Things are worse than what you think My President
Greetings to you Mr. President Foremost, I would like to congratulate you for successfully ‘winning’ your 5th term, wishing you the best as you lead our beloved nation for the next five years.
As I pen this letter to you Mr. President, I am pretty sure that you are in sound health.
I was born a few years after your government came to power. And when I do some research, I am one of the 77 percent of Ugandans below thirty that know you as the only president they’ve ever seen.
At St. Mary’s Jjanya Primary School where I had my primary education brought courtesy of UPE, my primary four teacher Ms. Gertrude Kiberu struggled to change an opinion I had that you actually owned Uganda.
Growing up as kids, I had developed the erroneous thought that you controlled everything in this world, thanks to the daily habit by my friends chanting; “Bye Museveni, ondabira maama Janet” each time an aeroplane passed our skies.
For the same reasons Mr. President, some of my elderly friends and I then believed that only Museveni was the only Ugandan who could afford flying the aeroplane, until my elder sister travelled to Melbourne in Australia for her studies. Some even called it “witch-craft”.
Mr. President, I am writing all this to show you how much the people you lead used to fancy you if not idolize you.
I still recall the day you visited my home town Mpigi back in the 90s, when we were honored to sing for you wholeheartedly with “Museveni afuuse etaala empya Emulisiza Uganda etangaala” as part of our repertoire.
My Passion for you Mr. President made me hate your opponents including a one Joseph Kenyatta, a renowned DP supporter in our village who went to the extent of punishing his son Joseph Munuulo, for “singing for a liar”
I am a proud graduate of a bachelors degree in journalism but at the same time I remain jobless.
Worse still, I have always sighed with pain at the fact that things in Mpigi, my home town and District have always been on a down–word spiral.
I am also disturbed by the fact that on a number of occasions I have visited Mpigi, it has remained almost the same old dusty, impoverished rural area almost detached from the economic life of much of Uganda.
In that state of affairs, especially with my peers understandably complaining of lack of Jobs, horrible health conditions, worrying roads and the dwindling agriculture, they are no longer singing your name and the last time I met some of them, they were instead chanting “Towa baasi yaako!
It is not any wonder Mr. President that criminal gangs popularly known as Kifeesi are conquering some sections of the city?
Owing to such my dear President, old friends whom I found singing Besigye’s praises intimated to me that they were long tired of your usual political rhetoric of “we shall create jobs, build dams etc. which they grumble over has never come to reality.
Similarly, I am in constant battle with feelings of regret each time I look at my transcript, especially in view of my understanding that a good government must care for its people by creating jobs, regulating the economy and controlling commodity prices in the interest of her people.
On the contrary Mr. President, I am baffled at the state of coffee prices for example which was once the source of income from which my parents paid my tuition at the university.
Stop waste
Too much money spent on endless celebrations is a total waste.
I cried when I read in papers that (NRM) spent a billion (Uganda) shillings on “just a cake” and I was left wondering how fraudulent your people can get.
I compared it (the cake) with the one that was served at Kabaka’s wedding. Much as it never cost even half of that money, it served over 10,000 people.
How I wish that one billion would be injected into youth projects back home in Mpigi and how it would prevent my old friends from starving as well as spending days in wasteful ventures including gambling.
I am also amazed at the way police and other security agencies trail Dr. Besigye.
If a liter of diesel is priced at 3000/ shillings and a car that trails Dr Besigye for example consumes 100 liters per day that is a total of 300,000/ capable of starting a piggery project for my fellows back in the village. But alas it is all wasted!
The solution for Besigye’s challenge is simple. Let him walk! Period. I guarantee in a years time, Ugandans would have forgotten about his walks .
Equally, the money wasted each day on suppressing unnecessary riots costs us so much and I would like to inform you that those riots are fueled by the police itself.
Above all Mr. President the people who come close to you are self seekers and deceitful liars who mercilessly deceive you that we are happy and that we are steadily progressing. Mr President we are miserably leaving in poverty, surviving on chapatti and water to the extent that many of your people don’t know the taste of soda for which many of them supposedly attend your rallies
Caveat
My President, I was one day shocked when my wife looked straight into my eyes and said “Gabriel I am soon leaving you” and I was left agape asking why.
She retorted “much as you are a good, hard working and educated man but for the mere fact that you can’t cater for my family am sadly leaving you to marry another man who will both feed my parents and educate my siblings”.
Mr. President you have continually said the Economy has expanded several times, but I have always asked where are the benefit since majority still live in scathing poverty, drive on poor roads and suffer from unemployment.
And yet many of us wouldn’t complain about your longevity in power Mr. President if only your leadership could address our needs and concerns, after all it is never too late to make amends.
I wish you all the best Mr. President.
Gabriel Buule (The Writer is a Journalist and blogger) Buuleg669@gmail.com/ @gabrielbuule +256700391620
