What will it profit a leader to gain his oil and be at war with his citizens?

I went to school with a guy, who, for the sake of this story, we shall call Kanyama. I am hoping he won’t read this week’s column. Kanyama was of a bulky build and mostly dabbled in sports, especially rugby. He was a generally nice guy on his day but with such a short fuse, you didn’t know when he would short-circuit.

As you would expect of early teenage boys, there was always something to argue over – from girls to movies, to sports and everything between that – and blow that fuse. When arguments would get heated and testosterone stirred, they would be ended swiftly, with slaps and punches (or the threat of) – whenever Kanyama was involved. 

Ergo, more than one or two people ended up bruised and brawled because of the inability for one to engage in civility. During one of those frequent exchanges, a friend, Mugasha, quipped that perhaps, the reason Kanyama was so quick to flex muscles was because he wasn’t exercising his brain as much. As such, he needed to compensate for the intellectual deficiency with brawns. Suffice to say, there wasn’t much intellectual discourse flying around anyway – at least not always. No need to go on about how Kanyama responded to that, right?

Time has since passed and Kanyama has reinvented himself so much that even he would probably struggle to recognize his former self. It is hard to explain what inspired the change in temperament but those that remember him from high school are grateful that now, he is a notable name in the arts and a lot more known and respected for his craft.

This week, every time I scrolled through social media and saw photos of opposition supporters, government critics and activists with gruesome marks of torture, I remembered that exchange between Kanyama and Mugasha. Mostly, I hoped that whatever precipitated Kanyama’s reinvention eventually comes around to those who disappear and torture people that they disagree with simply because they are unable to ‘engage’ them.

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This week’s reopening of the Rwanda-Uganda border, coinciding with the announcement of the Final Investment Decision (FID) for oil and gas is the actual reopening of the economy. For years, many of us have argued that both sides of that border offer the best shot at expansion for entrepreneurs looking to experiment with scale. Our history and unique contexts make it inevitable, which also makes a mockery of the fact that we continue to fight over artificial boundaries.

Those who understand these oil things a lot better say that Ugandans should be very excited, in light of this new development. It has been a long time coming. The prospect of an investment of up to $ 15 billion in the economy is mouthwatering – even so, because of all the markets that are opening up.

We are told to expect jobs and increased incomes and opportunities from all the infrastructure, servicing contracts, direct and indirect investment. It is this windfall that will and should ultimately grease the wheels of many Ugandans to again, look at the market in Rwanda, and now, in Eastern DRC. It is also the kind of windfall that needs to awaken those in charge to the dangers of playing bad politics which lead to discontentment and violence.

As things stand, only government has the potential of screwing things up by failing to do what it must and then turning on its citizens to deal with discontentment. That can’t end well at home, for the neighbors and the investors.

Last year, the Africa report quoted finance minister, the chucklesome Matia Kasaija, saying how, “It is too early to tell where the money will be invested. We will first get it and then plan.” Well, whenever those conversations happen, they better have politics added to the agenda.

Those grisly images of torture and the illegal and heinous acts that precede them are repulsive and an indictment on the system’s inability to surveil and police. Even worse, acts of torture, disregard of due process and impunity continue to blur the line between what was and what it. They are a continuation of a cycle that was thought and said to have been broken, and propagate the continuity of violence in our politics and country, by setting that as the standard of dealing with dissent. It has been a while since an economy, anywhere, thrived in the middle of bad politics.

Mr Rukwengye is the founder, Boundless Minds. @Rukwengye