Why we shouild retire Ogwal’s seat

It was reported last Monday that, in the wake of Cecilia Ogwal’s death; seven aspirants have thrown their hats into the ring to duke it out for the Dokolo Woman MP seat. 

Laid to rest in a solemn ceremony at her home in Dog-Gudu Village, Alito Subcounty in Kole District last Friday, Ogwal has transitioned to the Great Beyond as the freak show that is our politics continues. 

Agreed, life does go on.

However, the outpouring of grief and adulation which met with Ogwal’s death is indicative of her enduring greatness. 

So why not use this moment to honour her further?

Let me explain. 

In sports, retiring the number of an athlete after that athlete has left the team, retired from the sport, or has died, is a way to honour that sportsperson by taking his or her former number out of circulation.

Professional football, much beloved by Ugandans, has witnessed clubs such as AS Roma, AC Milan, Ajax, Internazionale, Napoli, Manchester City, Lens, Lyon, Nantes and Swansea City retire shirt numbers; Milan retiring Franco Baresi’s Number Six shirt and Paolo Maldini’s Number Three. 

If we could do the same in politics, Ogwal’s seat would be similarly retired and thereby merged with another constituency. 

In fact, we should not stop there. 

Every outstanding parliamentarian who dies while still serving in Parliament should have their seat subsequently retired and merged with another precinct. 

Again, that fallen legislator should be honoured further by his or her family being taken care of as wards of the state. 

The positive effects would be manifold. 

Still, I shall name but a few. 

One, it would encourage parliamentarians to work in the public interest and thusly be accorded the same honour. 

In the process, MPs would fight to build legacies; instead of war chests buoying their chances of re-election. 

Two, as MPs do right by their constituencies in order to safeguard their legacies, their constituents will reap from this implied parliamentary altruism. 

Three, by retiring constituencies and thereby joining them to other constituencies, we will ease the cost burden on the national fiscus.

Four, and this feeds off the third effect, is that of the creation of larger constituencies by joining a deceased MP’s constituency to another one. 

This will lead to a less balkanized state. It would also lead to the benefits accruing to larger political communities.

These benefits of scale arise from the better provision of public goods, markets brought into closer harness to catalyze economic exchange as well as offering greater political power through lobbying and the protection against external shocks which come from economic downturns. 

In brief, we would be moving in the same spirit as that which is shaping the formation of the East African Federation. And, I might add, bringing us closer to national unity and pan-African togetherness.  

We all agree that we have too many parliamentary seats, so why not kill several birds with a single stone by honouring stellar public service and reducing governmental costs?

This may even be called the Ogwal bill, if ever tabled in parliament. 

I sincerely believe we must sluice our crocodile tears when important personages die by not only ensuring they tower in death. But by turning their deaths into monuments to the exemplary lives they lived. 

Anything short of this will expose our eulogies for the dead as perfunctory and procedural.

The subtext of which recalls the words of François-Marie Arouet, better known by his nom de plume M. de Voltaire, when mocking such eulogies: “He was a great patriot, a humanitarian, a loyal friend; provided, of course, he really is dead.”

Mr Philip Matogo is a professional copywriter  
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