The renowned Sociologist Professor Tarsis Bazana Kabwegyere has rooted for prioritization of mindset change among Ugandans if the country is to realize the middle-income status.
Prof. Kabwegyere was on Thursday afternoon delivering a lecture on “Mindset change” during the weekly NRM ideological clinic at the party headquarters in Kampala.
The former legislator said that a growth-mindset-transformed citizenry fosters the transformation of society, and benefits humanity.
“Mindset change entails the change of thinking which also influences an individual’s character. The behaviour of a person comes with what a person is thinking at any one particular moment in time. People, therefore, need transformed minds in order to develop societies where they live,” Kabwegyere said.
The veteran politician also added that, without putting much emphasis on mindset change, many government programs will die on arrival, a thing that hinders the prosperity of the population.
“As a country, we tend to treat mindset change in a lukewarm manner, the reason many government-initiated programmes have been failures,” Prof. Kabwegyere said, giving an example of countries like South Korea whose economic miracle began with the mindset change campaigns conducted at a national level.
The former minister for General Duties in the Office of the Prime Minister, Mr Kabwegyere also reiterated that “If socio-economic development, in particular, is to be achieved in developing countries, Uganda inclusive, mindset change should be viewed as a critical ingredient”.
“Without first transforming people’s minds, there will be no development. Even if you introduce as many governments programs as you can they cannot achieve anything without having people well prepared in the mind.” the former Igara county West, Kabwegyere adds.
He noted that the mindset factor influences employees’ productivity, citizens’ work habits, and use of technology and market habits and advised people to embrace the productive growth mindset rather than the scarcity one which is counterproductive.
“There are two groups of individuals one group having growth mindset which is productive and another one with a fixed and scarcity mindset which is defensive and counterproductive,” Prof Kabwegyere explained, “People with a growth mindset see learning as the best part of their life and they don’t fear failure. They easily correct themselves and move on,” the Social Scientist, Kabwegyere said, adding that the link between development and mindset change is because the change of lives of people relies on their thinking.
“Improved quality of lives of people is an indicator of development. People, especially the youth should consider creating employment and increasing their incomes rather than being job seekers and dependants,” he stressed.
Mr Kabwegyere, therefore, says that people’s minds have to be transformed to enable them to participate in programs meant for them. “Education, training and development are key,” he noted.
The NRM party Secretary-General Rt. Hon. Richard Todwong said that everything we do starts with our mind. He advised Ugandans to think positively in order to be progressive.
“Nature is never constant, so your mind should never be fixed. You are biologically growing day by day, let your mind grow as well,” Todwong said, adding, “Your mind is the first employer, not the papers you have”.
The Secretary-General promised to extend the ideological clinic classes to other areas of the country and cover more relevant topics from experienced people to change the thinking of Ugandans.
“These ideological clinics are not only beneficial to elites or people with big incomes but they are for every Ugandan. Therefore we shall keep you ideologically oriented for your benefit. We are going to open a suggestion box to enable you to choose the topics that best benefit you, so embrace them,” he concluded.
