In April 2018, on my FaceBook Account( before the ban), I penned this piece. Somewhere in there, it reads..
" Last year, in one of my writings I explained that the global oil players have just been involved in a game of hide and seek with Dr. Joel with regards to the dates of commencement of oil production. The years have been shifted from 2007 to 2012 then to 2017 and by 2016 we were told the magic year would be 2020, but with the removal of age limit, I bet it will shift to a later date. You can take that to the bank. The suggested years have always fallen on the year that follows a general election. When they realised that there was a barrier around 2019 of age limit, they set 2020, well knowing that by 2020, Dr. Joel will have shown his true intentions of staying or giving way to another leader. These chaps are just another face of their political colleagues and they are playing the same game with Dr. Joel.
It is not difficult to see why oil companies prefer to commence production in a post-Dr. Joel era. As a rule of thumb in politics, no strong leader is succeeded by another. It therefore follows that Dr. Joel will be succeeded by a weak leader that will easily be cornered into trading his stay in power for oil concessions to the oil sharks. The oil sharks are therefore willing to play the waiting game, well knowing they can recoup their lost profits in a very short time once a weak and fragile presidency is realised.
Keen observers will tell you that before and after 2011 elections, Dr. Joel went on a spending spree. He bought Russian fighter jets, expanded the elite Special Forces and later transformed them from Brigade to Group and finally Command – at the same level as the Land Forces, Marine, Air force, albeit with better working conditions and privileges. This spending spree was all anticipatory and in preparation for his ‘soon-to-be-acquired’ status as President of an Oil-producing country. He was totally oblivious of the hide and seek that the oil sharks and their home governments are playing. They still want to milk his pragmatism in matters Great Lakes as seen in Somalia and South Sudan, while at the same time; they never want to allow him access to oil money that will turn him into a monster that they cannot control easily.
When a ‘poor’ country like Uganda begins production of oil and the Government tastes the oil money, the leadership of such a country quickly transforms into a rulership that ceases to treat its citizens as clients and starts to treat them as subjects. This is because it no longer sees the impact of direct and indirect taxes from the citizens on the Government revenue since the oil revenue would generate enough money to keep the Presidential Palace fortified, the army more equipped, the Police Force more lethal and corrupt, have new aircrafts acquired for the ruling cabal, finance the opulent lifestyles of their wives as well as educate their children in top private universities in the Western World.
I am forced to believe that these and more were stuff in the dreams of Dr. Joel shortly after the 2006 and 2011 elections. Dr. Joel does not know that the Mzungu will not allow him ascend to that status."
Economic Default Position
One thing that has always puzzled me is how common it is to advise people to spend decades playing defense in order to build wealth. Save more. Spend less. Diversify. Avoid risk. While all of these have their place, they often ignore a fundamental reality of life.
In a capitalist world, the default position is not wealth. The default position is poverty.
Left alone, money gets spent. Skills become outdated. Opportunities pass by. Inflation quietly erodes purchasing power. The fight for survival is really a fight against the natural tendency to decay.
Think about it. Nobody accidentally becomes financially independent. Nobody wakes up one morning to discover they have built a thriving business, accumulated meaningful investments, or developed valuable skills without years of deliberate effort. Wealth is an active process.
This is why I sometimes struggle with advice that focuses almost entirely on defense. Defense is important, but defense alone rarely wins the game. A football team that never attempts to score may avoid mistakes, but it will never win trophies.
To build wealth, you must play some offense.
You must learn new skills. You must take calculated risks. You must start businesses, invest in productive assets, pursue promotions, switch careers if need be, and sometimes place bets on yourself even when it seems to make no sense.
Of course, offense without defense is reckless. Many people earn a lot only to spend even more. Others take risks they do not understand and lose everything. This is where risk management becomes essential as we discussed earlier.
The goal is not to be reckless. The goal is not to be timid. The goal is to understand which game you are playing.
When you have little capital, the greatest risk may be failing to take any risk at all. When you have substantial capital, the greatest risk may be losing what you have already built.
