{UAH} JUST ASKING: DID THE M7 REVOLUTION SUFFER STILL BIRTH?

By Muhwezi Joshua Lawel

On the 18th of June 2021, the President of Uganda declared a second lock down on our motherland. Of course the reports on number of cases warranted lock down but did we learn nothing and forget nothing from the first lock down?

The first lockdown was declared on the 18th of March 2020 and lifted on the 2nd of June 2020 which was approximately 80days. In this period, government moved to support 1.5million households in Metropolitan Kampala to cover districts of Kampala, Mukono and Wakiso with food relief worth 59 billion shillings. All this happened with a roaming national campaign. In the second lock down of 42days, the same government sought it wise to support only 500,000 Ugandans distributed in the major cities of Uganda with only 100,000/-!

One wonders if those who were supported in the previous lock down had gained capacity to sustain themselves in the current lock down given our moribund economy. We shouldn't forget that 83% of Ugandans are employed in the informal sector outside Agriculture and most importantly, 9 out of 10 Ugandans situated in Kampala live on hand to mouth.

In the second lock down, government passed a supplementary Covid19 response budget of 600 billions of which 371 billion is for Covid19 interventions and 228.3billions is for contingency. For the Covid19 Interventions, let me highlight that the ministry of health was allocated 197 billion, the office of the president 6.9 billion, ministry of defense and veteran affairs 10.4 billion, Uganda police 19billion, ISO 4billions, ESO 1.1 billion. If you summed up the money allocated to the office of the president, defense, police, ESO and ISO it comes to 40billions.

Logically, if Ugandans were well facilitated with food at home, the level of criminality would be extremely low while the rate at which citizens follow standard operating procedures would be so high. Assuming half of the security budget was allocated to citizen's relief; citizens would be facilitated with about 75billions!

Surprisingly, the president has a personal budget of 256 billion for the 2021/22 financial year but he's only providing 54 billion for relief! Why would 228 billion be kept for contingency when Ugandans are eating banana peels? Well governments world over create an impression that they are working day and night to support their citizens but their intentions are different especially in the case of dictatorial regimes. You'll be shocked with how much the dictator invests in International PR firms!

Since last year, governments world over have concentrated on and heavily invested in vaccinating their citizens.  The government of Uganda has always paid lip service to vaccinating 21million Ugandans. 54% of Ugandans are below the age of 18years according to Uganda Bureau of statistics and thus not eligible for vaccination following guidelines of the world health organization. This implies only 44% of the 47million Ugandans are eligible for vaccination. Since last year, government has talked about vaccinating 5million Ugandans who are more exposed to Covid19 including the elderly persons, leaders, teachers, health workers and men in uniform.  Government has hitherto vaccinated only 18,000 with both doses.

According to the head of state, we have about 550,000 teachers and 250,000 men in uniform. There's literally no work done since those vaccinated so far represent less than 5% of the entire population. Well government has always used traffic at the Covax facility as a scapegoat. On the 27th April 2021, the government of Japan supported with $1.6million(5.4/-billion) aid grant for medical equipment, storage facilities and transport. This was part of the $39million grant to 31 countries in Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa.

The government of Japan has supported the Covax facility with over $200million. If we only had good negotiators in government, we would lobby Covax through government of Japan to avail us with vaccines at the earliest opportunity to save Ugandans and the economy.

As all these theatrics happens, the government in waiting seems not be having a viable alternative in the eyes of Ugandans. Every revolution world over has had a social factor that rallied citizens to take on the dictatorship. In the case of Uganda, food had offered the best opportunity to a sleepy leadership! The traders are home not working, Is there anyone organizing them? All Ugandans in the major cities are legally locked with no substantive relief. If the opposition were properly organized, the best opportunity to get people to the streets has offered itself probably to a disoriented leadership.

The sad news is that our leaders have also fallen trap of the junta. They are posturing to be offering food relief to their constituents instead. First forward, the party in opposition should have a nationalistic character and if it moves to provide food relief, this should be done country wide. Secondly, the most an MP can support any household with relief can only sustain them for a week. What happens to the remaining 35days? And in the event that the lockdown is extended for more weeks since community infections are still high what happens? The government in opposition should get back to the drawing board and get to a sustainability plan otherwise sleeping on job shall cost us.

If indeed the National Unity Platform was about a revolution and not the usual politics why are they doing the usual things, one would expect them to find all the legally acceptable means to rally the citizens towards liberating them from the shackles of this government's mismanagement. No revolution has succeeded through paper responses to social media discontentment or feeding starving citizens on a single day meal without directing them to sustainable trajectory.

Whilst the revolution suffered a stillbirth and we should brace ourselves for the contemporary politics until the next election but what about the efforts and hopes of those who sacrificed because they wanted things done differently?

Muhwezi Joshua lawel, Lawelfrayer253@gmail.com The writer is a social and political critic

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Allaah gives the best to those who leave the choice to Him."And if Allah touches you with harm, none can remove it but He, and if He touches you with good, then He is Able to do all things." (6:17)

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