THE NATION, THE DEBATE, and THE CANDIDATES – PART I

On the 15th-January-2016 Uganda through the interreligious Council and the elders forum held a presidential candidates debate. My knowledge of history does not allow me to conclude whether it was the first or not. But as a Theologian and a christian philosopher this was my best event so far this year. Well I had written earlier in my article before the debate that DEBATING is not our (Africans and Uganda) thing and I gave two reasons:

1-Feudalism: Africans from their cultural roots are not liberals (free thinkers) but conservatives (guided and determined thinking)…therefore democracy is something we hear of but never experience it. And I asked a very fundamental question: WHO EXERCISES DEMOCRACY WITH THEIR KIDS, WIVES AND WORKERS AT WORK? and of course without democracy things like debating are clearly an impossibility.
2-National Values: Uganda is a country that has no National language (at least practically) and it was yesterday that it got national identity cards. In such a country you can imagine whether it has anything like “AGREED UPON ELECTORAL ISSUES” like in the western world (US,UK,etc) upon which a debate ought to rotate.

So basically my argument was, that DEBATING was a very good idea and yes everything has a beginning but we must always begin from the bottom to the top rather than the reverse. Let’s first learn how to be Democratic in our homes and small institutions before we rape the state with a hypothetical Democratic practice like this. And secondly let us systematise this nation that has over 80 dialects and tribes and at least come up with a national language, then redefine our problems as a nation as opposed to individual and sectarian perspectives of: WHAT IS WRONG and therefore WHAT IS THE SOLUTION.

Uganda is not like Rwanda where 99.9% know kinyarwanda, it is not like Tanzania and Kenya where 99.0% know Swahili, it is not like Burundi where 100% know Kirundi, etc. Uganda is more of a country of immigrants just like the United States of America…and we can only survive the American way as opposed to monarchical approach of the common wealth.

I don’t believe in federal system of governance but I think the regional tier system is a proper one for this nation. We have 8 presidential candidates 70% of these are from the western region (Museven, Besigye, Mbabazi, Biraro, Baryamureeba)…25% are from the central region (Bwanika, Mabirizi) and 5% is from the eastern region (Maureen Kyalya).

When you look into the bureaucratic frame work of the incumbent government you will notice that still it is the:

1-Western Region= President, Chief Justice
2-Central Region= Vice president, UPDF Army Commander
3-Eastern Region= Speaker.

Now this shows that other regions are somehow somewhat not involved in top-most offices. or perhaps they are strategizing better. This shouldn’t be confused with sectarianism nor even politics but this is a failure of individual regions to groom people for these offices. Imagine the central region all it can produce is a Mabirizi Joseph…and the eastern region puts on the market place a Maureen Kyalya!!!? This is an abuse of democracy, traditional leaders (Buganda kingdom, busoga kingdom) and other influential regional stakeholders should always step in, in the process of vetting a regional presidential candidate. In unfortunately these kingdoms instead of looking at national (republic) concerns, they are hyper with beautifying their nests (buganda kuntiko) at the expense of the tree (Uganda) upon which the nest hangs.

The nation must come up with a system of empowering all the regions that make up our nation. And in the presidential elections we must have regional representatives running for the national seat…not every dick and harry who can afford the age and money.

I T WHITE
@Think & Become (Inspirational Link)
+256-793-822833