Give Ugandans precious New Year present by retiring , Mr President

I think you don’t suffer from dementia, Mr President. Thirty three years ago, you diagnosed one of Africa’s problems to be rulers who overstay in power.

What happened to your diagnosis, Sir? I ask this not because I doubt Your Excellency’s integrity or intelligence. I have no reason or basis to do so. Your Excellency is the fountain of honour.

But I am living in bewilderment, because your actions over the years have not rhymed with this diagnosis.
Not long ago, you also said, Your Excellency is not anybody’s servant but a freedom fighter working for himself, his family and beliefs.

In fact, Mr President, you did say as well that your children can never suffer the indignity of unemployment because unlike other Ugandan parents who don’t plan for their children and families, you planned for yours. I do not intend to fault or ridicule you for making these statements, Sir.

On the contrary, I want to thank Your Excellency for being very candid and honest with us. At last many Ugandans that believed you meant well for this country will nolonger have to second guess your unquenchable interest in political power. Thanks to your open and honest statements about your intentions.

Little wonder, Mr President, you have in the last 33 years presided over a kleptocratic regime that has grabbed and stolen everything that regime apparatchiks can lay hands on. Many people who should be public servants rob Uganda in broad day light and enjoy their loot untouched.

As if that is not enough, Your Excellency mocks Ugandan taxpayers by creating a plethora of lame duck anti-graft institutions, with the latest housed in State House.

Furthermore, Your Excellency’s rule in the last 33 years has paid lip service to the provision of public amenities.

Worst of all, Mr President, your long rule has destroyed many amenities built by previous administrations. Consequently, Ugandans die in tens and hundreds, every other day.

Only last week, nearly 50 innocent souls perished in road accidents in Kapchorwa and Buikwe districts, respectively. The previous week, about the same number of Ugandans died in a boat accident on Lake Victoria.

We lose 19 mothers to child birth every day in ill-equipped medical facilities. In the education sector, Mr President, thousands of Ugandan children drop out of school every year.

Your Excellency commoditised education so that only the well-to-do can access it [UPE and USE are free and open to all]. Thus, children of the poor, like your father when you were growing up, have no future to talk about. Those who remain in school get half-baked education that can never transform their lives.

I could go on and on enumerating the ills that you have visited on our nation, Your Excellency, but I do not think it is necessary.

However, even though you don’t care about your legacy, I believe you do at least care about your family as you recently stated.

If that is true, Mr President, then you have an obligation on your shoulders to create for your children and grandchildren, an environment that will not attract vengeance and harm to them when you are no longer president.

Do you remember, Mr President, the all-powerful Col Muammar Gaddafi? Do you know what became of his family after his forcible removal from power? Don’t you want a peaceful environment for your children and grandchildren after leaving office? If your answers are in the affirmative, I implore you to hand over power peacefully to another democratically elected leader.

As we start the year 2019, it would be amazing that your comprehensive New Year message details how you plan to disengage from power and release Uganda to move on. That would be the best present you can ever give.

The author is a political commentator.
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