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Bugisu rejects grievance politics, endorses Gen. MK
Nations do not develop because their young people were loud at rallies. They develop when that energy is organised for something that lasts: farms that produce more, factories that employ and local leaders who watch public resources and refuse corruption, writes Paul M. Wanyoto
Paul M. Wanyoto. (File)
By: Admin ., Journalist @New Vision
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OPINION
By Paul M. Wanyoto
Last Saturday, the Cricket Ground in Mbale city were filled with young people from all seven districts of Bugisu, who had come to make a statement. The occasion was a public baraza of the Patriotic League of Uganda (PLU) and the endorsement of Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba as our country’s future leader.
Unlike what happens during traditional political rallies, these young people and even the older ones were neither drawn by the allure of free T-shirts, celebrity performances or hollow rhetoric of overthrowing government.
They had come for hope. Like Winnie Namboozo, a 34-year-old food vendor who, on seeing me as I moved around the city in preparation for the baraza, held my hand and said: “We will come, but make sure we get decent jobs and our children access quality education.”
Her prayer kept ringing in my head as a clear indicator of how people in Bugisu and the wider country have hope in PLU and what they expect from our leader, Gen. MK, who they are endorsing countrywide.
The hope and prayer is for a future that gives them and their children assurance for a better tomorrow.
For the Mbale rally, the symbolism could not be lost. Because a stone’s throw away from the Cricket Ground stands House No. 49 in Malukhu Housing Estate. It is here, in 1973, that President Yoweri Museveni narrowly escaped death when Idi Amin soldiers attacked him. His friends were not as lucky. However, the near brush with death gave him the renewed determination to end the dictatorship of the Amin regime.
President Museveni has gone on to lead Uganda for 40 years now. He has given us the longest spell of stability. The dividends are innumerable. An ever-growing economy, advancement in infrastructure, agriculture produce and returns keep improving, freedoms in expression, movement and worship, among others. It is a list one cannot exhaust.
But Uganda is not a finished product. That is why the Saturday gathering not far from House 49 was important. It was a resurrection of the “1973 Malukhu Spirit”, this time though not about ending a dictatorship, but rather reinvigorating the spirit of the youth to appreciate their place and role in shaping the future of our country.
Nations do not develop because their young people were loud at rallies. They develop when that energy is organised for something that lasts: farms that produce more, factories that employ and local leaders who watch public resources and refuse corruption.
Too often our politics treats young people as props to be bussed in, paid, and sent home with nothing. In the PLU, we know that a nation that wants to develop treats the youth as the engine of its future, not the audience of its campaigns. That is why we have dedicated regional and district youth co-ordinators so that the “youth bulge” becomes the structural engine of the country’s direction, not a statistic to worry about.
The crowd at the MK endorsement rally was representative of a Bugisu that has moved away from the politics of empty rhetoric and grievances. The politics of ajagenda is rejected, and so are leaders who, after a cycle of elections, run to comfy self-imposed exiles in the US, while letting “foot soldiers” pay for their sins.
The weekend rally told us that our people now want leaders who speak about what affects them: coffee and agriculture, jobs through agro-processing and industrialisation. They did not come to be angry. They came to ask what the next chapter, like the push towards the $500b economy, offers them. The endorsement rally assured them that they were part of the conversation.
For the Mbale rally, the symbolism could not be lost. Because a stone’s throw away from the Cricket Ground stands House No. 49 in Malukhu Housing Estate. It is here, in 1973, that President Yoweri Museveni narrowly escaped death when Idi Amin soldiers attacked him. His friends were not as lucky. However, the near brush with death gave him the renewed determination to end the dictatorship of the Amin regime.
President Museveni has gone on to lead Uganda for 40 years now. He has given us the longest spell of stability. The dividends are innumerable. An ever-growing economy, advancement in infrastructure, agriculture produce and returns keep improving, freedoms in expression, movement and worship, among others. It is a list one cannot exhaust.
But Uganda is not a finished product. That is why the Saturday gathering not far from House 49 was important. It was a resurrection of the “1973 Malukhu Spirit”, this time though not about ending a dictatorship, but rather reinvigorating the spirit of the youth to appreciate their place and role in shaping the future of our country.