The mistake many people make is applying the strategy of preservation before they have accumulated anything worth preserving.
Nature's default is scarcity. Prosperity is something that must be created, protected, and continuously renewed.
So save money. Spend less than you earn. Manage risk carefully.
But never forget seeking to be average is an invitation to economic disaster.
Sometimes the surest path away from poverty is not merely protecting what you have (for many the bag is empty afterall). It is having the courage to go out and create something new and valuable.
Nothing ventured nothing gained!
Early 1960s.
Ntare School.
In the dining hall, three young men from western Uganda formed a bond that would shape a nation.
Museveni was the orator, Kategaya the conscience, and Amama Mbabazi the architect, the quiet legal mind who would one day build the intelligence and defence structures of a new Uganda.
Amama Mbabazi was born on 16 January 1949 in Kigezi, a sharp‑minded boy who would become the strategist of a revolution.
While his schoolmates debated politics with fire and passion, Mbabazi listened, analysed, and designed.
At Ntare School, the alliance of Museveni, Kategaya, and Mbabazi was more than friendship, it was the first convening of a revolutionary triad.
Museveni envisioned.
Kategaya steadied.
Mbabazi architected.
That division of labour, forged over plates of maize and beans, would hold for decades.
The bond hardened through exile and struggle.
At the University of Dar es Salaam, the crucible of pan‑Africanist thought, and later within the FRONASA network, Mbabazi's legal mind became a weapon of the liberation cause.
While others took up rifles in the Luwero triangle, he served in the External Wing: diplomacy, intelligence, political structuring.
From foreign capitals, he drafted blueprints for governance long before the NRM captured power.
He was not the soldier on the front line, but the planner ensuring the front line had a state to inherit.
When the NRM took Kampala in 1986, the architect was summoned to build.
His first major appointment was not ceremonial; it was operational.
He was named head of the External Security Organisation (ESO), the newborn state's foreign intelligence agency.
In the shadowy world of threat assessment and counter‑espionage, Mbabazi's intellect and exile networks proved invaluable.
He built ESO from the ground up, recruiting agents, establishing protocols, and ensuring a guerrilla government could see its enemies coming.
Soon after, he was appointed Minister of State for Defence.
The strategist who had sustained the rebel army now helped transform it into a national force.
He worked on demobilisation, integration of former adversaries, and the legal frameworks that would turn bush fighters into a professional military.
Mbabazi became the indispensable link between political vision and military execution, the man who translated Museveni's commands into operational reality.
For decades, the three Ntare schoolboys shaped Uganda: Museveni the commander, Kategaya the conscience, Mbabazi the strategist.
Their bond would later fracture into bitter rivalry, but in those early years of building a fragile state, they were the architects of a new order.
Mbabazi's legal mind, his patience, and his instinct for structure gave the Movement its institutional backbone.
He was the designer who ensured the revolution did not end in chaos but in government.
What does it mean to be the architect of a revolution, to build the structures that outlast the bush, the exile, and even the friendships that made them?
Amama Mbabazi's life was a testament to the power of the quiet, analytical mind behind the roar of change.
The dining hall at Ntare had no idea what it had produced.
@AmamaMbabazi@NRMOnline@KagutaMuseveni #ughistory @GovUganda
@SsemujjuIN I implore whoever hasn't watched this Ssemujju conversation with @BakerbatteLule to go and watch it on YouTube for more context.
https://t.co/CJwOYDW5TY
In his book Betrayed By My Leader the late John Bashaija Kazoora on page 180 - 181, gave a glimpse on the rationale behind @KagutaMuseveni's choice of high ranking government officials as allegedly said by the President.
🚨 Ronaldo Nazário (R9) on who is better: himself or Cristiano Ronaldo:
"People often compare us because we are both named Ronaldo, but our careers were very different.
I won the World Cup, and that is something nobody can take away from me. But football greatness is not decided by one tournament alone. It is measured by the impact you leave on the game."
