Sona: Museveni must address here and now

Today President Museveni will carry out his constitutional role as Uganda’s head of state by delivering a State of the Nation address or Sona.   

Last year, besides juxtaposing the pre-1986 years of self-rule with his nearly four-decade reign as Uganda’s head of state, Mr Museveni—erroneously—told his audience that middle income status had been notched up.

He also held out the much-vaunted Parish Development Model or PDM as a simple, if seemingly magical solution, to Uganda’s complicated problem of poverty.

If Mr Museveni were to set out his stall in today’s Sona, doubtless he would come to the conclusion that the PDM threatens to mirror the disappointments of past poverty alleviation programmes.

In fact, there are a range of sticking points and pain points whose widely felt impact should have led the President to ask his subordinates some tough questions.

The iron sheets saga or mabaati-gate has threatened to cast a stain of corruption on a cabinet of “fishermen” whose simplicities Mr Museveni thought would stand Uganda in good stead. 

Whereas the central bank’s tight monetary policy has returned inflation figures to single digits, the impact of the fightback still wears thin in the pockets of many Ugandans.

If the PDM does not—as many observers fear—recover from the blow it has suffered, the country will remain detached from its lofty ambitions.

Recent developments revolving around the safety of Ugandans against criminal activity and gun violence has habituated the feeling that the spectre of a fear of the unknown looms large.

To worsen matters, casualties suffered and prisoners of war taken after al-Shabaab militants overran a Ugandan forward operating base in Somalia last month reflects poorly on what has always been President Museveni’s calling card.

We would like the President to use his Sona today to speak to these issues that are sticking out like the metaphorical sore thumb. 

On the issue of security, Ugandans—we believe—are desirous of knowing the causal factors associated with the recent spate of gun violence. Can we get a cogent response that is divorced from angry outbursts that derisively make mention of pigs?

Also the fact that lightning has struck twice in Somalia, following operational flaws that occasioned the 2015 Janaale fiasco, means that the sudden and ignominious failure in Bulo Marer cannot be reduced to a footnote.

The concerns of parents whose children comprise the boots on the ground in the war-torn Horn of Africa country deserve answers.

If President Museveni continues to meet the here and now with an obsession of historicisation, there is every chance that he will look arguably more out of touch as well as disturbing.

To assuage the fears of his ‘subjects’, we invite Uganda’s leader since 1986 to—for once—make his way through his latest Sona without referencing 1986.