Dear President, make the next term count

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OPINION

By Opiyo Oloya

Dear President Yoweri Museveni, congratulations on your decisive election victory in last week’s presidential election. I am very happy that Ugandans have elected to retain you on the job for another five years. You still have the keen energy, motivation, and focus to lead with great success.

But I am especially glad for the continuity of your leadership over two issues that you and I have discussed on previous one-on-one conversations. The first and most obvious one is finding the will for the effective fight against corruption. Uganda is a very rich nation, endowed with endless natural resources and an outgoing and hardworking population.

Our schools continue to graduate some of the best minds on the continent and for the global stage. We have a young population eager, inquisitive and ready to work in all areas of the economy, including commerce, technology, hospitality and tourism, mining and petroleum, agriculture and fisheries, as well as transportation.

Over the years, we have had some good leaders who work hard towards developing Uganda into a vibrant economy that sustains our people. These leaders eschew the notion that leadership means getting the most for oneself and one’s pocket. They are happiest when the outcome benefits the community, the region and the country.

They may not drive the fanciest car with personalised licence plates, but they are effective in bringing together people to tackle issues that deter progress. These are the leaders you need to be very bold in retaining around you to help steer the country over the next half decade.

Then, we have corrupt leaders who have only thought about one thing — how to grow rich quickly using any means possible. They do not contribute to the development of our beautiful nation.

They inflate contracts, bill the Government over fake services, directly steal from the public coffers, use government resources, including public vehicle,s for personal errands and businesses. They spend an enormous amount of time travelling abroad, mostly to Europe, the Americas and lately to Dubai, where they spend oodles of dollars lounging in trendy cafés sipping cappuccino, shopping for Prada and Michael Kors and all manner of expensive luxury items. Then, they turn around and bill the taxpayers for those trips.

They take and take and take and never give back anything of value to the community. You must have the fortitude (if not, pray hard to God to give you some) to finally get rid of these leaders. We are tired of them. I am sick of them.

Instead, focus on the under-30 youth who have demonstrated aptitude, strength and commitment for community building. Give them greater responsibilities, elevate them to the sky by allowing them to experience leadership, make them drive development and progress, rewarding them for work well done and correcting them when they fall short. When our generation is long gone, they are Uganda’s future leaders who will lead change.

Now, the other matter for which I am happy to see you return to your job is how to navigate the New World order where might is right. The new global crisis is driven by the US, China and Russia with the power, resources and might to muscle their way into every corner of the globe. On their own, smaller nations in Europe, Latin America, Asia, the Middle East and Africa do not have the capacity to stand up to the big guys.

Russia barging into Ukraine was thought as a one-off, the sorting of issues between former brothers, and the world needed to stay out of it. Wrong. Recently, the US used its mighty military to kidnap President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela and impose its demand for that country’s resources, specifically oil. Now, the superpower is looking to gobble up Greenland. China, meanwhile, is inching ever closer to overrunning Taiwan by sheer military force.

For far too long, Africa has had this false belief that Europe and the Americas (after pillaging the continent during the colonial era) were now reformed and truly looking out for the best interest of the continent. Surely, the Western world wants to see Africa progress and grow and prosper because the West truly cares about Africa. So, we thought.

This is nonsensical and wishful thinking. Africa’s vast resources, including the most arable land on planet earth, will soon attract angry eagles with talons ready to snatch the choicest pieces for themselves.

If we cannot pool our resources to ensure collective security, then it is on us when our resources are snatched away in the name of the security of the larger and more powerful Western nations. Do we think the US will not one day declare as vital to its security the rare earth minerals found in the DR Congo and send in the US Marines to secure it to the exclusion of the Congolese? Do we think the clean water of Lake Victoria will not one day be coveted by a superpower, and declared vital for the survival of non-Africans and appropriated for their exclusive use? Do we think we own anything if we cannot defend it from those powerful and mighty enough to take it by force?

The point is this — it is a very dangerous world out there. Established international rules of law no longer apply, and the end justifies the means. Nations with power will use it to wrestle away resources from weaker nations that cannot defend themselves. This is the world in which we fi nd ourselves today. These are serious times, and we need serious leaders.

And, yes, this is the world in which it matters that Africa has experienced leaders with demonstrable track records of rallying together African nations when it matters most. You are such a leader, and I am happy you still have the vigour for leading.

More than ever, your leadership, skills, credibility, and the wherewithal are urgently needed to bring together African leaders to discuss in depth the implications of this brave new world, which increasingly is like the old Wild West, where gunslingers with the quickest draws of the pistol won the contest.

Sure, you might be sick and tired of always being the one pulling together reluctant African leaders. It is a thankless job, more like trying to herd a truckload of cats. But you must do it because no one else is going to do it.

Mr President, make the next five years count, not just because it solidifies your legacy, but because it ensures stability for all Ugandans, the region and for Africa.

I will be there to cheer you on, knock some sense into you when you get distracted and support the work Ugandans have entrusted you to do. Again, my deepest congratulations.

The writer is the Inaugural Associate Vice-President, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at Western University, London, Ontario, Canada Email: Opiyo.oloya@gmail.com