Easter 2010: A Message for the Youth

After a tumultuous three months of lots of activities, here comes the Easter holidays. Allow me to say hooray to you all of you during this Easter holiday. I am not sitting holding my hands down but rather working harder to keep our nation moving forward and focused reach the end with all of you cheering. Dear brothers and sisters, lets us not take this Easter season for granted but rather use it to rise from all the chains of all unworthy reckless actions we may have committed and celebrate the rare beauty of a new life. This is in correspondence with the fact that in Uganda we are a lucky people because we are the only nation that is called the Pearl of Africa because of the beauty of our country…. As the Christians gather at Nakivubo stadium this Friday, allow me to borrow the words of Clarence W. Hall that “Easter says you can put the truth in a grave, but it won’t stay there”. It is a time to learn from our past that we the youth need not to be used during the coming elections for purposes of being a passage to the greater heights. Step out of that cocoon to spread the message of leadership for the future, as members of my fan page… this is the beginning of my message of how we can become a force of this nation to enable a change of fortunes for the better. Today, millions of fellow youth are facing very many challenges ranging from teenage pregnancies, child led families, HIV/AIDS, under/unemployment, corruption to mention but a few. The issue of unemployment is burning seriously as we struggle year in – year out to find meaningful employment and eager to participate in the corporate world. This is a common scene on all the roads of the nation but it is not because we are short of ideas of how we can change it. It is simply a reality of lack of sufficient opportunities to succeed and create gainful working conditions in all parts of Uganda. We as the youth are a precious resource to this nation and it is on this factor that I come forward to seek your support in establishing realistic and specific opportunities that will empower and inspire us in an effort to create a sustainable national economy. Ladies and Gentlemen, now I am here to seek for you support in the coming months in spreading my words to the youth that should be a constant reminder from me encouraging all the concerned young men and women to help shift our attitudes towards building local capacity to generate the vision, commitment and ability necessary to create a ripple effect across all districts of the country. It was Henry Knox Sherrill who once told his congregation on one Easter Holiday that “The joyful news that He is risen does not change the contemporary world. Still before us lie work, discipline, and sacrifice. But the fact of Easter gives us the spiritual power to do the work, accept the discipline, and make the sacrifice”. For the happiness of all of us, hard work, discipline and sacrifice will be fundamental in setting out the outcomes in this year. This long weekend lets all remember that “Easter is a time of reflection and joy. When we emerge from our cocoon of doubt to fly freely on the wings of faith. May you be renewed and strengthened... ...in the promise of our Lord”. Happy Easter Wishes to all of you wherever your. Kiiza Andrew

Can the Lukiiko ‘square the circle’ in the Modern Uganda?

This month was laden with articles about the standoff between Mengo and the Government of Uganda. Fellow liberal minded Ugandans who in 1993 saw the return of culture organisations such as the kingdoms of Buganda, Toro, Bunyoro and the territory of Busoga as a signal of achieving a measure of unity devoid of giving up the profits of a local socio-cultural autonomy. A disagreement that is being allured to the government courtesy of the Lukiiko, in my opinion, is playing simple political gimmicks with hidden motives that could deny the subjects a chance to realise the advantages of a unitary government. A resolution to hold more talks with the government in regards to all issues that affect the subjects of the Kabaka should have been passed while waiting for the federal discussions to be added to the agenda when the time comes.
Logically, for Lukiiko to single out federal governance as the major issue for discussion with government while putting the rest aside, it is the personal interests (ebyabwe) at stake not those of the peasants/subjects (ebyaffe). Historically, this is not the first and will not be the last because in a modern society, we will not be able to meet a government that is willing to accept the federal demands as is, when the regional tier government can be reviewed and made to work to meet the needs of the masses. It is normal that we are seeing a faction in the name of ‘Federo’ demands since the Lukiiko in the words of Alexander Hamilton is an elite group “united and actuated by some common impulse of passion and of interests; adverse to the rights of other citizens or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community.” It would be under this background that many would call it Feudalistic rather than Federalist demands as evidence suggests that the Lukiiko is made up of successors of a selected class of Baganda and not just everyone. According to the Federation for Human Rights Initiative Land Rights Report of Jan – June 2008, “out of a population of close to one million people only 3700 were allocated land and the rest remained landless .” Such a classification of Uganda citizens created an oligarchy in whom political power in the society was exclusively vested at the time. With civilisation, it is without doubt that today, those who hold and those without land have very distinct in interest in the kingdom vis-à-vis those in and those not in the Lukiiko.
Presently, Uganda is seeking to become a modernised as well as an urbanised society and this needs a centralised system of management rather than Federo due to the great socio-economic problems that are largely nationwide and international in scope. The growth in the different necessities in a civilised nation like Uganda, necessitate an end to the Bulange - Government ‘wars’ because the Lukiiko is a class actuated by different sentiment and views not pertinent to the growth of the peasants. Uganda as a republic and a government of the citizens is better served in unitary because it is a desirable if it is premised upon recognition of the values of diversity as take in the 1995 constitution, simply stated ‘Gifted by Nature’ culturally, ethnically and environmentally to mention the least. To pursue a two pronged war to achieve great modernity interlaced with cultural excellence, it is important not to be blindfolded by simple interests. Thomas Hobbes, an English philosopher, once stated that “our judgments tend to be distorted by self-interest and pains at the moment.” Would the Lukiiko have been influenced by the pains of knowing that there is no more talk about the Federo while making its resolutions? This a question that I cannot answer as a member of the Lukiiko, but in my opinion some of the resolutions are absurd because a boycott of a leading news paper and other media outlets would incapacitate the level of knowledge of the very subjects that serve to keep the kingdom as it is. In the same breath, cultural celebrations such as Ekiggwo (wrestling) should be encouraged more than anything. To make a society culturally impotent under the guise of discussions about Federo is tantamount to disrespect of the need to strengthen a Ganda cultural symbol as well as demise of the cultural growth in Uganda. Any single thing boycotted by the learned and moneyed members of the decision making body affects the subjects in the long run.
Fellow Ugandans, a circle cannot be squared and in a civilised society, war is not the answer to the differences between Bulange and the Government. As Ugandans, we cannot keep living in the ideals of the past century where people’s rights were not deemed important and subjects were always asked to work to satisfy the needs the land lords. The demands of Federo can only be facilitated by the people because they are granted the powers by Article 1(1) of the 1995 Constitution that states “All power belongs to the people who shall exercise their sovereignty in accordance with this constitution.” The dilemma between the two institutions cannot go on unless the Bulange contingent is willing to go against the constitution that is “the supreme law of Uganda and shall have binding force on all authorities and persons throughout Uganda.” The simplistic rhetoric against the government and asking for boycotts of cultural events and knowledge sources like the Newvision is not an answer to the problems the nation faces. Subjects/citizens are encouraged to develop intellectually, economically, culturally and socially, through cooperation between the cultural and government institutions of authority. To achieve political prosperity or security of private rights such as Land and Property, political gimmicks and blame games should halt. We need to grow respect of the constitution of the land for it embodies the principles of a true republican government.


Kiiza Andrew - The writer is political analyst and Pan Africanist in Uganda.