By JOACHIM BUWEMBO

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It is always entertaining to watch an African government fidgeting with putting together a national budget to present to its human and corporate citizens.

The budget season’s immediate winners are the clever chaps who organise inconsequential budget breakfasts in five-star hotels to analyse budgets, whose implementers intend to ignore by quickly drafting supplementary budgets and, well, generally spend contrary to the budget.

There is a country whose Ombudsman insists that one-fifth of the budget is stolen. The stolen ratio could be higher in some other countries.

But, for the third year now, African budget preparations have transformed from comedy to tragedy. For Africa missed the opportunity that had been presented by the Covid-19 pandemic to regain its economic independence.

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When the world went into lockdown early 2020, all countries were left to their own devices and the weaker ones suffered millions of deaths. Africans did not die at Euro/American scale; Afro deaths were relatively minimal and, truth be told, many occurred in “modern” hospitals under oxygen misadministration, and the bereaved families also suffered financial death after selling assets like houses, in futility.

Most African Covid patients stayed home on herbal therapy and recovered.

Despite being very spiritual, Africans ignored their gods’ loud signal that the time to stop begging outsiders — and especially borrowing — had come. Locally, at least in Uganda, many landlords (especially of the Muslim faith) quietly forgave their tenants rent arrears accumulated during the inactive lockdown.

But governments’ external lenders instead convinced Africans to borrow more, making the first Covid-19 outcome for a continent that had largely escaped unscathed, sinking deeper into the debt pit. Being superstitious, we should be asking, Who bewitched us?

Covid-19’s most significant eye-openers were economic. With no activity under the strict enforcement in towns, many traders shifted operations to cheap or free (own) premises in the outskirts — and the customers followed them. After lockdown, many did not return to town. New business lines also emerged.

And you know what happened to the traditional commuting to offices — many people continued working at home. People rediscovered gardening and, for a year or so, depending solely on own-grown food which, needless to add, was healthier. After lockdown, they reverted to imported factory foods.

Who bewitched us?

Lockdown was the time to reorganise the towns. Kampala even got non-motorised zones, had pedestrian walks and cycling lanes designated. All these were, and remain, violated after locked lockdown. Who bewitched us?

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In the two or so years, we got to breathe clean air and see clear, blue skies, as there were no automotives polluting air. We should have stepped up the electrification of our transport and would now be cutting down drastically on fossil-fuel reliance. Instead, Uganda dragged Kenya to court for sabotaging its poisonous fuel imports worth over $2 billion a year.

Who bewitched us?

Now hear this from my own honest observation on the ground: Savings by many poor people grew! This was in their informal savings and credit societies. Try and figure out why, but that was it. And the poor societies I checked on maintained their heightened savings levels to date! But savings by many higher salary earners dwindled, or even dried out. Who bewitched them?

Governments zoomed back to their borrowing binges — if they had ever stopped. They resumed begging, like they learnt nothing from Covid. Today, Ghana and Zambia may look weird as they swallow more prescription debt for their debt distress. But many African countries are following the same route.

Who bewitched us?

Buwembo is a Kampala-based journalist. E-mail:[email protected]