Thirty-five years later and the NRM still has a stronghold on the politics of the nation and doesn’t seem to show any signs of losing its grip on power any time soon. After all this time, the NRM is still the firm favorites and is still in poll position.
Following the most recent youth elections, the NRM was still in a comfortable lead, despite the recent circulating rumors suggesting that the majority of Ugandans especially the youth were yearning for change.
Of course, this doesn’t exonerate the NRM and the government of all wrong doing, it is not an indicator that the ruling party is without sin, it is rather an indicator that the NRM still has a better score card compared to the other parties, and the citizens still have more faith in it to manage the affairs of the state.
Recently on one of the country’s leading talk shows during a heated debate between members of the opposition and those of the ruling NRM party, an NRM cadre reduced the issues of the debate to “Twebake” loosely translated as we sleep now because of the peace and freedom that the ruling party brought to this country.
We have all heard the rhetoric thousands of times: The NRM brought peace and stability to this nation, freedom of expression, multi-party politics, free education amongst other things, most Ugandans are tired of hearing it and it is starting to sound like a broken record, despite the ounce of truth that comes with this rhetoric.
Most argue that Uganda’s problems are much deeper than “Twebaka!” That the problems have since evolved from just sleeping, to unemployment, corruption, impunity, favoritism, tribalism, the list goes on and on, and this too carries an ounce of truth to it.
The problems of the young nation that is Uganda have indeed evolved, it is true the problems of the country now are not those of 1986, but it is also very helpful to note that they are not those of 2020 either. A middle ground has to be arrived at, the economics and history of developing nations has to be studied and something tailored for our beloved country.
National Resistance Movement through the leadership Of Gen. Museveni has covered giant milestones and footsteps towards the national development of the nation. Recently on one of my visits to deep down in my village in Kamuli district, I was shocked to learn that childbirth is absolutely free of charge in the health centers.
Young parents to walk into the health center, and literally, leave without paying a shilling, if the mother undergoes normal birth, the father may be requested to buy a small pack of omo that costs 500ugx! which is optional, and sometimes when the mother has some complications, the father may be requested to part with 20,000ugx approximately 5.4$! These are facts a town dweller can hardly relate to, but this is what’s happening at the grassroots and leading to continuous support for the NRM over the years. Therefore amidst all the chaos, the ruling party continues to have its pulse on the biggest percentage of the national issues.
Snobbish intellectualism hasn’t helped in creating unity and amicable solutions to further push our nation forward. A certain group of “elites” that seem to be doing rather well for themselves on a personal level, have instead chosen to associate themselves with imperialism and disassociated from matters of patriotism and nationalism. Often times you will hear remarks like “Uganda Zabu” or “This is Uganda, I am not surprised.” On very many occasions, coming out to openly critic when national matters seem to be in disarray and selectively keep quiet, when the leadership is doing a great job. This only further alienates them from the real issues.
In the same manner that one can’t choose one’s parents, brothers nor sister’, you can’t choose what nationality you belong to. Therefore they have to be part of the solutions.
The truth of the matter is giant strides have been made since 1986, under the leadership of the NRM, under the leadership of Gen. Yoweri, the core issues that the nationals faced several years back like war and instability, high mortality rate, illiteracy amongst others have mostly been dealt with and now the country has slowly metamorphosed to other problems that can also collectively be dealt with. Credit has to given that a proper foundation has been set for our young nation to soar to greater heights.
Uganda as a newly born infant is out of danger, the concern therefore for most citizens is maybe the speed at which this “baby” is growing; how long it is taking this child to start talking, crawling, walking, interacting with other children. Which growth is being hindered and hamstrung by some dangerous elements that most developing nations face during the early stages of development like corruption, and bureaucracies.
However, the NRM government has already taken note of these arising matters, and fighting them and continuing the steady growth of the nation is at the forefront of its agenda and manifesto. An anti-corruption committee is in place to combat and iron out and deal with such rogue elements, also systems are being farther put in place to bring the services nearer to the masses and cut out bureaucrats.
For example, an eligible citizen of Ugandan descent can as of today, simply log on to the website of the ministry of internal affairs, using their national ID as a reference with the NIN number, One can be able to apply for a Ugandan passport thus cutting out the various middlemen that used to lengthen the process and frustrate many a Ugandan. This is one of the many steps in the right direction.
Rapid programs of industrialization have also been undertaken, an example of Namave industrial park with thousands of factories being recently commissioned and set to create over 200,000 jobs for the various unemployed youth.
Conclusively, therefore, the job of nation-building is far from over and we all have a role to play, and as the saying goes “people die but nations live on.” Therefore, even after we are long gone, the values that are passed on to generations that come long after are very important. We all have a role to play as;
The Citizenry: The citizens have a major role to play, to be more patriotic and involved in the programs of the state because aloofness and ignoring the rising issues will not make them go away, instead, effort should be put into finding working solutions from as low down as the individual level.
Government: The role of those in serving positions, to come up with working systems that are tailored for the needs of the young population. Also, a system that holds the government and its employees accountable to the citizens because the main role is to bring the services nearer to the people.
The Opposition: This being a multi-party dispensation, the role of the opposition should be focused on working with the ruling party to come up with level-headed solutions, also to criticize and correct where they see fit. As opposed to finger-pointing politics, and criticism without alternative options and solutions. Because criticism is the easy part of opposition politics, the hard part is coming up with formidable measures to counter the issues.
Therefore we each have a role to play, individually as citizens, the opposition parties, to support and critic the ruling party and keep them in line, and come up with counter working solutions and finally the government to keep on serving the citizens, endeavoring to improve on the systems and to continue being accountable. Over all, focus should be shifted from the minors and a paradigm shift towards the majors, a shift from politics of individualism to politics of systems, structures, policies that will be available to the people for a long time to come.
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