Praying for patience this week

This is the week that the Lord has made for Uganda to shine. The long-awaited Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and Group of 77 (G77) + China summits are here. Kampala is promising to be busy.

Ugandans should have thought about asking government to declare the week a ‘public week’ holiday, if such a thing exists. A ‘Summit Week’ declaration would have given Ugandans a chance to stay home and learn more about the summit.

For instance, we could look back to the Covid-19 year of 2020, declare all summit proceedings mandatory broadcasts on television and radio, with the newspapers giving us worthy analyses to keep us busy the whole week. Our media consumption would improve for good.

Think about the traffic flow plans. It may have been easier for the Inspector General of Police to order all motorists who are not travelling out of the country to stay home for the week.

Looking on the bright side, the traffic flow inconveniences are nothing in comparison to the other benefits. The infrastructure work, without thinking of the costs of doing them and value for money, will remain with us and we can see more street lights as we travel after the summit.

We can also take off every Sunday to go to Munyonyo to take pictures, even if we are charged Shs10,000 as entry fee into the conference facility for those interested in only pictures. Who needs to eat when for a fee, they can take pictures that will make Ugandans not look like a joking subject on social media? Things are getting better; they would tell the world. This would not only showcase our country to the world but also boost local tourism and private business.

Ugandans are very good people. There is no need for government to beg them to be nice. The signs are everywhere, we rarely rock the boat but try to balance them. We call it our culture. If you grew up in an average family with an open-door policy and lived in a town or city, you most likely are familiar with the concept of ‘special treatment’ for guests.

When I became an adult, I learnt that Uganda had a law that ‘outlawed’ embarrassing foreign dignitaries. Yes, you could go to jail for embarrassing a foreign head of state.

National guests mean bigger spoils like a completed flyover. So let us pray for more summits, with all the benefits. Surely, we can be good to delegates.

My initial reaction to all the traffic controls and diversions at critical junctures was disbelief. The big picture quickly took over. It suddenly seemed like a small price to pay. A week of inconvenience for ‘locals’ is worth the other benefits, I reasoned.

We could have been given these plans in advance so that we locals would stay away from the airport too. Talking of the airport, things are looking up and we can in part thank NAM for speeding things up. It seemed like a bottomless pit with nothing to show for it at some point.

Did I hear ministers and government officials are getting trained to be nice to our guests? Who is making fun of our people when we are naturally gifted to be nice? We are gifted both by nature and nurture. That should be our mantra. Those who only remember nature do not do Ugandans justice when one thinks of what they give up in the name of being nice to visitors.

We can do more, say plan better for designated delegate roads so that in future, there is no headache for the police to plan for major disruptions. We could also plan for an airfield in Munyonyo so that immigration finds some small space at the good facility and instead of convoys we can provide some helicopters to carry delegates from Entebbe to Munyonyo without the inconvenience of roads, normal airport procedures and other things that might make their lives difficult. Surely some land can be found around Munyonyo and we avoid all security risks too.

In the meantime, may journalists not capture those embarrassing moments. May we demonstrate patience as good citizens. And, if your boss is kind, ask to work remotely.

Ms Maractho (PhD) is the director of Africa Policy Centre and senior lecturer at Uganda Christian University.                       [email protected]