year.
And are we even ready for the new political order AI is about to unleash? As artificial intelligence starts to shape public opinion, filter what we see, detect dissent, and influence elections, who will own the systems that define our politics? How will African states, already allergic to accountability, respond when technology starts eroding their control? Let me not go further on this. Especially that nobody’s coming to alter your fate. It’s already insane that you keep choosing the same opposition leader and expecting different results. It’s on you to get you to where you want to be.
Here’s what we must understand: the real wealth today lies in higher purpose machines manufacturing, code, computing (edge computing, etc), and creative intelligence. Germany and Japan own no gold. Korea has no oil. Yet they dominate global trade because they produce what the world wants—machines, software, systems. Meanwhile, we shout “My oil! My cobalt! My soil!” like children who inherited a vast estate and are now busy squandering it.
And before you tell me to migrate to Germany or Japan, I’m not leaving. I’m part of this mess. I’ve lived it. I’ve normalized it. I want to change it. Even if I have to start like a prophet or a madman shouting in the streets.
So what’s the point?
We must stop romanticizing land as the ultimate investment. Land is important, yes. But it is not a substitute for knowledge ownership. The economy is shifting, fast, and if we don’t own the tools, platforms, and protocols that drive this new world, we’ll be stuck selling off land to pay digital landlords.
The future won’t wait for us.It’s already being coded.
*****
The writer is an engineer, entrepreneur and industrialist. THIS COMMENT WAS ADAPTED FROM X @ApolloBuregyeya
