Book review: Prof Bashasha offers success tips through the Third Eye

Aglobe-trodden Prof Alex Bashasha sieves bits of fundamental developmental ideas from his doctoral dissertation to feed the thirsty Ugandan community.

His simplified 107-page book, a rulebook targeting mostly the millennials and future generations, is a fusion of culture, politics, economic and global trends, Ugandans and Africans at large must reflect upon.

27 consequential concepts
Prof Bashasha is precise in his prose, and identifies the existing problem before landing the potential remedy. 

His 27 opinionated chapters are scripted down in a palatable form that Primary, Secondary and University students can appreciate and comprehend.  To cut down on word monotony, the writer shrewdly appends accompanying coloured photos per chapter that inevitably helps to drive the point home.

His opening sub topic is about ‘why children from elite families are losing identity’.  He takes a veiled jibe at the growing trend for elites to have their kids speak fluent English whilst paying no particular attention to their mother tongues. 

And Prof Bashasha avails the fact that there are more than 7000 languages worldwide and each language has its own uniqueness in a way that it reflects the culture and traditions of the people who speak it.

The lasting solution to him is for parents and caretakers to raise multilingual kids by speaking in their mother tongue at home and then mix English so that they get the cognitive skills that help them learn new things. Prof Bashasha dares to address the disturbing poor reading culture trend in Uganda by suggesting that people should have access to reading material in their vernacular language and the content should be more in African context.

Citing a slightly advanced Kenya, the writer hopes Uganda’s current 76.5 percent literacy rate and reading culture can improve if it is emphasised at every kid’s infancy stage.

He expertly ventures into politics and elucidates how Uganda’s 60 years pre independence dictated the 60 years after, talks the Parish Development Model (PDM) dos and don’ts and paints a picture of DR Congo and Kenya  volatile politics through the Ugandan lenses.
Unemployment vs insecurity

For a country saddled with an alarming unemployment rate especially among frustrated youths, Prof Bashasha asks if Africa’s labour export is a return to shadows. He notes with concern, the risky labour export to Arab countries that is a bane and boon.

It is surprising that with an average of 400 Ugandans leaving daily to work in the Middle East and with 231 local labour companies and 439 foreign companies registered by the Labour Ministry, soon there will be no jobs for African workers in the diaspora.

The recent spate of murders in the country has been catered for, with reviving the culture of community policing fronted as the ideal solution. Herein you will also find out why graduates continue to fail to get jobs in a state where more than  400,000 graduate each year to compete for only 150,00 jobs which are created annually. Prof Bashasha talks of the ‘oil curse’ just when Uganda is bracing for its own exploration but it is the December Non Aligned Movement (NAM) conference (to be held in Munyonyo) opportunities that will get every reader agitated. 

Livelihood change

Well versed in military, legal, business and educational spheres, Prof Bashasha invited the late Col (rtd) Charles Okello Engola to launch the book in Ntungamo on April 30 before the latter was fatal shot by his guard Pte Wilson Sabiiti at his home in Kyanja two days labour.

The former Labour minister, buried in Oyam District yesterday, had branded the book titled ‘Looking at development through the third eye’ a timely intervention that will change the unemployment narrative in Uganda.

Entrepreneur Dr Jack Kinobe Sserunkuma gave the book a fitting foreword, terming it as a perfect blend of various eye opening ideas. To him, Prof Bashasha thoughts are intended to promote grassroots development and to encourage the people to take deliberate actions towards causing upward change in their respective communities, regions and the country at large.

Prof Bashasha unequivocally reveals he was inspired to pen down these researched thoughts to emphasise the drastic paradigm shift required in improving the lives of vulnerable and impoverished people in our societies. He prefers the down-top processes of development to the common top-down approach.  Prof Bashasha’s wish is for the book to be available to most tertiary institutions at an affordable fee and that is why he set a Shs20,000 cost, the quality of each printed copy notwithstanding.

To me, it was the veiled technique of dealing with sycophants that thrilled me most.  The writer advises that we should look deeply into our own being to understand individuality and how we react to situations in relation to people around us.

Indeed, it is this experience Third eye, which can lift you from your current state of lament to a level of renewed belief henceforth.