A recent survey by Afrobarometer – an independent, non-partisan research project has confirmed what many Ugandans already knew: that the country has been mismanaged! The survey established that 82% and 72% of the urban and rural folks respectively believe Uganda is headed in the wrong direction. This trend has been catalysed, among other things, by corruption, blatant abuse of public resources, and lack of government commitment to abate drivers and effects of inflation.
While this trend is a grievous concern for ordinary Ugandans who are increasingly finding life unliveable, the ruling clique and system sycophants – who are living lavishly on state resources - have dismissed any claims of economic hardship as a hoax! To stress their point, they have threatened, quite recently, to prosecute whoever openly protests the harsh living conditions under economic terrorism rules – whatever that refers to.
Undeniably, the Attorney General’s superfluous issuance of a statutory instrument in April, out-lawing the Activists for Change (A4C) movement portrays how far the regime will go to make good of their threat! Of course, the regime has hitherto blatantly refused to accept that the A4C movement is an embodiment of citizens’ discontent with the regime’s management of public economic resources.
The sycophantic unleashing of section 56 (2) (c) of the Penal Code Act against A4C coincided with the leaking of a cabinet report, which revealed that the regime spends 377 billion shillings annually on treatment of senior regime functionaries. This annual bill is said to be nearly equal to what donors contribute towards the country’s annual health budget! No wonder those in government and benefiting from such schemes have callously dismissed claims of economic decadence as machinations of the opposition.
The callousness of the regime and its sycophants is nearly reminiscent of the brutality of the execution detail which dragged an innocent Jesus Christ to his crucifixion. Christians will remember that at Golgotha, a rag-tag gang of soldiers nailed a thoroughly tortured Jesus on the cross before hoisting him up, between two criminals. As they waited for him to die, they tossed dice, gambling away on how they would share his robes. But in the midst of all this, Jesus marshalled his residual strength to shout: “father, forgive them for they do not understand!” (Luke 23:34).
There is no doubt that this regime has unleashed torture upon its own citizens – literary, figuratively, and metaphorically! A4C have been severely clobbered and violently arrested for protesting the hash economic conditions; Ugandan mothers are 300 times more likely to die giving birth than their counterparts in developed countries – due to infection, haemorrhage, etc. Moreover, 130 for every 10000 Ugandan children die before their fifth birthday, making Uganda one of world’s riskiest places for infants. Yet, probably less than 200 of Uganda’s top leaders lie back with the assurance that they can always access part of the 377 billion shilling foreign medical cover kitty – should any of them or their family members fall sick.
As a largely Christian people, Ugandans could easily have said to the regime…we forgive your heinous transgressions, commissions and omissions – in the same spirit in which Jesus forgave his tormentors at Calvary. After all, the canonical gospel of Luke reminds us of Jesus’s impatience with those who call him Lord yet cannot do what he says (Luke 6:46).
The question we need to ask though is: Is the regime and its functionaries forgivable? Can we do what the son of man did in his last hour: pay evil with benevolence? May be---who knows, but most likely not! Jesus can, but I’m not under any illusion that most Ugandans can or will! Instead, most Ugandans seek or will seek justice. Time will tell, but I trust all those who have had a hand in the mismanagement of public resources must and will account for their commissions, omissions, and transgressions. Justice may be delayed but it cannot be averted!
