Africa-Press – Uganda. One frowns upon attitudes of some NRM leaders in northern Uganda.
Their most sustained campaign slogan is that electing them allows for services to trickle down to the people faster because they are close to President Museveni.
If proximity to Mr Museveni gives an MP leverage to lobby for development, then the inequities and dysfunctions in our systems are distressing.
Development should not be a matter of tokenism.Lobbying for development is problematic in all its facets and begging Mr Museveni for development is not a sign that our future can be secured. Mr Museveni now faces increased rejection among voters over underdevelopment and as such he must apply force even to the presidency.
In the countryside, underdevelopment is raging unfettered. As Mr Museveni claims economic success to please his Western backers, the average Ugandan has become increasingly trapped in poverty. The majority are already living in humiliating poverty, and alienated from government support.
Districts that once were devoted to the NRM this time realised the folly of blind loyalty and voted the Opposition. Those that were Opposition strongholds voted for Independents.
There were exceptions, but in the north this pattern was clear.Ugandans should know that for a while, the language of “lobbying Museveni for development” has tremendously disempowered and disenfranchised voters and limits the choice of leaders.
Democracy is worthwhile when people make real choices and experience the outcomes of exerting their will over those choices. Most often, elected NRM officials end up not even seeing Mr Museveni to do the lobbying. Most become self-seekers and comedians cheering everything from the old man.
Even those who lobby may get nothing, depending on their political anchorage. Overall, you will find that non-NRM-dominated district councils tend to perform much better on many indices, such as accountability, transparency, infrastructure development, social service delivery, etc.
Gulu District under FDC party and able leadership of Martin Ojara Mapenduzi was a living example.Lobbying Mr Museveni for development when there are a plethora of National Development Plans may mean that everyone will be lobbying to secure their own future. This is how pathetic it can be.
Overall, the culture and language of lobbying are steeped in corruption and flagrant contempt for due process. It undermines the principles expected to deliver equitable national development.
Greedy politicians who fail to promote development through Parliament and the Executive resort to personalising or individualising development through lobbying. What the politicians do not know is that Mr Museveni, as a scientific listener, is also securing his own future as indefinite President.
I became irate at the narrative of lobbying from Kitgum District. Kitgum Municipality has many unresolved development bottlenecks that when removed, could unlock her potential for socio-economic boom.
Kitgum women have waited for the upgrade of their market for a while. Women form the majority of market vendors and are disproportionately represented in poverty and disease statistics. Additionally, the municipality is famed for filth – garbage.
A waste recycling system is much needed.Further, the underdeveloped Pager River that snakes through the municipality portends a health disaster in this era of El Niño rains. The combination of bursting river and a filthy municipality during flooding is a perfect recipe for cholera and other water-borne diseases.
Kitgum already faces enormous challenges with non-communicable and communicable diseases – cancer, hepatitis, HIV, Malaria, malnutrition, mental health, diabetes – all exacerbated by poverty. And yet for decades, Kitgum voted for NRM MPs and local government leaders on grounds that they would lobby Mr Museveni for their problems. Electricity in Kitgum is very unreliable.
Clearly, the politics of lobbying Mr Museveni for development did not secure many of their seats because deception became unsustainable. Instead, Mr Museveni bulldozed his way to secure his future even if he contends with the benefit of under developing this endowed country.
