KAMPALA – I am sure we all know that there are prescribed ways of beginning sentences bequeathed to us by those who brought enlightenment.
Wait a minute did someone become so arrogant they suggested that they brought enlightenment here? I hope not otherwise that would be patronizing us. Could it be even remotely true that they found none at all here?
Well they can argue since they found no education in Uganda, well education as they knew it and as we now know it, was brought by the white man.
But is that equivalent to education in absolute terms? We can run to online dictionaries for a quick definition of enlightenment which they have down as “a philosophical movement of the 18th century, characterized by belief in the power of human reason and by innovations in political, religious, and educational doctrine.”
The reason I am here is because of the disagreement on the curriculum that has rocked the country. We who are enlightened know that trying to argue for separation of powers in government in Uganda is duping your audience.
Certainly, for anyone in the NRM to want us to believe that NRM believes in separation of powers in government is being grossly dishonest.
Have we not all seen how the executive liberally decides who becomes speaker and deputy speaker in more than one way?
Where was the independence of parliament in the removal of the age limit from our constitution?
During that most unfortunate time of the political history of our nation, the speaker looked on as the rest of us as her chambers were being attacked by the executive and she knew who was doing this and did nothing. She flouted laid down and known processes to get the job done.
She was right in doing so because the consequences of standing in the way of that political hurricane were huge. So what Kadaga did then was both wrong and right knowing Uganda today.
What I can’t quite understand is why there seem to be two Kadagas! There is one that does not care about processes and another that postures to.
Have we not looked for this same Kadaga, to chair the house, when her deputy was away only to be told that she was away in a remote part of Uganda? So when did she start to turn herself into a stickler to rules and process?
Let me remind the Speaker of the tenth parliament what we Ugandans know that she seems not to have know.
Uganda is managed in Entebbe and when there is an issue that requires numbers and alignments and enlightenment, it always goes to Entebbe. Entebbe meetings always have quorum and they are must-attends.
So when she elected to dramatize this and threaten to suffocate the ministry of the one Mama Janet Kataha Museveni of money should she fail to appear before her house, we know that Entebbe was the inevitable meeting place for the NRM parliamentary caucus.
Now that Kadaga claims to want to show independence of parliament, ours is to watch what her next move will be.
Let me enlighten the nation; these are all NRM people. Kadaga sits in the top organs of the NRM party. By virtue of that, she knows what is done and how it is done. What she will never quite fathom is why it is done that way, she can probably conjecture on that.
She does have options before her. Those include sending the minister of education to the rules committee for discipline using her characteristic quick short sharp crisp sentences and then send a strong message that this time round more than any other she and her parliament will not be a doormat for Entebbe. But does she not know that that would be as strong as a signal that a “ war has been declared” by you know who on you know who?
We are in a “known” Uganda that is so predictable and run by those who have a right to think for it and do for it what’s in both their and its interest. Let us just let the new curriculum be I am sure we shall be fine.
Is that not enough enlightenment for a day?
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Samson Kasumba is a Ugandan journalist
