Sometimes I wake up with a weird mood. The other day the bomb blasts rocked our city I woke up with a state of mind as strange as one for a person whose water pipes got clogged on a morning of his wedding day.

I imagined the person's mind racing, wanting to agree with someone suggesting to him that his plumbing has a minor problem. He calls in the same plumbers who installed the pipes -- having created the mess, presumably only they knew how to straighten them out.
 
He does not mind whether plumbers overcharge him for the repair, the same way they did for the installation.

What he is interested in is that the plumbing works again, preferably before the car that is supposed to pick him up for the wedding pulls into the park yard, and he prays that the plumbers do a better job this time than the last.

Mr President, you could also imagine a similar scenario where on the day you are supposed to go for nomination for your fourth term on 15th September 2010, you twist leftward the taps at State House and oops there is no water.

You call in whoever is responsible and you are informed the problem has everything to do with the plumbers who failed do a good job. I can visualise the shape of your face!

Then, as you continue to grill the in-charge, you learn that actually the same plumber has to be called in to fix the mess since he is the only one who knows how it was fixed in the first place.

Mr President, that is exactly the frame of mind that your government has put our generation into.

NRM made the plumbing for the Uganda we live in today; the plumbing is continuously getting messed up; the pipes are clogged ahead of our wedding (read our graduation into senior citizens capable of taking charge of our lives); and all we are hearing is that the same plumbers who installed the pipes -- having created the mess -- are the only ones who know how to straighten them out.   
 
And yet much as we are being told the above, we also know that our own problem is more than just a matter of plumbing.  

Take the example of the bomb blasts that claimed the lives of over 76 budding Ugandans, including a few foreigners.

I told a few of my colleagues with whom we were discussing the aftermath of the tragedy that the security threat imposed by these terrorist attacks was emblematic of broader failures of NRM Government; and that the failures of the NRM reflect the deeper problems in our society.

I reminded them that maintenance of peace and security, suppression of terrorism, and restoration of law and order have been the hallmark of the NRM Government. Minister Syda Bbumba said exactly the same while concluding her budget speech last month.

Bbumba assured the nation that since the NRM Government has a track record, unmatched by any other regime since independence, of restoring and maintaining peace and security, Ugandans would be mad if they attempted to change the "plumber".

Hardly a month later, bomb blasts kill relatives, friends, loved ones, bread-winners of the very Ugandans who attentively listened as Government, the very plumber of the security, peace and tranquility that has been prevailing, assured us the plumbing is superb.
 
Mr President, what is so frustrating to us is that these terror attacks were not unexpected. A few months ago the Al-Shabaab, the confirmed perpetuators of the attacks, issued a warning that they would be attacking us.

So why didn't we take precaution?
I mean, where were our police detectives and intelligence?

How did the terrorists smuggle their explosives into the country and into our city centre without security agencies detecting them? And they did this at a time when the country is supposed to be on high alert ahead of the AU Summit!

Our security minister, the good Hon. Amama Mbabazi came out a day after the attack with the damning answer: "We were caught off-guard." In other words government did not take precaution even after Al-Shabaab's notice.
     
Government did not take precaution simply because we no longer have the institutions to take this precaution in the first place.

I have been writing about this subject in these pages on so many occasions, reaching the extent of asking whether we really had Government.
In this country we no longer have police, intelligence, and local authority.

Although last Sunday's terror attacks have attracted global attention because they were spontaneous and similar to those that occur elsewhere in the world, terrorism has been going on and continues to go on unabated across the country.
 
Our children and other innocent Ugandans are being murdered daily at a rate that ought to be intolerable by a serious government. But what we hear is government telling us how they would investigate, investigating death one to n without giving us a single report.

And as they continue to investigate cases as old as Buddo inferno, where lives of hundreds of our children perished, other deaths occur as easily as slaughtering a chicken.

Yet government does not get tired of assuring us how it is the only "plumber" -- the only one with a track record of maintaining peace, security, and stability.  
         
Mr President, this is where we stand to ask; "Should we continue to trust our plumber?"

Does it really make sense to sit around and wait for a plumber whose plumbing has clogged our pipes to come and fix them? Isn't it really only natural and sensible for us to try out another plumber?

I have written in these very pages before that the day Ugandans will feel that the NRM government can no longer protect them, this is the day this government will pack its bags. And now I can see this day is nearing.

Mr President, your government without any exaggeration is in limbo.

All institutions are in disarray. And this has everything to do with your indecisiveness to do what we all know must be done -- overhaul the entire machinery of government.

I have written about the vice of Presidentialism, a dangerous culture of centralisation of authority which has seen you, Mr President, undermining other institutions of government.

Accordingly you fancy appointing weak or second-rate individuals to manage important institutions so that they make mistakes which would require your intervention as a messier of sorts.

Mr President, in the process you have alienated yourself from the finest of your cadres since you seem not to heed to their well-intentioned advice.

 I have read something worrying in the aftermath of two incidents now, the burning of Kasubi Tombs and the bomb blasts last Sunday.

On both occasions the seasoned security gurus were nowhere to be seen, instead we saw you moving around the theatres of chaos only with your son and media celebrity IGP Kale Kayihura. Why? Where were the other (security) institutions of government?

Could it be that your decision to partake in everything, whether it deserves the attention of the presidency or not (presidentialism), has frustrated other senior cadres and officers and they have decided to steer clear and leave enough room for you and your son? Just curious!
 
Mr President, there are serious concerns among sensible Ugandans that you have hijacked the entire realm of government by encouraging inefficiency at institutional level.

So that you create a feeling among the voters that you are indeed the only visionary person around and after you, your immediate family.
 
The ramifications of this gamble are now here with us.

We have started to die like cockroaches simply because the institutions that are supposed to ensure our safety are non-existent; the economy has started to show signs of self-inflicted business cycles simply because it is in the hands of jokers and textbook economists; our physical infrastructure is in ruins simply because the managers of government departments meant to fix it are daytime thieves probably sharing the booty with their protector; the list is endless…only space and one's head diminish to the level where I am right now.

It is Jared Diamond, who in his 2005 book, "Collapse", said that countries choose either to fail or to succeed.

Mr President, it now occurs to us that your policies and actions lately are preparing our country for failure and not success.

That is the very reason we are wondering whether we should continue to trust your plumbing. blog comments powered by Disqus

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