Civic education is the seed of a fresh spirit of citizens

According to Alliance for Campaign Finance Monitoring (ACFIM), President Museveni is estimated to have spent a minimum of $231m (Shs773b) in the 2016 campaigns.

Kampala Central Member of Parliament Muhammad Nsereko said this week that there was nothing amiss regarding Kampala Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago hobnobbing with Gen Caleb Akandwanaho alias Salim Saleh.

The echoing for more citizens in the public or private corridors to leave a footprint of a legacy rather than tributes of self aggrandizement grows louder each year. It is that cadre of dutiful nationals who are able and willing to take responsibility for themselves and their communities that Uganda will be proud to bountifully harvest for generations. As 2023 unfolds, there is no higher call to civic responsibility than the recommitment to irrigate the seed of loyal citizenship in truth, word and deed. 

The open invitation to promote a sense of duty to country, raise awareness about public and private development drivers and opportunities, instill confidence and pride about our identity is what needs to define our New Year resolutions. In shaping new beliefs, fresh attitudes, moulding values and behaviour of citizens, we have our role cut out to reinvigorate a renewed sense of ‘Ugandanness’ rooted in the African creed of dignity, social justice, morality, solidarity, compassion, hard work and conciliation. Through this spirit, demonstrable on a national scale, we will communally retard the wave of creeping ethnocentrism, sectarianism, intolerance, anger, hate-based violence and corruption.

This renewed sense of national duty will deepen public consciousness that when you steal, you have deprived your own home and that the corrosive effect will be ultimately borne by your family. This level of enthusiasm demonstrates that if society condones theft, such behavior will only continue to grow.

However, if society communally shames theft, acts of thieving will become increasingly distasteful to a civically mindful society. 

When the medics cry today, they cry alone; when the teachers are lamenting, they have only themselves to bemoan with; when the farmers whine, it is only them whining; when traders wail, no one else stands with them. Recently, when budding artistes expressed their discomfort, it was a solitary tone of the creative industry. Similarly, when the media fraternity laments, no other profession bewails with the scribes and so does it happen among different ethnic groups in our beloved country, Uganda! We need not only feel each other’s pain but also share in the delight of each other’s victories.

That way, when we lose, we bear the loss together and when we win, we win together so that even when we disagree, we disagree respectfully and still co-exist peacefully.

Our generation’s call is therefore to inspire, more than ever before, social cohesion, drumming the point that after all is said and done, we are one and we are brothers and sisters and Uganda is our only Home. This way, we will be able to nourish the nation’s central nervous system which makes us feel each other’s pain; so that, rather than each community looking out for itself, we, as a nation, look out for each other. 

We need to get the younger generation to appreciate the value of hard work, sacrifice, discipline and self-confidence. With these blocks, we can mould a citizenry of passionate and patriotic ‘go-getters’ who are able to identify and constructively use the opportunities around them. By any standard,

Uganda is abundantly blessed by geography, the climate, the fertile soils, the beautiful landscape, the biodiversity, the flora and fauna, the people, the intellect and creativity.

Talking about economic opportunities, how many citizens know that, as a country, we have 279 agro-processing facilities spread across 111 districts of Uganda under the Community Agricultural Infrastructure Improvement Programme? In each district, there is at least a maize mill, coffee huller, milk cooler or rice huller but natives are unaware of these opportunities and therefore cannot leverage them. 

Beyond agriculture, there are about 20 zonal rural incubation industrial centers to promote skilling, job creation, agro-processing and value-addition for agricultural products. There are national industrial parks created to spur industrialization for job creation alongside modern urban markets built across the country. How many businesses or even individuals are taking advantage of these facilities to circumvent the hurdles of markets, unemployment and poverty? With such prospects, each citizen has more than a head start. 

However, in the midst of economic challenges, we are unfortunately blind to the opportunities and oblivious of the power within us to redefine our economic destiny. The moment we ever resolve that we will no longer be a pitiable lot, our fetters will unfasten and the prospects will become apparent. 

This year, 2023, is the table for leaders and the citizens to have a candid conversation and honestly ask themselves what they can do for their country rather than what the country can do for them. Our daily grain for the rest of the year is cut out to reorient citizens’ mindsets for increased responsibility and effective participation in sustainable national development. 

Rekindling awareness, a positive and forward-looking attitude whilst socializing Ugandans in the African conviction of doing the right thing at all times regardless of who else is doing the wrong thing, is the mantle for each one of us to take on for the year.

The clarion call to all of us in this New Year is to deliberately invest in reshaping citizens’ attitudes so that we can drive more energy into constructive results. In preparing learners for the future as opposed to readying the future for them, lasting value lies in incorporating civic education in our school and home learning curricula as we start the journey to mindset change. 

Crispin Kaheru, Member, Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC)