An open letter to Gen. Salim Saleh
By M Suleman
5th Dec 2011: Dear General, I am sure it is a surprise to you that apart from Hon. Jacob Oboth who told you that Ugandans are nostalgic about the UEB, there has been a lukewarm response to your serious suggestion that the government should re-nationalise the electricity distribution company Umeme.
There is no doubt that your suggestion is valid, important, and crucial. UEB was so dear to the country’s economy and therefore equally dear to the people of Uganda. Unfortunately many Ugandans, although emotional and nostalgic about UEB, cannot respond to you because of two major reasons.
Firstly, you ought to understand that UEB was not the only government parastatal that was unreasonably privatized. Uganda Airlines, Uganda Hotels, Uganda Commercial Bank, Coffee Marketing Board, Lint Marketing Board, Uganda Posts, and Uganda Transport Company were all unreasonably privatised.
They were privatised because the NRM in which you are senior official wanted to profit from them. So the concern you are raising is not new. Many Ugandans raised those concerns long ago with raw statistics that proved, for example, that Uganda Commercial Bank was actually a profit making entity. But your NRM felt that it belonged to you, and it was your right to sell it.
Secondly, you seem to think that the re-nationalisation of Umeme would solve all Uganda’s problems. The suffering of Ugandans is not about Umeme. It’s about the overall governance crisis facing Uganda right now. To you, the privatisation of UEB was not well thought out. But what in your government has ever been well thought out?
Your militaristic approach to political problems landed the country in a civil war in the North which not only destroyed the lives of our brothers and sisters, but left them humiliated, degraded, dehumanized. Today, they are the wretched of the earth.
With your militaristic NRM policies, the health sector, the education system, the public infrastructure etc are all in shambles. You ought to know that having sold off the critical elements which any government can use to intervene in the economy you left the entire country naked and susceptible to rape by you and your foreign accomplices.
The economic meltdown being experienced in Uganda today is not a one day event. It is a result of a systematic process of rape by your beloved NRM. Although mistakes are human, you and your NRM made one grave error, which was to assume that your military prowess also makes you competent people to run a modern democratic government.
General Akandwanaho, by your very call to the government to re-nationalise UEB, you have actually admitted that your brother Museveni’s policies have failed Uganda. It is therefore ironical that you happen to be one of the people who believe that Museveni is the only person who can run Uganda. You have dictated that whatever mistakes he makes, Uganda must stick with him ‘pakalast’.
Lastly, I wish to put it to you that Uganda’s problems will only be sorted out when your NRM is thrown out of power. Oh, and the revenge will last for exactly the same number of years you held Ugandans hostage; 26 years and still counting! END. Please login to www.ugandacorrespondent.com every Monday to read our top stories and anytime mid-week for our news updates.
