In Uganda today, politics remains the main gateway to national leadership. If you want to be minister or head a government agency, your quickest ticket is usually political connections, not competence. Meanwhile, in our universities, private companies and diaspora, there are Ugandans with world class skills and ideas, yet they remain locked out of leadership.
The NRM’s 2026 – 2031 manifesto calls for protection of gains and driving Uganda to High-Middle income status. However, the question in mind is, what gains are we protecting if our ministries are led by loyalists instead of experts?
Other nations have learned to tap into their brightest minds, regardless of politics. For example, Rwanda attracts professionals from its diaspora, while Singapore actively picks talent from its private sector and academia, grooming them to lead in government.
Omar Sultan Al Olama, appointed at 27 years of age as a minister of State for Artificial Intelligence in the UAE, has been a key figure in driving the UAE’s efforts to become a global leader in AI governance and digital transformation. These countries understand that leadership is about expertise and vision, and not just politics.
In Uganda by contrast, we remain stuck in a political bubble, where our ministries are led by politicians rewarded for loyalty, not by experts scouted and picked for competence. The results; underfunded health systems and struggling education reforms, for example. Many of our young innovators and business leaders, however, are sidelined unless they join the political cue. Imagine if our ministries were deliberately led by experts!
Imagine if we created a national leadership reserve programme to identify high achievers from the private sector and universities, preparing them for public service! Imagine our diaspora talent, instead of being reduced to remittances, was actively recruited to shape policy and governance!
Our country’s greatest resource is not oil or fertile lands, it is the intellect and creativity of its people, yet such voices are rarely elevated to national decision making tables.
Even if politics cannot be separated from leadership, it does not have to crowd out competence, else we continue to waste the country’s greatest resource by treating government as a political prize instead of a national responsibility.
A nation that ignores its brightest minds is a nation that ignore its future. We should not wait for crisis to start valuing competence in leadership. The time is NOW, because protecting the gains is not just about keeping the status quo but building for the future. Real progress and real gains are secured not with slogans or loyalty but with smart decisions made by brilliant minds at the helm.