• Latest
  • Trending
  • All
  • News
  • Business
  • Politics
  • Lifestyle
NRM: “UK MP who called for Museveni’s retirement is envious, jealous”

Open letter to UK MP Paul Williams from Uganda

January 15, 2019
Ministers, government agencies to account to nation in Manifesto week

Finance minister Kasaija says Among request of shs 6billion from NSSF was irregular

February 5, 2023
Auto Draft

The ghost of Justice Benedicto Kiwanuka is still haunting Owiny Dollo’s chair, says Lukwago

February 5, 2023
Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan’s ex-president, dies aged 79

Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan’s ex-president, dies aged 79

February 5, 2023
Pope Francis encourages South Sudan clergy to speak out against injustice

Pope Francis encourages South Sudan clergy to speak out against injustice

February 5, 2023
US shoots down “spy” Chinese balloon

US shoots down “spy” Chinese balloon

February 5, 2023
VIDEO: When Obote landed in Mbarara on return in 1980

Ahmed Oduka: The man who heard about Obote and ‘everyone’s death rumour’, but not his own

February 5, 2023
EAC leaders meet in Burundi, call for “immediate ceasefire” in DRC

EAC leaders meet in Burundi, call for “immediate ceasefire” in DRC

February 5, 2023
Elly Karuhanga celebration brings Uganda’s distinguished elders together 

Elly Karuhanga celebration brings Uganda’s distinguished elders together 

February 4, 2023
Bobi Wine: I received information of plans to kidnap my children

Bobi Wine: Museveni’s regime fears artistes are a threat to its dynastic ambitions

February 4, 2023
Matua: Minister Amongi gave me evidence to pin NSSF rot

Who is Richard Matua: the NSSF petitioner? 

February 4, 2023
Logo
  • News
    • Politics
    • Business
    • 2021 Elections Watch
      • The Election Podcast
    • Exclusive
    • Investigations
  • Education
  • Security
    • Cyber Security
  • Health
    • Coronavirus outbreak
  • Opinions
    • Columns
      • Parting Shot
      • Two Sides of a Coin
      • Bazanye’s Quick Shots
      • Mable Twegumye Zake’s #BitsOfMe&You
      • But this Year!
      • What Did I Miss?
  • Lifestyle
    • Hatmahz Kitchen
    • Food Hub
    • Let’s Talk About Sex
    • Entertainment
    • Tour & Travel
    • Love Therapist
    • Homes
  • Global
    • Africa
    • Asia
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • The Americas
  • East Africa
    • Kenya
    • Rwanda
    • Tanzania
    • South Sudan
    • DR Congo
    • Ethiopia
    • Sudan
  • Technology
  • Ask the Mechanic
  • Special Reports
    • Kabaka Mutebi’s 25th Coronation Series
    • Focus on Somalia
    • Sino-Africa
    • Uganda at 56
    • Anti-Corruption Fight
    • Age Limit Map
    • Tuve Ku Kaveera
  • Sports
    • Place-It
    • StarTimes Uganda Premier League
    • Bundesliga
    • World Cup
  • Jobs
No Result
View All Result
Logo
No Result
View All Result
Home Opinions

