If Oulanyah could hear and talk, what would he say about the way he has been mourned?

Bits of ME

Two weeks in death of Speaker Jacob Oulanyah, a lot has occurred since his passing!

In many a home in Uganda, a multitude of anecdotes are told of those who wished the dead had dared to spring out of the coffin to disperse relatives who shared the deceased’s property before the body was even lowered into the grave.

Tap your neighbour and ask about things often hidden when an elder dies, many will say, “ebisumuluzo” (the keys).

Greed…Ulala!

While Oulanyah's will in this case is seemingly the Constitution to which his earthly speakership position is mandated to dictate what next in duty, his personal will can only cater to his nuclear family after the state has left Omoro.

If the dead could talk, what would he say?

His passing, touches each and everyone of us.

Not only because he was number three in the country but a reminder, to will ourselves into adjusting old laws and most importantly seed well with our children in the event of sickness/death.

I personally placed Oulanyah in a position of one of the ‘father figures’ of our country, Uganda.

When news of his sickness was plastered across news channels and social media, I imagined, as a country we would do whatever it took to save ‘our father'.

Wouldn’t you as children do whatever it takes to save your parent and debate financial audits later?

Bits of YOU

Or so I thought until many of you threw out the spirit of Ubuntu.

igniting the debate of a country’s healthcare is genuine when high profile personalities opt for treatment abroad.

A death like Oulanyah’s is a lesson for our leaders to do better.

However, imagine if your children during a matter of your life and death chose to say, “the cost of flying you abroad to a better hospital will be costly, settle for what is available yet in that moment they can afford to?”

Blaming the current wrongs of this government on an ailing Oulanyah was pathetic.

Have you lost the spirit of Ubuntu not to see it?

Government chose that decision for us and for a section of Uganda's populace that felt it was a wrong decision, you threw out the spirit of Ubuntu.

In that scenario, regardless of how fed up you are with the under equipped health sector, colours and political connotations shouldn’t have taken centre stage against saving a life.

If the dead could talk, what would they say?

You, who invited the tribalism debate awakening horrific ghosts that make our friends look at us like we are embedded with agendas of a looming tribal war, you kill the spirit of Ubuntu!

Is it true that we are naturally tribal/racist as journalism scholar, Dr. Gerald Walulya puts it?

That people only need opportunities to manifest these tribal/racial undertones.

“The death of Oulanyah was one of such opportunities that people found to demonstrate their tribalistic tendencies”, Walulya says.

This would mean the populace is slowly losing the Ubuntu spirit as we increasingly celebrations of certain deaths, “noyo tumuwonye, kati ani adako?” (We’re happy about the death of that one, who is next?)

Debates of causal death of high profile personalities continue to spew conspiracy theories.

Was it murder, poison or witchcraft?

This is a sign of lack of trust in government postmortem reports argues Walulya.

“The lack of justice has prompted some people in society to wish evil to those they believe are perpetuating injustice or siding with perpetrators of injustice,” Walulya said.

Hasn’t this birthed a suspicious population?

Psychologist Dr Paul Nyende says today we don't even trust our loved ones let alone strangers.

He says attitudes and personalized opinions are taken as fact and some are churned out deliberately as propaganda with a goal.

Therefore, because of so much negativity we feed on, this has made us a paranoid population.

Since negativity creates a framework through which we process incoming information, he explains, any information that does not fit this framework is rejected.

“Many cannot accept or tolerate positive information…our perceptual set tunes us to place emphasis on the negative, Nyende says.

Walulya says Uganda today is a divided house with so many disgruntled people who are looking for any available, slightest opportunity to vent their anger.

Let us not lose the spirit of Ubuntu regardless of the imperfect situations that hover above us yet can be overcome.

Can you control your fury and find the good to re-engage your positive perception and hope as we challenge our leaders to correct the current wrongs?

If you don’t, Walulya warns that we are likely going to see more of such tensions in society, which could eventually erupt into chaos.