The Chinese have a saying that; If you want to harvest for a season, plant beans; If you want to harvest for five to ten years, plant trees; but if you want to harvest for ever, educate the  people.

At independence, African leaders' priority was educating the people so as to build enough man power to help the continent compete with other continents. Patriots and Pan Africans at the time gave away their precious land free of charge to facilitate the construction of schools.

Great schools in Uganda and in Africa were built on big chunks of land that were not purchased. Local leaders would lead and organize their communities to volunteer and make bricks for school construction.

The current top leadership across East Africa is one that looks at education as a key to sustainable development. This is why we have free primary education (FPS) in Kenya and Universal Primary Education (UPE) in Tanzania and Uganda.

Our societies and more so continent still need leaders who love and respect education. This is why among others most post independence politicians such as Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, Kwame Nkrumah, Daniel Arap Moi, and Robert Mugabe were teachers.

Some time last year, I made my maiden visit to Bunya East in Mayuge district where I was invited by the area Member of Parliament James Kubeketerya to witness the handing over of a four classroom block to Nakasuwa Primary School. In this era when people think of building their own schools as a way of making money, it is more than sacrifice for a leader to donate a full classroom block.

Donating the four classroom block was not the big news of the event; the big news was, he had used about Ushs 35 millions to build a four class room block well furnished and with glass windows; yet Mayuge district local government had used over Ushs 40m to build a three class room blocks minus windows and furniture at the same school.

The fact that Kubeketerya had been able to build a school at less the ordinary cost appeared to have shocked the Guest of Honor and Deputy Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga.

There is a very big problem with the way tenders or contracts are allocated. In some districts, Engineers issue completion certificates for class room blocks that have never been actually constructed.

My interaction with James Kubeketerya has taught me many lessons. I have learnt that the principled leader like Mwalim Julius Nyerere of Tanzania used to say, is a for sure a professional teacher and politician by circumstances.

Circumstances in areas that are still struggling in fields of education and health, need leaders who are down to earth, hard-working and above all ready to support their people fight poverty and ignorance.

By the time Kubeketerya came to Parliament in 2001, his constituency had one or two secondary schools. Through his efforts, he has helped build at least 3 secondary schools and lobbied for the construction of seven others by the government and other stakeholders.

This has helped children of peasants in the area from walking long distances. In addition, he has donated computers and scholastic materials to schools not only in his constituency but across Busoga.

The author is a teacher and journalist blog comments powered by Disqus

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