Dear Mr. President Yoweri Museveni, Congratulations on your success hosting the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) this past weekend.
The world came to your door, and you showed that Uganda is capable of achieving lofty goals that it sets itself to do. You should be given credit as leader of a poor nation that proffered the best hospitality showcasing the warmth of the people of Uganda.
Compared to some of the nations that came to the meeting, Uganda is a beggar on the side of the road, but even a beggar has his pride, and Ugandans showed that something cannot be measured in monetary value alone.
Yes, I am aware that most of the world headlines generated this weekend pointed to the fact that Uganda could hardly afford the paint used to mark the roads. There were also references in the world press about how Ugandans live on a dollar a day. There were many reports about the misery of the people in the camps in northern Uganda.
News reports also raised the issue of government’s shoddy treatment of members of opposition parties. In fact, opposition leader Dr. Kizza Besigye garnered more ink on the world stage than many leaders who attended the meeting.
Even where there was some promise of positive reporting as was the case with the headline, “Kampala sparkles ahead of Commonwealth meeting”, the content was anything but.
Rather stubbornly, the headlines refused to stray far from the fact that Uganda is poor, and that the per capita income of the country is less than $300 per year. What’s more, it is also going to take some time before the debt incurred by the government to host the summit is cleared up—and the people of Uganda are on the hook for the cost. Many Ugandans will be deprived of necessities because of the sacrifice made toward CHOGM. Indeed Kampala shoe-shine James Bwambale, 25, spoke for many when he was quoted in the world press when he said: “I don’t care about CHOGM. When they leave, it won’t benefit ordinary people.”
Yes, hosting CHOGM was a colossal sacrifice for Ugandans because it had very little real impact on the general welfare of the ordinary citizen except for the sense of pride of hosting leaders from around the world. It is also true that there were many other countries that could have hosted the summit with very little effort.
The smallest city in Canada, for example, could have hosted CHOGM with minimal worries about the logistics involved because even small Canadian cities have the infrastructure to take on such a task. Yet, while these headlines do have a point—Uganda is a poor country in search of a better place for its citizens including opening up political space so there are more voices on the national and international stage—Uganda showed something that is worth holding onto, namely the ability to achieve difficult goals. In short, though many will have difficulty acknowledging your achievement as host (because of the concerns outlined above), I take the approach that the success of CHOGM is worth celebrating. The heads of government came, had a great time, deliberated and left with not a single incident. The huge logistics of keeping everyone safe, sound and well cared for is an achievement that Uganda should be proud of. You did yourself proud by showing that Ugandans will stop at nothing to care for its visitors.
Moreover, CHOGM showed the possibility for Uganda as a country on the move. True, the glitter of Kampala masked the poverty that Ugandans live in everyday. It is also true that there are places that the heads of governments did not see.
However, in accepting the difficult and very costly task of hosting the summit (with money that is sorely needed elsewhere, including threadbare hospitals and camps for displaced people), Uganda clearly made the statement that poverty should not paralyze, but rather act as a catalyst for change.
To simply cry poor, wallow in misery, heads bowed and cap in hand is to admit defeat. It is to say the country is incapable of dreaming big, taking our lives in our hands in the attempt to work for a better future.
For me, Uganda having demonstrated the mettle it is made of, the biggest disappointment will be driving on crater-deep potholes on the Soroti to Lira road two years from now. The biggest disappointment will be going to Ibanda to find that children at Ibanda Integrated Primary School are still lacking the most basic scholastic resources.
Disappoinment will be seeing that absolutely nothing has been done to repatriate the internally displaced people living in camps in northern Uganda back to their villages.
The point being that having seen what Uganda can achieve with clear focus as was the case with CHOGM, nothing should be impossible.
There is no reason why we cannot set out to do more to develop in the shortest time possible. Nothing at all.
Again, accept my congratulations for a job well done.