Nations do not develop because their young people were loud at rallies. They develop when that energy is organised for something that lasts: farms that produce more, factories that employ and local leaders who watch public resources and refuse corruption.
Too often our politics treats young people as props to be bussed in, paid, and sent home with nothing. In the PLU, we know that a nation that wants to develop treats the youth as the engine of its future, not the audience of its campaigns. That is why we have dedicated regional and district youth co-ordinators so that the “youth bulge” becomes the structural engine of the country’s direction, not a statistic to worry about.
The crowd at the MK endorsement rally was representative of a Bugisu that has moved away from the politics of empty rhetoric and grievances. The politics of ajagenda is rejected, and so are leaders who, after a cycle of elections, run to comfy self-imposed exiles in the US, while letting “foot soldiers” pay for their sins.
The weekend rally told us that our people now want leaders who speak about what affects them: coffee and agriculture, jobs through agro-processing and industrialisation. They did not come to be angry. They came to ask what the next chapter, like the push towards the $500b economy, offers them. The endorsement rally assured them that they were part of the conversation.
Our youth and the wider Mulembe nation sent a message that they will no longer be party to dramatised politics. They want results.
And for these results to hold, we must then be ready for a time when President Museveni says: “Young people, now take charge”. That time should never find a vacuum or find the young people wanting. That explains the Gen. MK endorsement. It is about protecting the gains Uganda has made and not rocking the boat to kill these gains.
A transition built on vengeance and hatred would blow away decades of achievements. And yet a transition built on shared values and a mission to protect Uganda’s greater good would keep them. The first is easy to organise and the second is hard, and PLU has chosen the hard one.
In Gen. Kainerugaba, Uganda has a generational leader who can unite the young with the established, and who stands for continuity with ambition rather than a leap into uncertainty.
Throughout the country, PLU’s message is consistent: commercialise agriculture, create employment, promote industrialisation and keep the peace. These are not slogans for rallies. They are the plain ingredients of every nation that has moved from poverty to prosperity.
When our secretary-general, Fadil Twalla, spoke in Mbale about PLU acting as a bridge between citizens and government, following up on unfulfilled service-delivery and project pledges, he was describing something grassroots Ugandans have wanted for years: a movement that goes back to finish what was promised.
Bugisu showed up. We announced our place in the national conversation, and we embraced Gen. MK as the most befitting and ready leader to lead us to Canaan, the promised land. He is our Joshua, and the journey is on.
The writer is Patriotic Officer 049, Chair of Mbale City Land Board and was the chief host of the MK Endorsement Rally in Bugisu
And for these results to hold, we must then be ready for a time when President Museveni says: “Young people, now take charge”. That time should never find a vacuum or find the young people wanting. That explains the Gen. MK endorsement. It is about protecting the gains Uganda has made and not rocking the boat to kill these gains.
A transition built on vengeance and hatred would blow away decades of achievements. And yet a transition built on shared values and a mission to protect Uganda’s greater good would keep them. The first is easy to organise and the second is hard, and PLU has chosen the hard one.
In Gen. Kainerugaba, Uganda has a generational leader who can unite the young with the established, and who stands for continuity with ambition rather than a leap into uncertainty.
Throughout the country, PLU’s message is consistent: commercialise agriculture, create employment, promote industrialisation and keep the peace. These are not slogans for rallies. They are the plain ingredients of every nation that has moved from poverty to prosperity.
When our secretary-general, Fadil Twalla, spoke in Mbale about PLU acting as a bridge between citizens and government, following up on unfulfilled service-delivery and project pledges, he was describing something grassroots Ugandans have wanted for years: a movement that goes back to finish what was promised.
Bugisu showed up. We announced our place in the national conversation, and we embraced Gen. MK as the most befitting and ready leader to lead us to Canaan, the promised land. He is our Joshua, and the journey is on.
The writer is Patriotic Officer 049, Chair of Mbale City Land Board and was the chief host of the MK Endorsement Rally in Bugisu