{UAH} The Federal question

 
Folks:
I posted the questions bellow and surprisingly or may be not, never registered any response.
 
 
 
Let me borrow from Frederick Cooper who has written a great book in African history. Is there a chance under the current structure/system that Uganda's future could come to resemble South Africa? (Hint: South Africa has empowered the regions/provinces). Can Ugandas obtain electoral democracy and chart a plausible route to economic development under the current structure/system?   Can a state with a 50 year history of conflict, corruption, oppression suddenly transform itself by accident of history (e.g. death in the presidency)?

 Will the oil resources Mr. Mirima laments about be used for purposes other than patronage?  Are Uganda's choices limited between the poverty of marginalization and the devastation of exploitation? What about new imaginations about the future?  Given Mamdani's observation that "tribe" in Africa includes institutions of authority (that is tribe is not a mere sentiment), what are you going to do to make such captured institutions rule bound and transparent enough that all citizens can obtain services or make claims upon them? 

 

Is there no way to get beyond the historical sequence that has produced the limited possibilities and the horrific dangers of the gatekeeper state in Uganda (as is the case elsewhere in Africa)?  Are there no constructive ways of broaching the reform question? 

 

Granted there are scoundrels, but also constructive critics in UAH about the dangers of the current situation in Uganda.  The scoundrels keep defending the false ways.  Can the government itself be decentralized enough so that meaningful political organizing with real resources (not quite the case in Kenya yet) to use and distribute?  In a word, how are Ugandans going to reform the gatekeeper state, which has turned into a patron of patrons?

 

 

WBK