Keeping coronavirus out of your home  

COVID-19      RELATIONSHIP

Coronavirus finally broke our virginity in Uganda! But we tried! We were better at abstinence than our sisters in Kenya, DR Congo, Rwanda, and Tanzania.

The newscast a shadow over the weekend, which found my wife and I at home wondering how to keep this virus out of our home. There was no church, no football, and the prez had banned weddings and funerals.

There seemed to be a lot of time for us at home. So, we picked a catalogue of bonding events to choose from and take advantage of a catastrophe.

The first to choose was.... ladies first. Guess what my wife chose! A movie? No! A game of cards? No! Joint cooking? No! Sex? No! It was much more romantic! She suggested a visit to her grandmother! While that was against social distancing principles, it was abominable to suggest that our beloved matriarch would infect us with coronavirus!

And no scientific reasoning could stand against her only overriding concern that we have spent time without seeing her. I decided to vote for peace and go!

Then, something happened. She released the budget requirements for the visit! I looked at the totals and looked again. Then, I declared a family shutdown.

No visits, neither to nor from! We haven't talked since! Of course, this is not true because I wouldn't be writing it when I know that my wife reads this newspaper.

It is a typical cause of conflict in a typical home trying to find its footstep within a context of the coronavirus lockdown.

Many times, we are forced to compromise our own resolutions for the sake of popularity, love, and corruption. 

That, ladies and gentlemen, is our topic today. When President Yoweri Museveni was announcing stringent guidelines, he was aware of how unpopular some rules may end up being for certain people.

The worst may yet to come, but it takes strong leaders to set aside comfort and avenues of popularity, step on the altar of painful decisions and lead the people forward.

Apparently, this is not just the president's problem. It is an issue for all leaders and, for my sake, every family head. Every head of the family should take this opportunity to become unpopular as long as they keep the virus off their compound.

The alternative is to remain loved by visiting all the grandmothers and spending all the money.

Later, when supplies dwindle, they will not remember that you visited the grandmother; they will demand for livelihood! Your short-term popularity will still not save you.

Every head of household has three roles to play in order to become unpopular as they guide the family out of danger. And that is what is demanded of effective leadership.

Those house heads, who do not have the steel of giving these painful injections, should hand over to their partners or the eldest child. And, if neither can steer the ship through doldrums, the whole family should buckle up and perish.

At least they will have died with a seatbelt fastened. The first duty is financial control. Or, should we call it expenditure control? We are heading into the unknown when jobs are vanishing, supplies are dwindling and upkeep is increasingly going to become expensive.

This requires planning, stocking, frugal expenditure and lines of income. It requires a lot of cutting wisdom! However, you will be surprised that your wife, for example, will take the opportunity to plan a sh200,000 visit to grandmother! Kids at home will demand ice cream every day!

And adult children will want data money twice three times a day. You are their finance ministry and you need to keep the image of Father almighty! Yet you are also the family giraffe who sees further than they can't see.

That means you have to say no. But you should also explain why resources must now go to what is needed and not what is wanted. You will get resistance because not everybody will understand the philosophy of starvation.

Your options include inclusive budgeting, daily updates, democratic spending; versus ‘boss is always right', teargas, blackmail and buying the opposition.

Remember the way you handle the opposition will separate sheep from goats. The second strategy is the enforcement of the isolation guidelines. It is the duty of a house head to explain, implement and enforce the new terms of reference.

You can do this by convincing members, directing them or both. If you want to copy from our Government and enforce to only a section of family members, you will get the virus into the home.

Enforcement has no exceptions other than those agreed upon technically. The best approaches are those that inspire self-discipline.

The third approach is being a good example. If the remaining eggs are only for the baby, then the father, who is the President, the Police, the Parliament, the Chief Justice, and the army, should keep off so that others come to appreciate what is ring-fenced and what is not.

If family members cannot go out unnecessarily, so shouldn't the father. Do as I do might help everybody better than do as I say. The fourth is ..., no, first implement those three.

If they run into walls, you can return to the fountain of wisdom. There is more where this came from.