The coronavirus outbreak has shown us numerous things, and one of them is that our medical workers must be among the top earners in the country, with the Ministry of Health being among the most funded ministries by the national budget.
You would not really want to trust your life with a hungry nurse or a doctor that has their mind thinking about what to tell the landlord when rent is due.
President Yoweri Museveni has geared up the need to pay scientists which include science teachers, engineers and health workers handsomely so that they can work with their minds settled. This, he has revealed during his Labour Day address to the nation a few hours go.
“Because now when we have coronavirus the doctors are the ones on the frontline. I’ve not seen any administrator or clerk there. I see my young doctors and nurses on the frontline. When we had the problem of the dam being attacked by the floating island, engineers are the ones I found there. My engineers struggled until they solved that problem,” Museveni highlighted the importance of scientists in the country.
The President said he was tired of begging MPs to support his policy of paying scientists well, and first, saying that they (scientists) have been mishandled and that it must stop. According to him, paying scientists well stabilizes the country.
“If you want your country to stabilize, please let’s first stabilize our scientists. These people can do so many things you have seen what they have done with coronavirus. You don’t see a single foreigner among them, they are our people,” He said.
Museveni also said detractors to better payment of scientists should stop. “The other time in my (NRM) Caucus, I brought a proposal to pay science teachers better in schools then one of my people said ‘No, we are all teachers’. Well, when the dam was going to break down I didn’t see you going to read Shakespeare to the dam. We looked for scientists,” He explained.