Reconciliation is good but in what format?

That the Justice and Constitutional Affairs minister has advised the government to create a platform tailored to reconcile the country is a first step in the right direction.

By stating that Uganda is “a hypocrisy where everyone is pretending to do something”, and that “People cannot heal unless they talk about what’s hurting them”, Minister Norbert Mao is right, but that is just the tip of the ice bag.

The country, with one of the world’s youngest populations, has a cocktail of challenges affecting the citizens. They include unemployment, poor health services, poor quality education, bad infrastructure, high cost of living, and disease.

Many Ugandans are said to be suffering from some form of mental illness occasioned by many of the issues listed above.

The calls by Mr Mao come in the middle of a raging debate over claims that the majority of government job placements and government programmes are going to one particular region of the country.

Mr Mao makes an important call. But how can we take this forward? Does everyone who is in position to reverse this trend feel the same way? Are they willing to make this change? Is there political will to it? Many questions come in this regard.

The bottom line is that all Ugandans deserve equal distribution of resources and services, and even to the means to those resources be it through jobs, government programmes, and so on.

We do not want a repeat of what Mr Mao said that “All the wrongs of the Idi Amin regime were attached to the West Nile. All the wrongs of Milton Obote were attached to the [Langi], and all the wrongs of President Museveni are attached to Ankole”. Leadership must never be seen to benefit the area where the President hails from. It must benefit everyone equally.

 Like the minister said, “No tribe filled an application to belong to Uganda. The British put us in one box and we must find a formula to live together”. It only means we now must walk the talk started by Mr Mao.

The ever increasing stressed population is only a recipe for disaster, and if we do not take the initiative to rectify this, the country could plunge into chaos in the near future.

Our appeal, therefore, is that the reconciliation that the minister has called for should be meaningful – if it ever happens. It must address all – or most – of the issues Ugandans are going through.

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