By Dr Deus Kamunyu Muhwezi
Dear my elite friends,
KAMPALA – It seems we opened up too much through education and yet we were unable to handle the death of our traditional knowledge systems and its aftermath. The cost of Africa elitism is too high and a burden to the youth and women. Its unfortunate that the result of over 50 years of independence is a crop of African Elites that are unable to sacrifice, with no grounded vision and unable to build a national ethos that can withstand the effects of the global political economy. It’s unfortunate that our people no longer trust us and are now resorting to whoever cares.
I see this every day these days. It hurts more that we so-called degree holders cannot save our own people and bring poverty to its knees. It hurts even more than our fear of standing against all that is evil and bad grows as soon as we get our first degree. That we immediately begin chasing after paper money while embracing everything bad to live beyond our means. We give away our gold (youth) at almost no value and we have limited knowledge on how to harness the potentials of our young people. We sit back and call them hooligans and nuisances to public order forgetting that our corrupt ways are contributing to their destitution. Let us sit back and reflect dear Ugandan/African elites.
I’m sad that we cannot sit together and agree to disagree on the evils of our time and especially the effects of corrupt ways. Looking forward, I encourage the youth of Uganda/Africa to begin asking the hard questions to all of us leaders especially how we run public affairs and stop running after small money gifts. These gifts will haunt your youth and undermine millions of citizens. Ask us about our ability to protect your motherland that we seem to be betting for false power. Believe in merit and the fruits of hard work. Young women and men should get out of slumber and weak thoughts and demand for liberation education and shun all unproductive politicking. Leaders should stand tall against elite corruption because it’s responsible for more death than the real death caused by malaria and HIV combined. Its a major fault line of our time and we seem to be in the second phase of slavery. I’m sorry to be one of the facilitators and my time to stop is due. What about you?
Enjoy your week.
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Deus Kamunyu Muhwezi (PhD), is a budding university professor and Chairman of the Makerere University Staff Association (MUASA).
