Reflections of a Ugandan Youth

The ugliness of Uganda`s history can only be a matter of argument to the ignorant, inebriated lunatic. The miscarriage of the decades-long post-independence and the flashing out of the baby with the bath water are established realities; only the less lucid ignoramus retains the luxury to contest. That the state became bewildered and the country confused is a motion of debate for juveniles.

A worthy point to stress is that whoever has this freedom to claim that Uganda's past is more appealing than the present is a psychological point of reference. A fixation rigid to the past self, whether projected from an outward case of proximity or experienced. A cursory glance at our history suffices to educate one that this country of our heritage was abandoned to the dogs from the onset.

Therefore, claiming that our past is better than our present is an unforgivable act of irresponsibility and negligence. A displacement. Another psychological point of reference. A defense mechanism. An admittance, in hindsight of a failed today. A nostalgia, often resulting from unclear, warped memories, fossilized false impressions, disrupted pictures of what was and what was not. These are Moses the raven and their sugar candy mountain. A utopia they themselves struggle to convincingly capture.

These possess the miraculous audacity of claiming that the NRM tenure has done nothing. They negate all building blocks laid by the NRM and raise castles of air about everything pre-1986 while inflating to incredible proportions whatever evils the NRM has propagated.

Such reasoning are manifestations of an unpleasant fickleness and simplicity of mind that can no longer be tolerated in case Uganda is to shake off the dogs tearing at its carcass. It is obvious that the NRM has evils in red to their name. Magnifying them beyond sanity, I believe, is dishonest and self-defeating.

Consequently, the narrative and motion of discussion must change.

We must cease talking about yesterday as separate from today and today as separate from tomorrow. Rather, we must come to grips with what is and what will. There is a great temptation to become infatuated with then, yesterday, the past and enchanted into drunken stupor by now. Then and now are deadly, fatal distractions. The former is a nauseating bad memory, whereas the latter is an opium, a sedative designed and religiously administered to lull the masses into chronic, reckless inattention, consistently churned out systematically by an interested, invested party. The First Son will wake up and tweet something absurd, if not foolish. The next two days the masses will be yapping about it.

An extra-normal focus is imperative to ensure sanity and clarity in this dust-filled environment. We want a better country—not that this country is uninhabitable—but we want a better country economically, socially, and politically. Sanity and clarity are necessary if we are to achieve that.

What is? Where are we?

A country with an incredibly slow economy and a toxic environment against entrepreneurship and innovation. We founded the Kiira EV a decade plus ago. We have hardly gone to production. The population prefers and dreams daily about greener pastures in Arabia, Europe, and North America. This environment is untenable.

The incumbent has created the illusion that he is the only one who can lead the country. That everything may fall to pieces if he picks up his bags and vacates the presidential palace. This is threatening and depressing to the country. It undermines the motive of the 1986 revolution. Moreover, it could have been avoided by respecting and honouring the 1995 constitution. But a form of psychosis led to the making of adjustments that have dragged the country deeper into the mud.

Therefore, as a country, we are scared of the unknown that is to come and of the forces evil and malevolent that are believed to be holding sway over this country.

We are confused. We have a faint idea of what we want. We scantily know what to do to get around that vagueness. We have no idea.

We don’t care. No one gives a damn about it. Otherwise, we would have done what we needed to do. Everyone relevant has their own agenda.

We would have long-checked and trimmed overhead expenditure, re-directing those to industrialization through a wiser, more rigorous, objective support of manufacturing. We would have re-prioritized sensible practices in transport by developing railways and carried it out immediately.

We would have concentrated on boosting trade in the country, the East African Community, and the rest of the world by polishing seaports and customs issues with Kenya and Tanzania and developing air transport capacity to bolster direct flights to China, India, and the Asian Tigers.

We would have strengthened quality control in agriculture and supportive industries to boost exportation of produce and value-added agro-based goods. We would have long ago revolutionized schools to promote skills other than more knowledge. 

The imperative is to engage with rigor in the discussion above and apply ourselves with utmost vigor and commitment in the building of such necessary infrastructure as highlighted above.