Uganda is so sweet, we fear to taste it

It all started when someone in a Uganda Cranes replica jersey chided me and ‘several other Ugandans’ for not being patriotic.
Uganda was to play Algeria that night. But I was on my way home to sleep instead of going to the pub to cheer for the Uganda Cranes.

ALSO READ: Under NRM the concept of work has died

A week ago, we stayed up until the wee hours of the morning watching the European Champions League final. English team, Liverpool FC lost to Real Madrid, the giants of Spanish and European/global football. He lectured me for ‘despising our things,’ in favour of those of European countries.

He went on, “Those countries you hold in high esteem and think of highly, were once like ours, even worse off. But they worked their way to the top because they love what belongs to them and are willing to do anything to get to the top. They can even kill and loot for the country. What do you think colonialism and all these wars in Iraq, Syria, Ukraine etc., are all about?”

That is how great nations are built. People have to unreservedly love their country first and be willing to endure heartbreaks, at times die for them.

We are at our best when criticising and despising our own things -most times with shallow analysis, without proper context or providing solutions.

From his breath you could tell it was a whine induced tirade despite the seeming conviction. The next day we continued with the conversation. I quickly took him to an inbox exchange we had some time back.

MUST READ: Village drunkards have taken their ‘funeral services’ online

He said he was once scared for people like Timothy Kalyegira who say bad things about the government. His advice was that they should at least have a visa, ready to take off if the authorities got angry. He then brought me to speed about his own situation.
Not that he says bad things about the government, but madam and the children are already in Canada.

He visits them once in a while and that their future is more secure there than here.

Most importantly, all they need is a good education which Uganda does not provide or costs an arm and a leg. There is hardly a job which pays that well!

ALSO READ: Where has Uganda’s borrowed money gone?

He named a number of people who have migrated. This list included wives and children of prominent people in the government.

So what about the lecture on patriotism the previous night? He literally looked me straight in the eye and said he was unapologetic about everything he said and still stuck by it.

So as a patriot why didn’t he have his family here to build the country? He said we only live once so it is risky to be a guinea pig. What if Uganda does not work out?

Besides, he said it was increasingly likely that change in Uganda from President Museveni to whoever would come from within NRM. The trouble with this is that that process may be because of a fallout of different factions due to disagreement over corruption, tenders and the desire to grab other national resources.

It may not be smooth and people in their right minds were putting a foot outside in safer havens, just in case. These things are not new. I only wanted to torture my man with irony. He came out as I anticipated.

When we were young, we listened and danced to the music of Phil Collins. In his chart busting song Two Hearts, Phil Collins has a cryptic line that goes, ‘if you don’t have faith in what you believe in, it is getting you nowhere.’

This is the dilemma of Uganda’s elite, especially the political class. There is a belief in many things Ugandan, but they are not willing to put themselves or rather risk their own to try them out. There is hardly any conviction about things Ugandan.

ALSO READ: Bisamunyu had a romantic attachment to a bygone Uganda

How many politicians have their children in Universal Primary/Secondary Education schools let alone education facilities in Uganda? But the story line is that we have one of the best systems and the cherry on the cake is that it comes free. The politician sends him abroad.

Most of them believe and sell the rhetoric that Uganda is one of the fastest growing economies in the world with sustained growth for the last three decades. It is a top grade investment destination. But they will not invest their money in it.  They will instead source for often phony foreign investors to do it and prop them up expensively of course for back door considerations. The story of building local capacity ends there.

We are urged to buy Uganda and build Uganda yet most of what the top echelons consume is from advanced European markets to suit their standards. There are many rosy figures about the creation of job opportunities for the youth but we are busy exporting them as cheap labour to deplorable and fatal conditions in the Middle East.

Uganda has a robust healthcare system yet the political class is the first to get on the plane at the taxpayers expense to Kenya, South Africa, Malaysia and India for safer management.
Thirty six years of NRM leadership have created a firm foundation for peace, unity and tranquility but what about the quest for visas to safety, especially European countries, for immediate members of their own families? Don’t they love the peace in the sun for them to opt for cold winters?

Why do people in power get uncomfortable when a roll call is made on the ethnicity of who holds which public job after years of good policies eliminating sectarianism?

In the current situation of high commodity prices, we are being called upon to tighten our belts as we wait for the temporary situation to normalise.

But do they believe in belt tightening as a viable solution? Well the members of the political class are getting huge allowances to shield them from the vagaries of inflation.

Not only that, they are spending on luxuries because they are entitled. It has been reported in the media that MPs have allocated themselves about Shs193b for their allowances in these trying times.

These are the same people who will urge health workers and teachers not to strike because of low pay but accept to serve the public instead as patriots. That is Uganda for you, a very sweet place no one is willing to stick their tongue out to taste. We believe in Uganda but have no faith in it.

Mr Sengoba is a commentator on political and social issues
Twitter: @nsengoba