[UAH] Look, all the poor boys want is some attention, give them a star

http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/Look--all-the-poor-boys-want-is-some-attention-/-/434750/1862590/-/oemcwz/-/index.html

 

Uganda's big boys in uniform are sulking. The uncaring public has been starving them of attention to the point that, if we don't move quickly to placate them, they may burn the house down, and everybody inside it.

Since 2013 started, hardly a month passes without the nation getting a military threat, as if we were living under martial law imposed by a weak, unstable junta.

The year kicked off with a reminder by a minister in parliament, repeated in the ruling party caucus and not denied by the chief of defence forces, that a military coup was possible if parliament did not "get serious." Fortunately, parliament got serious and the Speaker called off a recall she had threatened the executive with.

We were beginning to relax when we were told that a haphazard attack on Mbuya barracks, right in the capital city, had been engineered by a faction in the top military command. And we thought some reprieve from military tension had come with the acquittal of a brigadier who had spent eight years on trial for spreading harmful propaganda.

Then came the big one. The co-ordinator of intelligence services wrote an order to the director general of internal security to investigate an alleged plot to assassinate top officials who are opposed to an alleged project to make one brigadier succeed his dad as commander-in-chief. One of the targets to be bumped off in the said plot being the prime minister.

Now, in the past month, two brigadier generals have died of natural causes. The general public was hearing their names for the first time with their death announcements.

In the same period, a couple of musicians died and the public mourned. Another musician got herself arrested in Japan carrying narcotics (which she said were planted one her) and the whole country was worried sick. But two brigadiers die, one a diplomat, the other a division commander, and people ask "Brigadier Who?"

There was a time when everybody knew what every major in the country was doing. Now generals pass us on the road and nobody notices. They even display their rank in stars on their vehicle number plates but nobody cares.

We may yet live to regret ignoring these very important people. An illiterate girl goes to jail after a money tiff with her mzungu lover and the whole country follows the case like their future depends on it.

Musicians quarrel and newspapers give them heavy coverage. Students design an electric car and we applaud. A prison warder wins an Olympic medal and the president fetes him at State House. Mere scientists launch higher yielding maize and start packing banana powder and we give them medals. Then generals talk serious ideology and you ignore them. And you think they will take it kindly?

For our nation's safety, I propose that we restore the aura of generalship. Let us create five, six, seven, up to seventy stars for generals. Let every general attaining the age of fifty start getting an extra star every year, so that at eighty, one becomes a thirty-three star general. If there is no space on their shoulders for the stars, we can pin some on their boots.

In short, this country is tired of army talk.

Joachim Buwembo is a Knight International fellow for development journalism. E-mail: buwembo@gmail.com