Ugandan children - save us from ourselves!

Mansions can always be razed to the ground and re-erected. A nation’s spirit, once lost, may never be regained.

Having thought on the matter a while, it is now my considered opinion that Museveni’s greatest ill-legacy to the country shall not be stunted infrastructural growth or bad economics.

 Indeed – quite a case can be made for how rapidly the country has ‘grown’ physically under his stewardship; with the capital Kampala, and other major towns experiencing a skyscraper boom, a tarmac-road infestation and ‘tin’ roofed houses populating even the remotest of Ugandan villages.

While the equity of distribution of this physical development, and its impact on the lives of ordinary Ugandans can always be questioned; its visibility cannot be denied. Yoweri has been the president of remarkable ‘physical’ growth. Only the physiologically blind and willfully obscurantist can deny him this credit.

But this, comrades, has come at a grave cost – an almost proportional decline in our nation’s ‘intellectual’ flourish. While no empirical studies have been conducted to verify that the psycho-metric Intelligence Quotients of modern-day Ugandans are significantly lower than their counter-parts of earlier days, it is evident in many ways, including but not limited to;

1.      The level of debate among the nation’s leaders – which is often uninformed, skewed and unproductive. Our parliamentarians as we all know prefer discussing trivialities like the mini-skirt bill, trading tribal insults and plotting corruption; as compared to the August Houses that advocated our independence or discussed our economic alignment in the late 60s.

2.        In the quality of graduates churned out of our tertiary learning centers, some daring enough to call themselves Universities. It is such an annoying fact that no meaningful economic, political or social ideas are coming out of the nation’s Universities. And indeed – the students that are released into the economy are mostly worse versions of what has been released for the past 50 years. No new methods of operation are witnessed by employers, no new policies are tabled before Parliament, no new strategies are devised for community development.

I am in no way hesitant to say that the present generation of Ugandans, the so-called Museveni generation, is the least creative, least industrious, least smart and least productive lot this country has ever had.

To be more blunt – today’s Ugandans are the most inane, dull and dim-witted citizenry ever in the nation’s short history.

This is the man’s worst legacy to this country. A citizenry whose standards are so low, and so removed from reality that they are nothing but empty-headed caskets of consumerism grappling with a litany of socio-economic contradictions they are unable to fathom!

While the deductions above are almost as cruel as they are presumptuous – it pains me to conclude that there is too much evidence to stake them on.

We are as politically passive, apathetic and fearful as they come. While I am not an advocate of anarchy in the name of political activism, I find that too many of my countrymen agree on how great a need there is for national reform. However, despite this almost unanimous concord – only a paltry few have the guts to give their discontent voice. The rest of the Ugandans are;

1.       Resigned to their fate. This is especially true of the masses of peasants in Ugandan villages across the nation who only value their dignity as equivalent to half a bar of soap donated every five years.

2.      So disillusioned that they retreat to ethnic politics; the traditionalist and pseudo-elitist types that choose to ally themselves with pre-colonial monarchies and tribal kingdoms that are so archaic and regressive to the needs of modern day reality. The ‘Kabaka’ and ‘Obugabe’ and ‘Emor-Mor’ enthusiasts lie here.

3.      So parochial that they become apathetic. A huge chunk of young Ugandans lie herein. They have wholly divorced themselves from their civic duties and only have one motto – ‘Politics Sucks’! And worse still – they think it’s cool to be apolitical. They now have as their life’s pursuits; losing themselves in professional careers and embracing Anglo-American culture so much that they know and care more about P-Diddy and Beyonce than about their nation’s GDP!

This is why it is not only good, but desperately necessary to have a leadership transition – and have it soon.

Because we need a leader who’ll not portray him or herself as the fountain of ‘thinking’ – thereby usurping the thinking rights and capacity of almost all his citizens – as Mr. Yoweri seems to have done.

Uganda is at a time of rebirth, and we need an excellent midwife. The next Head of State must know how best to save both mother and child. It is time we started building a totally new system of education and knowledge acquisition for the youngsters in kindergarten – for these are the saviors of Uganda.

Unlike us, the young are accepting of change because they have no stake in the system. They have no shame to suffer, no comfort-zones to stir from, no reputations to lose, no 'illusions' or 'investments' to hold onto. 
This is why they make the best agents of change.

As for we adult Ugandans – alas - all hope is lost!

Cry indeed – the beloved banana-land!

Surumani Manzi.