Museveni Can Pull A Hat Trick Finally

 Museveni Can Pull A Hat Trick Finally

 

Tom Muyunga-Mukasa

 

The first 20 years after independence derailed Uganda. 

Unlike many of the African countries which were taking the reigns of control after independence, Uganda did not undergo the kind of weaning preparation that linked it to nationalistic, economic, cultural, political and social progression. 


After 35 years, Museveni has scored on the security front, next come democracy and governance. 

Uganda is fast tracking toward the middle-income nation goal and this has been possible through attracting investors and government commitment toward industrialization. 


The state structures are not distant from the common references, conceptions, recollections, sufferings, claims, hopes, sentiments and symbols. Protected speech in Uganda comes in many shades. Ugandan evangelicals easily adopt such titles like Apostle, Prophet hacking back to Moses or Jesus and a God complex fraught with theatricals and it is accepted. 


Some members of the opposition don the Che Guevera style head-gear and the government does not approve. The government metes out a providential punishment to the opposition where and when it sees fit. People with opposing views delivered with fiery rhetoric on different FM radios in Uganda still go back home and wake up without the state apparatchik going after them. Intellectualism is allowed to thrive side-by-side with anti-intellectualism. This exposes people to all sorts of information including conspiracy theories.

 

Unemployment Trends in Uganda 1961-2021


Unemployment refers to the share of the labor force that is without work but available for and seeking employment. Source: Microtrends

 

A politico-historical characterization of Uganda is necessary to decipher Museveni’s neorealist capital. 


Democratic institutions are referenced when talking about development and the examples many give are the United States, Sweden, Germany, South Korea, Vietnam, China, Russia, India, Canada, The United Kingdom and Australia. 


Museveni has shown that democracy and governance take time and that they are nurtured in the fertile grounds of nationalism or security. Museveni has invested the first 35 years in playing with nationalistic ideas and the need for upholding security. He prepared a seedbed for democracy and governance to thrive.

 

The question is not whether or not Uganda is democratic, richer or poorer but rather, whether as a state Uganda enjoys the critical integrity so that the diverse needs, identities, cultures, will, desires and interests contribute to the critical agency, productivity, self-esteem and confidence necessary for all the people to thrive. 


In Uganda elements that define a democracy exist especially monitory, representative, constitutional and direct democracy most vividly at local government levels. However, so much needs demystifying like the fallacy and expectation that people join politics as, what Museveni terms careerists, to earn lots of money rather than create an influencer environment for peace, tranquility, investment, mobility and pursuance of happiness.


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