2008 must be a year of accountability
ON Wednesday July 25, 2007, around noon, as we drove to Tororo, I stopped my driver in the middle of Mabira Forest. I got out of the car and beside the road, said a quiet prayer thanking God for giving the people of Uganda the wisdom to recognise the importance of natural resources, and for resistin
Opiyo Oloya
ON Wednesday July 25, 2007, around noon, as we drove to Tororo, I stopped my driver in the middle of Mabira Forest. I got out of the car and beside the road, said a quiet prayer thanking God for giving the people of Uganda the wisdom to recognise the importance of natural resources, and for resisting all attempts to reduce Mabira to a sugarcane plantation.
That day, I felt strongly optimistic that the country had finally woken up to what is important for the future. Yes, industrialisation is crucial to the development of a struggling economy like Uganda’s but there are certain things that remain beyond the reaches of creating jobs.
Mabira is one of those national heritages that simply could not be plundered now in the name of creating jobs. The cry to save Mabira will go down as one of the few times Ugandans have acted with unanimity regardless of class, race, and ethnicity toward a common cause.
It became the defining moment for the year 2007, and in a way also a defining moment for how Uganda will relate to those elected to represent the public interest. The days that saw the general citizenry abdicate its responsibilities to politicians were forgotten during that week as ordinary Ugandans spoke directly to policy issues usually the exclusive terrain of politicians.
There are many issues that will require Uganda to act with the same unanimous voice in 2008. Certainly, Mabira remains a big focus as the government continues to allude to the possibility of annexing a large chunk of the rare ancient forest for sugarcane. There is nothing wrong or unpatriotic when citizens stand up strong and proud to say: “Wait a minute, you will not touch that piece of real estate because it belongs to all the children of Uganda born and unborn.†That’s how democracy works and nobody who stands up should be labelled as the “enemy of progressâ€â€”you cannot be an enemy of anything when you stand on the side of preservation of the natural resources of the country.
The other issue that requires everyone to speak as one, in fact one that requires Ugandans outside of northern Uganda to speak even louder is the continued suffering in the IDP camps in northern Uganda. This suffering has gone on for far too long. People have lost everything that would identify them as a culture, an entire generation of Uganda slowly lost before the eye of the world, disappearing one by one. Unfortunately, there has been no leadership in this case, the camp dwellers left to find their own way back to their former homes, many without a single help from the government entrusted with looking after the welfare of all Ugandans.
The government needed to have placed a premium in articulating the resettlement programme that would have seen people return to former villages to pick up pieces of their long-shattered lives. But nothing happened. No wonder a few people have queried whether there is any point in remaining within the entity known as Uganda or to begin to explore the possibility of seceding altogether to form a new country with South Sudan.
Such kind of talk is likely more out of frustration than from genuine desire to leave Uganda; and the lack of interest from the government to provide a roadmap for resettlement has only sharpened this anger, this sense of abandonment.
Furthermore, as I travelled through eastern, northern and southwestern Uganda in the summer, visiting schools, it occurred to me that there is a group of children who do not register at all in government thinking—namely, those with disabilities. It did not matter where I looked—in Tororo, Lira, Apac, Gulu, Pader, Kitgum, Kampala, Masaka, and Bushenyi—the needs of children with disabilities were not being met by the educational system. In simple words, the government of Uganda through the Ministry of Education has no viable policy to support the education of the disabled. For the most part, children with disabilities are left to the kindness of strangers, the foreign-based NGOs to look after, while the government continues to sing about universal education for all.
What is happening to children who are blind, deaf or otherwise disabled is criminal. This is something that all Ugandans need to start speaking about loudly, if necessary yelling from the top of the biggest anthill.
There are many other issues that the government needs to address immediately, but which continue to sit in the backburner because either there is no interest to solve them or lack of will or both. I have spoken already about the urgency to create a strong disaster response plan, including disease outbreak. We saw the ravages of ebola through Bundibugyo in the last few weeks, and yet the government has not announced a comprehensive plan to prepare for the next disaster, the next avian flu or whatever that will come at the citizens. What it comes down to is the need for accountability in Uganda in 2008.
Elected officials must tell citizens in very clear language that even a child of eight years can understand about what they are doing to make the country a better place. It is no longer enough to blame others—the neo-colonialists, forces against progress or whatever—for lack of clear vision about what needs to be done.
At the head of it all, President Yoweri Museveni needs to state clearly what his priorities are for the New Year. What he would like to see accomplished within the year, and who will be responsible in seeing that those goals are carried out, and what will happen to those responsible when the goals are not met. Best wishes to all in 2008.
