As new Church year begins, may God bless, guide, protect and save Uganda

In Church calendar, today is first Sunday of Advent and hence the first day of a new liturgical year. Last year, the new Church year fell on December 1, next year it will be on November 28 and in 2022 it will be on November 27, which by coincidence is my birthday.
I wish all Christians a Happy New Year. May the peace of God which passes all understanding dwell in our hearts and minds and inspire us to do what is right and especially what will give glory to our Father in heaven.

Ongoing events in Uganda, especially since campaigns for the 2021 elections began on November 9, are disturbing, worrisome and a cause for concern to all patriots, friends of Uganda and people of goodwill everywhere.
In this regard, I would like to echo and associate myself with the ominous warning sounded by my fellow political scientist, Dr Moses Khisa, in his Saturday Monitor column of November 21 in which article he argued:

“Uganda is at a dangerous political crossroads. Our politics is in the sewers. Our social fabric is in the air. We are a fragile nation and with the potential for implosion, which has become more glaring with time and rendered susceptible to a simple spark.”
I thank comrade Khisa for the frank, pertinent and timely warning, which I hope will not be dismissed by anybody, but will instead be accorded the serious consideration it deserves. A friend who is a regular reader of Sunday Monitor lamented recently that he fears Uganda has been cursed.  

What the NRM regime and especially what the corrupt, decadent and greedy ruling clique has done for more than 30 years in Uganda is to implement what US president John Kennedy warned during the 1960s. Kennedy warned:  “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, make violent revolution inevitable.”
As an optimist, I believe that peaceful change is still possible in Uganda, but time is running out fast and time is regrettably not on the side of peace-loving Ugandans and people of goodwill.

Former president Milton Obote and former vice president Paulo Muwanga would feel vindicated and both must be smiling in their graves and saying: “We told them so and like the proverbial ostrich they buried their heads in the sand and refused to listen.” During the 1980s Obote often warned, in his own words, “those who give sanctuary and support to the bandits.” I hear many of those people are regretting. 

What is happening in Uganda is a tragedy of monumental proportions because it was predictable. Ugandans were warned many times by many people, including a freedom fighter and a revolutionary African leader who argued correctly at an OAU summit in Addis Ababa in July 1986 that Africa’s problem is leaders who overstay in power and cling to power shamelessly and tenaciously like ticks on a cow.
Ugandans have suffered more than enough since Uganda achieved Independence in 1962. 

As a people we should by now have learnt many lessons from our painful history. There is absolutely no reason why history must repeat itself as if Ugandans are deaf and dumb. This is the challenge facing Uganda’s patriots and especially persons who aspire for leadership at local, regional and national level. Uganda deserves a lot better.

Ugandans must not be passive onlookers as our beloved country is on a downward spiral and descending fast towards a bottomless pit. We must put aside our ethnic, regional, religious and political differences and save Uganda from anarchy, chaos and falling apart.
On this auspicious day when a new Church year begins, may God bless, guide, protect and save Uganda.

 Mr Acemah is a political scientist and retired career diplomat.
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