Forgive Dr Oledo, remove NRM party

On Tuesday, it was reported in Daily Monitor that a section of Uganda Medical Association (UMA) members sought the resignation of their president, Dr Samuel Odong Oledo.

The members of UMA raised their pitchforks to demand Oledo’s resignation after he led a medley of medical practitioners to kneel before President Museveni as Oledo begged him (Museveni) to contest again in 2026.

“Your Excellency, thank you. You have uplifted us (medical practitioners). We kneel before you after assessing that you are capable. We have assessed that you have the power. You have everything needed. Help us and contest again in 2026,” Dr Oledo said as he knelt before Mr Museveni.

The otherwise good doctor got down on bended knee as if he were proposing to Mr Museveni during the Youth Patriotism Symposium at Kololo Independence Grounds in Kampala last weekend.

In a statement released Sunday last, the UMA vice president, Dr Edith Nakku-Joloba and secretary general, Dr Herbert Luswata, said Oledo was on his own.

The statement revealed that Oledo attended the meeting at Kololo in his own capacity and not on behalf of UMA. And thus his (mis)behaviour was not emblematic of how UMA behaves.

Be that as it may, Oledo falling to his knees like he was about to serenade a smiling Museveni should not be seen for what it is but what it represents. It is a metaphor for a health system which is on its knees.

Uganda’s health system, or lack thereof, suffers from the many systemic afflictions which ail it.

As billions of shillings are frittered away on political expediency, the health sector is perennially underfunded.

Its funding, if we can call it that, falls far short of the budget allocation recommended by the Abuja Declaration, whereby the African Union member states pledged to allocate at least 15 percent of their national budgets each year to improving their healthcare systems.

Uganda is a signatory to the Abuja Declaration.

However, Uganda’s budgetary allocation orbits about 7-8 percent of the national budget.

This shortfall is indicative of widespread corruption, underpaid health workers, a shortage of health workers, inadequate supplies of medicines and essential equipment in government facilities, insufficient hospital beds, high costs of treatment, and poor accessibility to health services, particularly in rural areas.

In a recent survey, Afrobarometer, a pan-African, independent, non-partisan research network that measures public attitudes on economic, political, and social matters in Africa, revealed that 74 percent of Ugandans say they went without the necessary medicine or medical care at least once during the 12 months preceding the survey.

Now, with that in mind, the health care system is on its knees and Dr Oledo inadvertently epitomised this reality by getting on his own knees.

UMA, which is made up of more than 7,000 medical doctors in Uganda and abroad, should not be condemning him. But should instead reserve its ire for the political system which reduces Ugandans to such a beggarly state of affairs.

The former Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party president, Dr Kizza Besigye, said UMA should get rid of Dr Oledo for “disgracing” the medical profession. However, Dr Besigye’s call to arms is misplaced. And will serve as mere cosmetic surgery when the health system must undergo reconstructive surgery, now.

Accordingly, UMA are missing the forest for the trees by condemning a symptom of the rot (Oledo kneeling) instead of addressing the rotten National Resistance Movement (NRM) dispensation that has engendered it.

Meaning that UMA is aiming at the puppet instead of the puppeteer. So, when Oledo is gone, another Oledo will be found to take his place and thereby perpetuate the mess Uganda is mired in.

Mr Phillip Matogo is a professional copywriter

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