Opiyo.oloya@sympatico.ca
ON Wednesday July 25, 2007, around noon, as we drove to Tororo, I stopped my driver in the middle of Mabira Forest. I got out of the car and beside the road, said a quiet prayer thanking God for giving the people of Uganda the wisdom to recognise the importance of natural resources, and for resisting all attempts to reduce Mabira to a sugarcane plantation.
That day, I felt strongly optimistic that the country had finally woken up to what is important for the future. Yes, industrialisation is crucial to the development of a struggling economy like Uganda’s but there are certain things that remain beyond the reaches of creating jobs.
Mabira is one of those national heritages that simply could not be plundered now in the name of creating jobs. The cry to save Mabira will go down as one of the few times Ugandans have acted with unanimity regardless of class, race, and ethnicity toward a common cause.
It became the defining moment for the year 2007, and in a way also a defining moment for how Uganda will relate to those elected to represent the public interest. The days that saw the general citizenry abdicate its responsibilities to politicians were forgotten during that week as ordinary Ugandans spoke directly to policy issues usually the exclusive terrain of politicians.
There are many issues that will require Uganda to act with the same unanimous voice in 2008. Certainly, Mabira remains a big focus as the government continues to allude to the possibility of annexing a large chunk of the rare ancient forest for sugarcane. There is nothing wrong or unpatriotic when citizens stand up strong and proud to say: “Wait a minute, you will not touch that piece of real estate because it belongs to all the children of Uganda born and unborn.†That’s how democracy works and nobody who stands up should be labelled as the “enemy of progressâ€â€”you cannot be an enemy of anything when you stand on the side of preservation of the natural resources of the country.
The other issue that requires everyone to speak as one, in fact one that requires Ugandans outside of northern Uganda to speak even louder is the continued suffering in the IDP camps in northern Uganda. This suffering has gone on for far too long. People have lost everything that would identify them as a culture, an entire generation of Uganda slowly lost before the eye of the world, disappearing one by one. Unfortunately, there has been no leadership in this case, the camp dwellers left to find their own way back to their former homes, many without a single help from the government entrusted with looking after the welfare of all Ugandans.
The government needed to have placed a premium in articulating the resettlement programme that would have seen people return to former villages to pick up pieces of their long-shattered lives. But nothing happened. No wonder a few people have queried whether there is any point in remaining within the entity known as Uganda or to begin to explore the possibility of seceding altogether to form a new country with South Sudan.
Such kind of talk is likely more out of frustration than from genuine desire to leave Uganda; and the lack of interest from the government to provide a roadmap for resettlement has only sharpened this anger, this sense of abandonment.
Furthermore, as I travelled through eastern, northern and southwestern Uganda in the summer, visiting schools, it occurred to me that there is a group of children who do not register at all in government thinking—namely, those with disabilities. It did not matter where I looked—in Tororo, Lira, Apac, Gulu, Pader, Kitgum, Kampala, Masaka, and Bushenyi—the needs of children with disabilities were not being met by the educational system. In simple words, the government of Uganda through the Ministry of Education has no viable policy to support the education of the disabled. For the most part, children with disabilities are left to the kindness of strangers, the foreign-based NGOs to look after, while the government continues to sing about universal education for all.
What is happening to children who are blind, deaf or otherwise disabled is criminal. This is something that all Ugandans need to start speaking about loudly, if necessary yelling from the top of the biggest anthill.
There are many other issues that the government needs to address immediately, but which continue to sit in the backburner because either there is no interest to solve them or lack of will or both. I have spoken already about the urgency to create a strong disaster response plan, including disease outbreak. We saw the ravages of ebola through Bundibugyo in the last few weeks, and yet the government has not announced a comprehensive plan to prepare for the next disaster, the next avian flu or whatever that will come at the citizens. What it comes down to is the need for accountability in Uganda in 2008.
Elected officials must tell citizens in very clear language that even a child of eight years can understand about what they are doing to make the country a better place. It is no longer enough to blame others—the neo-colonialists, forces against progress or whatever—for lack of clear vision about what needs to be done.
At the head of it all, President Yoweri Museveni needs to state clearly what his priorities are for the New Year. What he would like to see accomplished within the year, and who will be responsible in seeing that those goals are carried out, and what will happen to those responsible when the goals are not met. Best wishes to all in 2008.
Opiyo.oloya@sympatico.ca