Ridicule against Kyambadde regrettable but justifiable

Trade minister Amelia Kyambadde

No human being deserves to be ridiculed, however sometimes if you opt to work for a selfish pay master, by proxy you might end up cushioning all the rotten tomatoes. Recently, social media was awash with a video in which Hon. Minister Amelia Kyambadde was mocked by angry Ugandans in the diaspora.

The Minister who had gone to attend the Nordic Uganda business conference in Oslo, Norway turned out to be the punching bag of what seemed to be people’s discontentment against the government that she had fully represented.

Like other Ugandans, who have sympathized with Hon. Amelia, I equally hold her integrity in high regard. On several encounters, I have bumped into her walking freely on the streets, with no body guard, something peculiar to find amongst many high-ranking government officials. Further, I appreciate the fact that she’s not been involved in any scandalous act whatsoever, for the longest time she has served in government.

Actually, just the other day, while appearing on NBS FaceOff talk show hosted by Oscar Ssemweya-Musoke, the calm Minister allegedly said that failure to respect her office by some members of the first family, among other things, explains why she resigned from her job in State house.

That said, I think there are three solid reasons as to why one of the fewest ministers with a cleanest record was ridiculed;

Firstly, Hon. Amelia went on that delegation as a government representative and not in her own capacity per se. Therefore, that could have sparked off the irate Ugandans in Oslo to verbally attack her, for they were indirectly speaking to authority. I clearly don’t understand why Ugandans have continued to massage a rogue government that already parted ways with its citizens since time immemorial.

A government that has invested all its efforts in milking a “cow” that is never fed. A government that has left Ugandans to languish in extreme poverty without tangible solutions. A government that is alien to social justice, human rights and rule of law. A government that is bred on corruption. A government that is suffocating on a huge debt burden. A government without plans for its youth. A government that undermines free speech and dissent. A government that is managed through gambling. And a government whose top executives have strategically veered off the path of shared growth and development. Its noteworthy that no amount of ridicule that is worse off than what this government has subjected us to.

Secondly, the masses have now been awakened than ever before. Everyone hates leaders who feed them on endless rhetoric, lies, and scripted speeches. Ugandans are in a quest for a broad-based government that was a key tenet for Hon. Amelia’s government before it took us for a ride. We need a government that works for all of us, not the selected few, as is. As the practice is, children from richer families are often brought up knowing that there is life on the other side of the coin.

For instance, that there is existence of their counterparts at the peripheral who will always move into their lane whenever life goes into disarray. It’s exactly that simple tale that our leaders are currently grappling with. The center can no longer hold for the “weaker” to look on as the “mightier” continue to steal away from the former. Surprisingly, the weaker have no weapon to fight backall sorts of oppression but because of the generated anger, the only weapon at their disposal is ridicule againstthe mightier.

Thirdly, and what we may need to understand is that governments like the one Hon. Amelia serves, don’t learn and appreciate from their mistakes. Just like the fact that there is no purely good government, instead the government has used this as an excuseto focus on monopolizing itself in power than paying heed to its blue print “Key Performance Indicators.”Must I have to remind Ugandans that the “Fountain of Honor” once told us that is no body’s servant and that his priority is enriching himself and his family?

Therefore, Hon. Amelia should not lament about her predicament because she made a choice to work for such an insensitive-self-centred government.Currently, there is a growing culture among the populace which is shunning away leaders who are deemed accomplices to bad governance, misrule and impunity. It was therefore not a new phenomenonto see Hon. Amelia ridiculed, perhaps what was new is that this time round such a thing didn’t happen in her constituency but in a foreign country.

Lastly, the government may choose to either continue sustaining such embarrassments or work for the people, lest all government officials, will be heldvicariously liable for the all the bad and ugly. On the other hand, if the government does good, all felicitations will go to those who support and serve in it.

The writer is a Commonwealth Correspondent

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