{UAH} Ocen, WBK/ /If I were President...here's the new Ugandan I would cook up
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4:27 PM |
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Folks;
I'm surprised that President Museveni is arbitrating the conflict in Burundi by inviting only the Burundian government side! Sounds to me like Museveni is summoning the Nkuruzinza side to give them more pointers on how to entrench themselves in power.
Pojim
If I were president? Here's the new Uganda I would cook up
By Charles Onyango-Obbo
Posted Wednesday, December 23 2015 at 02:00
Posted Wednesday, December 23 2015 at 02:00
Two pieces of news in recent days struck me.
The first was that Uganda is hosting more than 510,973 refugees and asylum seekers as of December 10, for the first time in our country's history.
The first was that Uganda is hosting more than 510,973 refugees and asylum seekers as of December 10, for the first time in our country's history.
That number is spurred by an increase in people seeking shelter from the madness in South Sudan, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the UN refugee agency UNHRC said in a statement. That made Uganda the biggest host of refugees on the continent after Ethiopia and Kenya and the eighth largest in the world, the UN said.
Then on Monday, Burundi's main opposition coalition said it hasn't been invited to negotiations starting next week aimed at trying to end eight months of deadly violence that has killed more than 400 people and caused over 220,000 Burundians to flee as refugees to neighouring countries.
No one from the group disputing the legality of President Pierre Nkurunziza's third term has been asked to join talks beginning December 28 in Uganda, Pancrace Cimpaye, spokesman for the coalition, told Bloomberg News. President Yoweri Museveni is the mediator.
Burundi has been consumed by violence since April, when Nkurunziza announced he would seek an illegal third term – then went ahead and grabbed it.
Clearly, it is easier for Uganda to be generous to refugees, than to be even-handed in Burundi. Both reasons draw from our history.
Clearly, it is easier for Uganda to be generous to refugees, than to be even-handed in Burundi. Both reasons draw from our history.
Barely three decades ago, we were one of the largest sources of refugees and asylum seekers in the region and less than 10 years ago, one of the world's largest populations of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the north occasioned by the war against Joseph Kony's Lords' Resistance Army.
Attitudes towards refugees, therefore, tend to be partly shaped by empathy born out of a shared experience of displacement from the homeland.
Attitudes towards refugees, therefore, tend to be partly shaped by empathy born out of a shared experience of displacement from the homeland.
Secondly, and more structurally, because Uganda has one of the most fertile lands on the continent, the general masses don't compete much for food with refugees. The attitude toward Nkurunziza's rivals, however, is also informed by a leadership experience. Nkurunziza is a good student of Museveni, who had the constitution changed in 2005 to scrap term limits, and has been in power for 30 years.
The complication for Museveni, though it can be overcome by a deft application of double standards, is probably that being too muscular with Nkurunziza would be like a teacher punishing the best student in class because he mastered the lesson well.
These inconveniences, however, should not blind us to the opportunities of using refugees to reinvent the nation.
The complication for Museveni, though it can be overcome by a deft application of double standards, is probably that being too muscular with Nkurunziza would be like a teacher punishing the best student in class because he mastered the lesson well.
These inconveniences, however, should not blind us to the opportunities of using refugees to reinvent the nation.
For starters, Kampala should move toward a more neutral foreign policy to conflicts in the region. We shall not be effective when we go in heavily on the side of only one faction. Along with this, Uganda should expand its peacekeeping capabilities. This means also developing a large civilian component. This could absorb thousands of graduates who are leaving college without hope these days.
Secondly, pass laws that give second-generation refugees with a high school education and above a fast track to citizenship. This could not only buy long-term friendship when those countries become peaceful, but also a future emotional market for our goods.
But a favourite idea I have always toyed with, is to give all refugees a residency green card and take them to freshly minted district of foreigners carved out of Karamoja, Koboko, and Fort Portal or Kasese areas and give them land and freedom.
But a favourite idea I have always toyed with, is to give all refugees a residency green card and take them to freshly minted district of foreigners carved out of Karamoja, Koboko, and Fort Portal or Kasese areas and give them land and freedom.
The goal would be to try and create a society that is not based on our old sectarian divides, and that in the long term it would force us to organise around more cosmopolitan politics.
Mr Onyango-Obbo is editor of Mail & Guardian Africa. Twitter@cobbo3
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