Prime
The real state of the nation – 2023
President Museveni and First Lady Janet Museveni arrive in separate cars ahead of the State of the Nation address on June 7, 2023. PHOTO/HANDOUT
What you need to know:
- Turning to the online world, the conversations and interactions on social media remain generally personable but also reflect the petty, rude side to the Ugandan character and culture.
Every year in the first week of June, the head of State delivers his State-of-the-Nation address to Parliament as an update on the status of the country.
This is a routine, copied as many other things, from the United States’ State-of-the-Union address.
President Museveni typically uses this address to spell out the progress, or not, of government programmes and also to explain recent policy action and legislation.
While the President’s address is keenly followed and widely reported in the media, it does not present a comprehensive picture of the country over the preceding 12 months.
Yes, it updates the citizens and international business interests on the progress of roadworks, poverty alleviation programmes, jobs created, factories opened, and so forth.
But there’s much more to a country than these political-economic topics.
That’s why in response, I usually write a report that takes a broad look at the entire society, its concerns, interests, habits, and even hobbies.
Given the newspaper front-page subject matter day in, day out, one would think that the topic of greatest interest in Uganda is Museveni, government, Parliament, politics, and corruption scandals.
If we are to go by what millions of Ugandans reveal, by the searches they perform on the world’s biggest Internet search engine Google, these were the top 15 most-searched-for topics over the past year, in order of rank:
1) Arsenal FC, 2) Manchester United, 3) Premier League, 4) News, 5) Sex, 6) Manchester City FC, 7) Chelsea FC, 8) Music, 9) WhatsApp, 10) Video, 11) Football, 12) Google, 13) YouTube, 14) School, 15) Money.
This is the true state of the nation. There is a stark disconnect between what newspapers publish and what the public is most keen on.
Just for perspective, if interest in President Museveni, government, and Parliament – the three staple topics of Uganda’s print, online, and broadcast media – were to be ranked alongside interest in the London football club Arsenal, Arsenal would be at 45 percent while Museveni, Parliament, and government are each at 1 percent for Museveni and just under 1 percent for government and Parliament.
This clearly shows why newspaper copies often gather dust along street corners.
Unfortunately, some topics like No. 5 can’t, for obvious reasons, be the subject of serious newspaper reporting.
The others are, but it’s difficult to report on most of them in a print newspaper format.
Topic No. 14 is one area that has seriously been neglected by Uganda’s newspapers, but which holds the potential of significantly increased circulation.
While the English Premier League is, by a very wide margin, the new national religion and pastime, unless newspapers and TV stations are willing to abandon their traditional news role, they cannot realistically all turn into sports publications.
Even if they tried to, they cannot compete with live sports action TV channels like SuperSport.
The news media, caught between the traditional advertising model and the disruptive effect of the Internet, has still not found a formula for a future in which advertising will have dried up.
Surprisingly, money ranks much lower than the common perception, given how much Ugandans talk about, pray for, and break the law to get it.
For all the economic struggle, anxiety over unpaid rent and school fees, high youth unemployment, and the many other acute problems in the country, Ugandans or at least the millions of Internet users, are still a laidback, leisurely lot.
Perhaps this keen interest in sports and entertainment is their escapist way of coping with the stress and, with sports betting in particular, their hope of getting that lucky financial break.
These were Google searches and interest in Ugandan towns rank as follows for the 12 months from June 2022 to June 2023:
1) Kampala, 2) Entebbe, 3) Mbarara, 4) Jinja, 5) Gulu, 6) Mbale, 7) Mukono, 8) Arua, 9) Fort Portal, 10) Soroti, 11) Hoima, 12) Kasese, 13) Masaka, 14) Tororo 15) Lira.
The overwhelming bulk of the searches are for Kampala (80 percent) with every other entry in single digits, confirming that some of these might recently have gained the name “city” but in reality remain sleepy provincial towns.
The new municipal roads and central markets in the upcountry towns have yet to translate into increased vehicle traffic or business activity.
If this Google data is anything to go by, newspapers might need to abandon upcountry news coverage and become entirely Kampala metro papers, covering the different districts and neighbourhoods such as Bugolobi, Kabalagala, Nakawa, Bwaise, Kololo, Ntinda, Nakasero, Najeera, and Bukoto in more detail.
Turning to the online world, the conversations and interactions on social media remain generally personable but also reflect the petty, rude side to the Ugandan character and culture.
Ugandans are not as warm and friendly as the stereotype in foreigners’ minds suggests.
The sub-continent Indian community continues to disproportionately dominate the economy in relation to its population and the Chinese have now, in effect, become the Ministry of Works.
The Eritrean, Somali, and Ethiopian communities have a notable presence in Makindye Division in Kampala.
A car and house remain the main aspirations for most Ugandans and the English Premier League has now become the single most popular Ugandan national pastime.
No school or university in the country has shown any awareness or urgency in the face of the growing impact of artificial intelligence on several facets of society.
This is the more complete picture of Uganda over the last 12 months, if I can resist the urge and media habit of viewing the country through the lenses of Parliament, President, and politicians.