Open letter to UK MP Paul Williams from Uganda

Don Wanyama by Don Wanyama
January 15, 2019
in Opinions
Reading Time: 5 mins read
0
NRM: “UK MP who called for Museveni’s retirement is envious, jealous”
Dear Hon. Paul Williams, MP for Stockton South, UK. On Tuesday, last week, I watched with a mixture of amusement, pity and outright pain as you addressed your colleagues on the subject of “Democracy in Uganda”.
In the build-up to the Tuesday address, using your Twitter handle and “friendly” press in Uganda, you had given us the impression that this was going to be a debate like no other.
Of course, the Ugandan constituency (the Opposition) whose interests you promote and bankroll, deployed their online forces in ensuring the build-up was trending.
The House of Commons, we were told, was going to drop all issues pressing the UK now (Brexit is an obvious one) and focus their energies on how “democracy is on the decline in Uganda”.
A daily newspaper here in Kampala did not only offer the splash headline to market your much-billed debate, but also granted you acres of prime space in which you gave a preamble to what was going to be the “discussion of the century”.
The same newspaper was quick to highlight how Hon. Robert Kyagulanyi, the supposed leader of the People Power movement, was to be a special guest at this sitting, basically as a support actor in your cast. Of course, he was a no-show.
With this hype, it was, therefore, comical when the videostream of the debate came through only for us to see a handful, not more than 10 MPs, purportedly debating your item, which we also learnt had been downgraded to third and last on the agenda of a lazy afternoon.
I have watched numerous debates in the House of Commons, especially the exciting PMQs. We all know what a debate in the House of Commons feels like. Truth is you conned your friends and media in Uganda and elsewhere.
This was no debate. It was a monologue of you, Dr Paul Williams, trying to exhibit what you think is an authoritative appreciation of the subject of democracy and human rights in Uganda.
It turns out, this authority is premised on the four years you spent in Uganda working as a volunteer health officer. It was such a critical grounding that it now makes you an expert on Uganda, to the extent that as you went about your diatribe, you had the guts to keep talking of your views as the “voice of Ugandans”.
You are not the first. We have seen many of your type who, after spending a few weeks in Africa as tourists or volunteers or whatever else, they return to their home countries and write and become overnight authorities on Africa.
You are simply keeping a tradition that dates back to your forefathers who came here as colonialists and slave traders. You are the modern-day version of these know-it-all masters who believe they can stand on an imaginary Mt Sinai and issue edicts to Africa, like Moses did with the Israelites.
In your so-called debate, you attack everything about the National Resistance Movement (NRM) government and President Yoweri Museveni. You rubbish our health system, attack our democracy and pour scorn on our security agencies, going to lengths to try and discredit the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF), which you claim has committed “atrocities”.
The Uganda you tried to paint on that Tuesday afternoon is not the Uganda majority Ugandans know. We have never pretended that ours is an El Dorado, but neither can we be blind to the progress Uganda has made in the last three decades.
What you negatively consider as “longevity” of the NRM regime, has actually been a period of stability that has enabled this country not only recover from a tragic political past, but establish a foundation for prosperity that is beginning to flourish.
Let me give you some quick pointers. In these three decades, Uganda’s electricity generation has moved from 60MW to now more than 1,000MW. By 2020, we shall have 1,683MW. In the 30 years, our country’s revenue collection has moved from a paltry sh5b to now sh15 trillion.
Where we had one university, we now boast of over 30 accredited universities, 10 of them public. Our literacy rates have shot up, from below 45% three decades back, to now above 70%.
Today, over eight million children who would be out of primary school due to unavailability of school fees are studying, courtesy of a universal education scheme.
The Government you dismiss has presided over one of the longest and highest economic growth rates in this part of the world, averaging above 6%, for over two decades, even when the sub-Saharan average has been half of that.
And because of these correct policies, for the first time in decades, Uganda is enjoying a favourable balance of trade, earning more from our exports in the region than we are spending on imports. I could go over and over.
In your theatric performance, you claimed to bemoan Uganda’s lack of democracy. That is laughable. Uganda’s democracy is vibrant and thriving. Election results are a reflection of the people’s will and choice.
That explains why, despite campaigning hard in some areas, President Museveni or his preferred candidates, have lost. There are examples in Kampala city, Rukungiri, Jinja and several other areas. Is it only democratic when the President loses, but it is undemocratic when he wins?
Whereas some of your claptrap is tolerable, it is your attack on our army, which is most despicable about your submission. You need a crash course on Uganda’s military history to understand why the UPDF looks godsend.
Lacking in ideological grounding, the armies preceding the current administration had become tools of oppression, extortion and represented state decay and failure. The UPDF is perhaps one of the most disciplined forces on this continent.
It is not surprising that as you went about talking ill about our army, one of your colleagues had to interject and demand that you give due credit, especially for the UPDF’s role in pacifying Somalia. It is just not Somalia.
Uganda’s peace and stability, which has resultantly caused progress in other sectors, such as the economy and social sphere, has everything to do with the disciplined army that is the UPDF. Numerous surveys show that the public lists the UPDF as the most trusted institution.
Whatever your interests, the earlier you disabused yourself of the notion that you can sit in the comfort of your London sitting room and ferment trouble for Uganda, the better.
Uganda’s political destiny and who leads them is a matter of Ugandans to decide. Rather than lie to your acolytes in Kampala that you can help them rise to power through inconsequential debates in London, tell them to go mobilise and market their agenda to Ugandans.
Also, teach them that political leadership comes with discipline and responsibility. I saw you talk about the Arua incident. It would be good to know how many times you have mobilised your supporters to stone Prime Minister Theresa May’s convoy to show dissatisfaction with her.
In brief, to think of getting power out of constitutional means is political somnambulism and it would be best to come out of that reverie soonest.
The writer is the Senior Press Secretary to His Excellency the President 
Twitter: @nyamadon
AD-03 AD-03 AD-03
ADVERTISEMENT
Tags: Democracy in UgandaHouse of CommonsMP for Stockton SouthPaul Williams
Share562TweetSend
Previous Post

