Woes of the young and restless

By Denis Ocwich

FROM a bird’s-eye view, its reckless lovemaking on the Hill. But dig beneath the surface, you’ll come face to face with endless tales of sexual immorality at Uganda’s Ivory Tower, Makerere University.

With a population of over 30,000, sexual immorality here is at its zenith.

This is probably why the First Lady, Janet Museveni could not sit back and watch from a distance. So, last week she came to the campus to talk to the students about the importance of living a morally upright lives.

“We have very many problems on campus, especially in relation to the girls,” says David Mpomedde, Makerere’s Guild Minister for Social Affairs, as the girls in the crowd murmures “yeees!”

Mpomedde narrates how a girl was raped last month by a knife-wielding man who stormed into her room at Africa Hall. “There are many other similar cases that go unreported,” he says.

But the main concern raised was the spread of HIV/AIDS at the university. Joan Mirembe, Africa Hall’s chairlady, say she is worried about press reports that say 75% of the blood donated by Makerere University students recently, was HIV positive.

“If all the men here are sick, where will we get our partners from?” she asks, amidst wild applause.

Indeed, as Mirembe hinted, the issue of campus students pairing up in preparation for the future is the the order of the day. Very few students, if any, are without lovers.

To make matters worse most have two or three lovers to cater for different needs.

Janet Museveni was particularly concerned about sugar daddies who are every campus girl’s dream. She says many campus girls aim at men who can give them the 3Cs – cars, cash and cell phones.

Imploring students to avoid such relationships, the First Lady declares: “A man with a car is an old man with a big stomach. As a young girl you should not identify with such.”

She adds that love affairs between old men and young girls were unheard of in the past.

Another hot topic was making sex safe at campus. But Mrs. Museveni insisted that it was not yet time for the students to engage in sex.

“There should be no sexual relations at Makerere because Makerere is an institution for education and not for sex. Wait until you are married because sex is meant for marriage,”she says.

But the grumbling voices of both the boys and the girls said it all.

“It’s a joke to say we should not have sex when we are already grown-ups,” a boy mumbles.

Mrs. Museveni listens attentively as Jasper Otimoi, one of the students walks to the podium and blared through the microphone: “I thought you people would tell us about how best to have safe sex and not about abstinence.”

This seems to surprise the First Lady who has not talked about condoms, something students expect her to address.

Robert Mutebi of Nsibirwa Hall asks: “The United Nations published a scientific document saying condoms are no longer safe. How then can we protect ourselves from HIV/AIDS?”

In her usual motherly tone, the First Lady responds: “The only condom we believe in is abstinence. I am not qualified to and neither want to talk about condoms.”

She dwells at length on spirituality and advises students to turn to God for the answers to all their problems, including HIV/AIDS.

“When you open your heart and allow God in, you finally become whole...it is God who created the human body... and only He can make you complete,” she says.

She raps the students for engaging in casual sex. “Sex was not meant for temporary relationships that have no programme or plan,” she says.

Those who addressed the students included Dr. Sam Luboga and Stephen Langa of the Uganda Youth Forum who organised the function.

Pastor Robert Kayanja of Rubaga Miracle Centre was also there to preach against immorality.

“The biggest problem of the youth today is their sexuality. It can drive one into acting like a beast,” he declares.

The First Lady concludes by saying, “I think Makerere is giving us a challenge because it has a large population of young people...this is a serious problem because in order to be future leaders, you have to prepare yourselves both spiritu-ally and intellectually.”