I have never worked in state house, never been a presidential assistant, don’t have a friend or a relative working in statehouse and I have never even stepped in any of the two state houses but, who tells you that I should be a priest, bishop, pastor or a religious scholar to write about Jesus.
Managing this country is not as hard as many people might assume, any Ugandan with a sober mind and possessing the required qualifications can manage this country, maybe even better.
As usual, people try to complicate things to threaten the interests of others who want to compete with them just like when we were still journalism interns, senior journalists would surely show you how hard it is to write a feature story. They would never tell you that writing a feature story is as simple as outlining the reasons for the fall of Idi Amin, of course adding some flavor and flow.
Managing this country is as simple as managing your own family, some families might even be harder to manage with so many issues ranging from deadly infighting to witchcraft.
Imagine winning the battle to be the heir of the family and you know that every fight has winners and losers. Losers are always disgruntled people who can react in a dangerous way if not handled carefully. That is how Democratic Party (DP) stalwarts, Kawanga Ssemogerere, John Ssebana Kizito and William Nyakatura and UPC’s Omara Atubo managed to make it to Museveni cabinet after the NRA bush war struggle in a government of national unity.
Some children in the family have bad manners - disrespectful, big headed; so many times you will be forced to punish them to make them upright, the likes of Miria Matembe, Eriya Kategaya, Bidandi Ssali, etc when they opposed the third term for the family head (President Museveni).
Some, after a long and sustained punishment like Eriya Kategaya and Gen. David Tinyefunza reformed and were called back to the family and some who remained with their big headedness were completely chased from the family, the likes of Kasepiki’s Dad - Bidandi Ssali.
Some children are punished heavily to deter others from following suit, the likes of Kiiza Besigye who faced tramped up rape charges and recent whipping by the unpopular Kiboko squad.
Some will be given land very far away from the family headquarters to avoid infecting others with their bad manners and giving headache to their parents. Winnie Byanyima was endorsed by Uganda government to work in United Nations in USA.
Those who are well behaved and dance according to the tunes of the family head are of course rewarded, the likes of the Guinness World Books of Records candidate as alleged by a Ugandan tabloid - James Kakooza who got a state ministerial position for spearheading the 4th term presidential bid.
Actually, the president’s work might even be easier to do than a ministerial post because the president reports to peasants who lack the real intellect to question his work – when he makes them a road, our dear peasants as the president always calls them will always say it’s a favor. For a ministerial work, you will have to report to people who know their rights and how to demand for them, who are educated (parliament, the president and local politicians) who are always challenging to convince (of course, other factors remaining constant like the moral standing of the supervisors – president, parliament and local politicians).
However, the sickness with our African presidents is failure to set up systems due to greed for power. They want to be the custodians of land and national jobs, etc so that whoever dances according to their tunes can get an opportunity to share on the national cake. All this makes the work of the president hard to do, limiting it only to those who are “visionary”.
If everything goes according to plan, I envision a situation where the president has a bunch of people who think and implement things on his behalf, as a president, you wake up in the morning at state house and there is someone whose work is to know that the president is thirsty and needs water, there is someone whose work is to know that the president must visit this town and should say this, there is someone to read the presidents emails and letters and know how to respond to which letter, the Hon. Prime minister is busy managing the cabinet and the president receives reports and takes appropriate measures not this confusion of which cadre should be appointed the ambassador of which country even leaving behind people in the foreign service who can actually do the work better.
In fact, even a young man of below 35 years can rule this country; these old people should not scare you (the youth). I think the people who put the age limit at 35 years for someone to contest for the Uganda presidency; at the back of their mind knew that it was just a fence to stop people who are not experienced, exposed, etc from entering and messing up the country. Because, at the end of the day, it is not actually the age. Joseph Kabila who became president at 29 years of age has managed the country better than his old father – Laurent Kabila (the young man has managed to hold one of DR Congo’s successful elections and reconciled many of the worrying factions), Alexander the Great was in his 20’s when he won battles and conquered
the whole world. Did I hear that Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe is the oldest president in the world? How is he managing his country?
The president only needs to intervene where things have failed to work and give direction to the country.