"When Cristiano started his career, Portugal was not considered one of football's traditional superpowers like Brazil, Argentina, France, Germany, or Spain. Those countries had generations of world-class players and a long history of winning major trophies."
"Cristiano changed that. He became the face of Portuguese football and led his country to trophies that many people never believed Portugal could win. An entire generation of Portuguese players grew up inspired by him and dreamed of playing at the highest level in Europe because of what he achieved."
"At my best, I believe I had abilities that very few players in history possessed. But Cristiano's longevity, discipline, mentality, and achievements over more than twenty years are extraordinary."
@PyeparFaisal While MM bridges access to financial facilities and safe money transfer (at times).
It is more predatory than banks.
9% interest in 30 days is a lot.
In a financially literate society, MM loans would never pass. It traps people in unproductive debt.
“Obote was always preoccupied with tribal issues saying on radio that Museveni is a munyarwanda but suppose I was , what would be wrong with that ?”
This is March 1986 , for those attacking @ReachDrMuganga , let’s focus more on his ability to deliver.
À 23 ans, elle guérit la lèpre. À 24 ans, elle disparaît.
Et pendant 90 ans, un homme blanc s'attribua le mérite de ses travaux.
Voici l'histoire d'Alice Augusta Ball, le génie qu'on a tenté d'effacer.
Elle grandit à Seattle au début du XXe siècle, dans une famille qui croyait au potentiel des Noirs.
Son grand-père fut l'un des premiers photographes noirs d'Amérique.
Sa mère lavait les sols pour pouvoir offrir un microscope à Alice.
Ce cadeau changea le monde.
Alice dévorait la chimie comme l'oxygène.
Elle obtint deux licences.
Elle publia des recherches alors qu'elle était encore étudiante.
Puis elle s'installa à Hawaï et devint :
📷 La première femme à obtenir une maîtrise en chimie à l'Université d'Hawaï
📷 La première femme noire à obtenir ce diplôme
📷 La première femme professeure de chimie de l'histoire de l'université
Elle avait 23 ans.
Mais pendant qu'elle enseignait, elle fut confrontée à une urgence bien plus grande que le monde universitaire :
La maladie de Hansen, la lèpre.
Un diagnostic signifiait l'exil.
Arraché à sa famille, on était déporté sur une île pour y mourir seul.
Il existait un traitement :
une huile amère et collante, peu efficace et extrêmement douloureuse.
Nombreux furent ceux qui le refusèrent. Nombreux furent ceux qui moururent.
Alice refusa de baisser les bras.
Dans son laboratoire, elle trouva la solution que personne d'autre n'avait trouvée :
Elle transforma cette huile épaisse en une forme assimilable par le corps.
Une injection révolutionnaire qui sauva enfin des vies.
Les patients commencèrent à guérir.
Des familles furent réunies.
Des personnes condamnées guérirent subitement.
Sa découverte devint la méthode Ball.
Elle changea l'histoire de la médecine avant même que la plupart des gens n'aient terminé leurs études.
Et puis… elle disparut.
À seulement 24 ans, un mystérieux accident de laboratoire lui coûta la vie.
Elle ne vit jamais le miracle qu'elle avait accompli.
Puis vint le vol.
Le président de l'université, un chimiste blanc nommé Arthur Dean, s'appropria ses recherches, en retira son nom et les rebaptisa :
« La Méthode Dean ».
Pendant des décennies…
📷 Son nom figurait dans les manuels scolaires.
📷 Son nom était encensé par les médecins.
📷 Son nom était attribué à la seule reconnaissance de ses mérites.
Son nom a failli disparaître complètement de l'histoire.
Un vol si discret que la plupart des gens ignoraient même qu'un crime avait été commis.
Il fallut 90 ans pour que la vérité éclate enfin.
Des chercheurs ont mis au jour les documents originaux d'Alice.
Son travail.
Son génie.
Ses découvertes majeures.
Les projecteurs se sont braqués sur elle. Le mensonge s'est effondré.
Et aujourd'hui, le monde le sait :
C'était la Méthode Ball – TOUJOURS.
