The "People Power" hullabaloo

By Hudu Hussein

This article is addressed to the youth and those who truly love the youth in this Country.

It seeks to remind fellow young people about the continued risk of wasting out and diverting their potentials that are being undermined by mischievous political crybabies.

In Uganda, like in most developing democracies, the thinking of our young people is largely influenced by what they see, watch and hear, coupled with fake news. All of this, unfortunately, is from liars, distorters and unpatriotic politicians and/or their agents whose primary motive is winning power at all cost to satisfy their ego without a clear formula of improving young people's lives and transforming the Ugandan society.

We young people possess treasures of knowledge, skills and talent coupled with energy and vigor which should be put to productive use if we are to stand out as the only hope and precious resource for this country. If we are not well nurtured and guided, we can only but put such treasures to waste due to temptations of succumbing to political antics of selfish politicians whose highest desire is to use our energies for selfish political gains. Every young person should be on guard against these self-seeking politicians who are in fact misusing the democracy that this government has availed and rather use the prevailing peace to focus on developing themselves as they develop this country.

We have been lured into so much unnecessary and unproductive politicking while some sober colleagues are using their precious time to develop themselves. We now waste a lot of our precious time following opposition leaders who are stinking rich; owning bungalows, beaches, fuel stations and homes abroad while the youth dying for them remain poor because they spend their time on streets protesting in innocence. If these politicians really cared for us, they'd use the time and money that they extravagantly spend flying out for further treatment on designing better ideas and aiding us in our endeavors. If this exploitation is not intended to make them richer and better, what is its motive?

Instead of mobilising and organising the youth to involve in self-employment and job creation activities, the politicians are bent on using them for self-aggrandisement. Some Innocent youth have become cheer leaders of self-seekers under the ‘'people power'' dirty bubble. These are people working for modern day white imperialists abroad and using us as their blood sacrifice. We cannot allow this to continue. Majority of us under the influence of this devilish people power phenomenon are high jacked from betting centers and made to think that we are not worth anything yet if we can invest in our future, our lives would be a lot better.

Nonetheless, it is regrettable for example to continue having an obscene rate of graduate unemployment and underemployment yet there are lots of undone jobs waiting for somebody with a creative and committed mind to fix. Why can't the architects of people power movement for example design and implement a self-employment/job creation and behavior change programs for the youth who cause mayhem to the country's security agencies whenever they are mobilized to advocate and champion something? Why it is that one ghetto child is able to use the available opportunities, becomes rich, builds a beach, and constructs houses, etc. while his ghetto colleagues remain poor? It is this same class of people who made him rich by flocking and paying for his concerts that he has failed to transform but ready to manipulate and use as a stepping stone for greater things. He has not organized any serious charity concerts to give back to the community and uplift their living standards but he appears determined to exploit them more and lead them into trouble instead of developing them. Why can't Bobi use the method he used to help get the youth out of poverty before rallying them into trouble?

Hon. Bobi Wine does not have the backbone and skills to defend Uganda off the foreign vultures that seem to be on standby to grab the little we have as a country. In fact, we ought to remind everyone that colonialists did not leave colonial rule of Africa willingly. So, they will always try to find à soft entry point and as it appears, the Bobi Wine hullabaloo seems to present itself as a much softer button to use as entry point! The opposition should offer challenging alternatives such as mobilizing their funders to improve the lives of the youth. This alone will be adequate to influence elections. Nobody can claim to be a ghetto when he took advantage of a well led democracy to improve his living standard and left the true ghetto children still struggling with life and now seeks to use their blood to quench political thirst by turning them into rebels. Therefore, the people power hullabaloo is only intended to take advantage of the same unemployment poor youth to become richer.

The way forward, my fellow beloved youths, is to patiently embrace the government programs that are in place to make our lives better. We should unite and actively get involved in supporting each other instead of fighting one another. The way to prosperity is not hard but it only requires patience and hard work. Instead of investing our income and energies in vices such as demonstrations and sometimes gambling, I suggest that we invest in developmental businesses even at a small scale. We should never forget that our growth is the growth of this nation. Evangelists and prophets of doom like people power will only cultivate crime and prepare us for regret.

I appeal to us to instill the required mindset among our youth because if we are to achieve vision 2040, Uganda needs a generation of creative and disciplined young people, to can champion innovative ideas that will actualize wealth for this country championed by wealth creation programs and other government and non-government programs. If all that we shout about is that Museveni must go, we must pose and ask ourselves what next if he goes? The intolerance by some of the agitators for change has only demonstrated that this country needs Museveni even more than we thought. I think that the President is slowly but steadily prevailing over the transition process well. The confusion and lack of focus within our opposition parties and pressure groups is clear that they are mainly few self seekers disguising as parties. Let's have faith and listen to the guidance of the President and avoid trusting people who have clearly demonstrated to be foreign agents. Museveni has demonstrated his heart for this nation and it would be unfair to underestimate his voluminous achievements in exchange of visionless political excitements.

Much as this government is not perfect just like none is, a recent global research that ranked President Museveni as the 12th most successful President in the world is a vote of confidence in his leadership. This doesn't imply that Museveni is infallible but further indicates that as a passionate lover of peace he is a leader worth trusting even as regards proper transfer of power.

The writer is a communication assistant,Government Citizens Interaction Center (GCIC), MoICT & NG