Is Museveni Exploiting COVID-19 to Further Musevenism Political Ideology

Over the past month, our media has been fooled into giving an only political narrative of Museveni verses everybody else as he ( Museveni) seeks to maximally exploit Covd19 to further entrench  Musevenism as a political ideology in the Country.

Headlines, discussions, debates and analyses in our major media houses  are all focusing on this narrative instead of the pandemic. And again, our media houses have failed to push through and influence society to focus on Covd19 and shinning a touch in the New World that we have been ambushed into.

Although the confirmed corona virus cases remains quite low for the time being, the State and non State actor’s response to the pandemic  and the consequences coming with it Politically, Socially and Economically has been so poor.

For example, in my opinion the most urgent issue for Uganda today is not whether we shall have or not have an election in 2021. To me  this would have been time to focus on developing policies and infrastructure to enhance our capacity to run a health system that works for the entire 40 million Ugandans.

The World countries are working to ensure that the spread of Covd19 is slowed down until such a time when a vaccine and treatment will have been discovered. Developing interim measures to achieve this requires a people united for a purpose. To lift or to extend the Lockdown is a major decision and I would have loved to have this discussed by all stakeholders.

For sure, however wise Mr. Museveni is, its suicidal to place the fate of 40 million people politically, socially and economically into the hands of one man even when its clear that not even cabinet assist him to reach decisions.

We need to stand together as we take important decisions of whether to declare an academic dead year for our children or recovering them back to school. We need to take a decision together of whether to reopen worship centers or closing them until a vaccine and or cure for Covd19 is found. We must find an understanding on social fanctions, public meetings and gatherings.

Today Parliament instead of taking days discussing and resolving to express displeasure and then a four days later a motion of thanks and “heronising”, Mr. Museveni would engage in a debate about the economy in order to make major decisions and policies to avoid descending into an economic crisis.

It gets very sad to see Parliament engaged into formation of new Districts and declaring Cities when actually the times calls for merging of institutions to cut down on public administration costs. To me Parliament would now be considering policies and measures to give Uganda a lean Government. About 20 Ministers and one MP for every district.

One of the things we must address today and not any other day is the fact that the current global destruction resulting from Covd19 has made the challenge of unemployment among our young people worse. This would lead us into another debate on what ought to be done in order to feed and sustain a population whose production levels are going down by day.

The writer is Member of Parliament Mukono Municipality, Betty Nambooze Bakireke

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