Alice Ball a guéri une maladie qui avait ravagé des vies pendant des siècles.
Elle a libéré des familles.
Elle a sauvé des milliers de personnes de l'isolement et de la mort. Et elle a accompli tout cela en une seule année.
Imaginez ce qu'elle aurait pu faire en une vie entière.
Alice Ball méritait un prix Nobel.
Elle méritait des statues.
Elle méritait que son nom soit sur toutes les lèvres des étudiants en sciences.
Au lieu de cela, elle a été étouffée par le silence…
Jusqu'à aujourd'hui.
Nous prononçons son nom parce que l'histoire a refusé de le faire.
Nous l'honorons parce que d'autres ne l'ont pas fait.
Nous nous souvenons d'elle parce qu'elle l'a mérité.
Alice Augusta Ball (1892-1916)
La chimiste qui a changé le monde avant même d'avoir eu le temps d'y vivre.
🚨🎙️ Robin van Persie on Bruno Fernandes’ future at Manchester United:
🗣️ “I honestly want Bruno Fernandes to retire with all the biggest trophies — the Premier League, the Champions League, even the World Cup with Portugal.
Because if Bruno manages to win two of those major trophies while producing the kind of performances he gives every single season, then I truly believe he can win the Ballon d’Or one day.
The talent is there. The consistency is there. The mentality is there.
What Bruno needs now is a strong team around him to finally match his level and help him achieve the success his football deserves.” ❤️👏
Father and son 25 years ago. Godbless all our children. They have Almighty God's gifts. May our God remain close to them and guide them throughout life's challenges. May God help them to avoid our mistakes. 🙏
Want to Pursue Financial Independence? Start With Why
This week, my posts will focus on Financial Stability, Financial Security, Financial Freedom, or Financial Independence — whichever term works best for you. To keep it simple, I’ll use the initials FI to represent Financial Independence.
The first step on the journey to FI is building your “why.” Your why becomes the main driver behind the decisions you make to achieve it. For me, that why came from being born and raised in abject poverty, where even basics like food or a decent pair of shoes were hard to come by.
FI was never about becoming rich. It was about ensuring financial survival.
I had to define what that survival meant in practical terms. At the time, I had not yet studied the mathematics behind FI (we will get into that later), so I simply estimated a number that felt life-changing to me: $1,000 per month in investment income.
That number was based on living conditions in Uganda.
I eventually surpassed that milestone before the age of 46. It allowed me to breathe easier and begin pursuing higher goals, including returning to school.
So today, develop your own case for Financial Independence and estimate the number that would create peace of mind for your circumstances, wherever you call home.
In my next post, we’ll look at the savings and investment rate required to get there.
About me:
Livingstone Mukasa is a financial literacy educator and Streetnomics teacher focused on practical economics, wealth-building, and financial independence for everyday people.
Email: [email protected]
It's important as a young man to know how to leverage loan to develop.
A loan isn't something to be afraid of, loan is wealth. The problem is that some people go straight from never having serviced a loan to getting multimillion worth of a loan.
Every rich person is either servicing a loan or looking for a loan because no one has enough capital, not even Elon Musk, that's why he borrowed to buy twitter.
Most people who get loans and get choked are like that man who works for 60yrs earning a salary and wakes up after retirement to start a business which fails one year later because he is experienced at being employed and not business.
Even managing a loan is a skill you have to learn.
When we talk of loans, most people what comes to their mind is borrowing and paying, it's black and white but this is a whole topic;
1. Learning to know when to borrow.
2. What is a bad loan you should stay away from.
3. Selft assesment on credit worthiness and ability to pay, just because you can afford to get a loan, doesn't mean you can afford to pay it back.
4. Negotiating interest rates.
5. Searching for good term loans, always there's someone who can give you a great loan but also one that can give you a bad one, you know how to research.
6. etc.
As a young man, start growing your credit score, most people will tell you otherwise but just like you need to have a passport, a national id, TIN number, it's very important to grow your credit score, track it, improve it. It's your leverage.