A Governance Review in Uganda: How do we move forward from here?

Political parties in Uganda are important platforms for generating ideas from ordinary citizens and developing programs to mitigate them, through advocacy, legislative, legal, economic and political means. All of them are important to uphold good governance in Uganda. However, for successful operations, exhibiting internal good governance practices is key. The leaders of the political parties are servants of the members and of the citizens in general. Any deficiency in the best way they have resolved to serve the members and Ugandans implies the collapse of the covenant that unites them with the people they seek to serve. Of course, the consequences are dire and political party leaders pay a lot, whether in the short or long term.

The country has evolved to a level where development stakeholders take parallel paths, unwilling to compromise and insensitive to the wishes of the people they lead. The difference between actions then and now is boldness and lack of remorse as gods of life, controlling the consequences that arise from their actions.

The country has come a long way to where it is now. The country found itself without strong control systems to guide leadership. The country was at stake, aimlessly and with a known future. At the time, the country was experiencing the worst levels of economic and political crises in history, largely self-propagated by the elites of the time. This was a period of time stretching from the Amin era (1971 to 1979), shortly after its fall (1979 to 1980) and into the early 1980s. From the same, more organized elites, order was enforced. and peace in Uganda, which most citizens longed for, celebrated, took pride in, and worked hard to support the country’s prosperity. The country has been governed since 1986 on the basis of ideological sanity, the discipline of men and women in the forces and elective offices, where citizens compete for the highest offices in the country and elect the leaders of their choice, only until concerns about the rise of foreigners. Governance interests distorted trust in the countries themselves, products of the struggle: democratic governance and the rule of law. Otherwise, the country freed itself from anarchy, political decay and collapsed economy, to one of the rapidly developing economies it will have in the region. This changed as priorities shifted to invest in security more as the “foundation of good governance” rather than improving the quality of life for Ugandans as the best measure of stability. Yet looking back from where the country was in the 1980s to, even more so, around 2011, most Ugandans felt a lot of pride, grateful for the instrumental leadership of the National Resistance Movement and the Army. Even leaders from across the political spectrum were proud and found a great foundation to build towards a greater Uganda.

The leadership of the National Resistance Movement is indisputable for offering the leadership with the greatest impact on the development of the country since independence. However, the time has come for us to reflect on ourselves as leaders and determine how much effort and influence we have on citizens in terms of reducing inequalities, alleviating poverty, eliminating corruption and saving the collapsing businesses of indigenous Ugandans and recover weak government institutions. In addition, we must ask ourselves as leaders if, individually, there is any added value for our respective roles in the last 10 years, or if new values ​​and leaders can be found to accelerate the growth and development of the country. And if not, what succession plan do we have for the peaceful transition from less effective leaders to more visionary and results-focused leaders?

Right now, we see a change of mandate from a pro-pueblo to a group of groups of ‘governments’ that are constantly in conflict and stalling development programs and service delivery, or simply determined to undermine the efforts of the central government. to operate effectively all together. . The environment has not only hampered work and development, but has given rise to the worst forms of corruption in terms of nepotism, diversion of public funds and bribery to win office or favors, but these elements are almost unstoppable. The current government is toxic and an enemy of democracy. This means that political parties and alternative leadership will no longer be in Uganda. As a consequence, this erodes the very achievements Ugandans have died and worked for for more than 40 years.

Still, it is the Ugandans who hold the keys to saving the country from the severe recession and pending destruction of the beautiful country – Uganda. The future of the country is taking the path of its predecessors, the People’s Congress and the Ugandan Democratic Party, which at their peak, lost democratic values ​​and plummeted. This will potentially mark the demise of the ruling party, which its leaders are reluctant to see. Fortunately, the ball remains in the hands of the same leaders, who sacrificed tens of thousands of lives to dethrone ideologically corrupt governments, have all the resources at their disposal to ensure that the worst does not happen to the ruling political party, our people and achievements of the same mistakes of the older political parties and their leaders. Each choice should empower each of us with one or two things, especially an understanding of people’s desires and humility in service.

The country must face new challenges with new solutions and drivers of change that Ugandans want to see. We cannot afford to rely on old ideas and rhetoric that have proven useless in the past two decades. It is impossible and experience has shown this dilemma. We have to recognize the dilemma and take responsibility for where we want our political parties and our country to be. We cannot continue to resist the good changes, the good proposals and the cries of Ugandans dying of preventable disease, poverty and hunger, simply because they painfully reminded political parties and leaders how miserably they failed. At the end of the day, it is the people of Uganda who always suffer from corruption, electoral violence, poverty, inequalities and marginalization. We need to reform our political parties, return them to their members, and reflect the wishes of the citizens, whose membership and vote justify their existence. We need to identify mistakes and consistently replace responsible actors. Above all, we may need to rethink the 10-point program and implement it without deviations. It is still a robust program, requiring no modifications and difficult to implement. It was well-intentioned and purposeful, born out of consensus among Ugandan patriots. Historic challenges since independence were addressed by the same document, the 10-point program. In fact, reconsidering the implementation of the same document is a direct remedy to the current socio-economic and political problems facing the country. It will reduce tensions within political parties and among Ugandans. We don’t have to look beyond your document. The agenda that followed has proven useless for Ugandans.

In addition, it is important that we look beyond ourselves when analyzing matters of national concern. The screams of ordinary citizens are what should concern us the most. The biggest mistake today is using personal interests to influence national politics rather than participatory democracy and civic roles and actions together. If we continue to take a parallel line with the people, the citizens of this beautiful country, we run the risk of throwing it into the undesirable past, where leadership and grievances meet violence and death. Surely, this is not what we need to happen, knowing well what they mean to us as leaders and the people we say we lead.

We urgently need to address the greed and violent attitudes among us. This policy of elimination is as unsustainable as the consequences of such barbaric tendencies. After all, the lives of humans who end life also come to an end, either through revenge or natural death.

Therefore, it is relevant that political leaders and parties open up to the inevitable change that continues to knock on our doors: changing greed and violent attitudes, restoring the rule of law, responsive leadership, and working for transparent elections and responsible leadership. . It is the wish of all Ugandans that political parties and leaders deliver the much-needed change for which nearly 1 million people died in vain, pro-people leadership, responsible leadership, consensus leadership, guided by a constitution. citizenship, and a leadership that protects rather than kills or robs Ugandans.