First Ugandan made hybrid car goes for road test

Next Post

Cosase fight becomes a referendum over what good leaders ought to do

Don Wanyama

Don Wanyama

Related Posts

OPINION: Simple ways to help you rule your finances in 2023

OPINION: Simple ways to help you rule your finances in 2023

by NP admin
January 31, 2023
0

By Jacqueline Kalembe There is a popular jest among people who do not save that goes; “you can’t save what...

OPINION:Driving growth and efficiency for Uganda’s businesses

OPINION:Driving growth and efficiency for Uganda’s businesses

by NP admin
January 30, 2023
0

By Martin Kasasira Technology has been the major driving force behind the growth of the logistics industry in Africa. In...

Lions Club donates food items to slum dwellers in Nsambya

OPINION: The required “kibalo” in increasing productivity and ensuring food security

by Edward Kafufu Baliddawa
January 30, 2023
0

The questions that must be asked and which the policy makers in Zimbabwe asked that enabled them to achieve food...

We should never repeat Margaret Zziwa’s embarrassment in EALA- Museveni

OPINION: RDCs crucial contribution to NRM’s 37-year success journey

by NP admin
January 26, 2023
0

By Sam Evidence Orikunda  As the NRM celebrates 37 years of leading Uganda,  Ugandans are  looking back at what the...

Next Post
COSASE: Bagyenda’s body guard dares MPs, survives coolers

Cosase fight becomes a referendum over what good leaders ought to do

ADVERTISEMENT
  • Trending
  • Comments
  • Latest
How fake female UPDF colonel was undressed

How fake female UPDF colonel was undressed

February 3, 2023
Matua: Minister Amongi gave me evidence to pin NSSF rot

Who is Richard Matua: the NSSF petitioner? 

February 4, 2023
US court awards family of Ugandan activist Nakajjigo Shs40bn over her wrongful death

US court awards family of Ugandan activist Nakajjigo Shs40bn over her wrongful death

February 1, 2023
Ministers, government agencies to account to nation in Manifesto week

Finance minister Kasaija says Among request of shs 6billion from NSSF was irregular

February 5, 2023
Auto Draft

The ghost of Justice Benedicto Kiwanuka is still haunting Owiny Dollo’s chair, says Lukwago

February 5, 2023
Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan’s ex-president, dies aged 79

Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan’s ex-president, dies aged 79

February 5, 2023
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Careers
Call us: +256-417-720-101
Email: [email protected]

© 2020 Nile Post Uganda Ltd. - A Next Media Services Company.

No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Politics
    • Business
    • 2021 Elections Watch
      • The Election Podcast
    • Exclusive
    • Investigations
  • Education
  • Security
    • Cyber Security
  • Health
    • Coronavirus outbreak
  • Opinions
    • Columns
      • Parting Shot
      • Two Sides of a Coin
      • Bazanye’s Quick Shots
      • Mable Twegumye Zake’s #BitsOfMe&You
      • But this Year!
      • What Did I Miss?
  • Lifestyle
    • Hatmahz Kitchen
    • Food Hub
    • Let’s Talk About Sex
    • Entertainment
    • Tour & Travel
    • Love Therapist
    • Homes
  • Global
    • Africa
    • Asia
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • The Americas
  • East Africa
    • Kenya
    • Rwanda
    • Tanzania
    • South Sudan
    • DR Congo
    • Ethiopia
    • Sudan
  • Technology
  • Ask the Mechanic
  • Special Reports
    • Kabaka Mutebi’s 25th Coronation Series
    • Focus on Somalia
    • Sino-Africa
    • Uganda at 56
    • Anti-Corruption Fight
    • Age Limit Map
    • Tuve Ku Kaveera
  • Sports
    • Place-It
    • StarTimes Uganda Premier League
    • Bundesliga
    • World Cup
  • Jobs

© 2020 Nile Post Uganda Ltd. - A Next Media Services Company.

Are you sure want to unlock this post?
Unlock left : 0
Are you sure want to cancel subscription?