Mr President, you can only promote welfare by ensuring social justice

Vincent Nuwagaba

On 12th April, the country witnessed a swearing-in ceremony of a president who has been around for the past 25 years. The president swore to preserve, protect and defend the constitution, but experience has shown that he will invoke the constitution only when it is in his best interest to do so. The constitution has been reduced to a mere piece of paper which can be thrown any time it stands in the way of those wielding power. In addition to preserving, protecting and defending the constitution, the president swore that he shall promote the welfare of the people of Uganda.
How can the president promote the welfare of Ugandans?
This is a true story for the attention of the president and his courtiers. Francis Ruhindi was a government sponsored student at Makerere University. He graduated with a second class upper degree with a cumulative grade point average of 4.27 in 2003. By all standards, Francis performed very well. Joan Kemirembe his sister was a privately sponsored student in Makerere University also. She graduated in 2005 with a second class upper division too. Their father Silas Nkundeki is a peasant from Bitereko Sub County in the new Mitooma district who sold his land and cattle in order to have his children attain university education expecting that after graduation the children would get employed and restore the sold land but also pay school fees for their siblings. Since they graduated both Joan and Francis have never gotten jobs and they depend on providence for survival. They have begged now for close to eight years and now they have turned into a laughing stock to very many people.
Ironically, as Francis and Joan – children of peasants languish on the streets without jobs, they have seen their contemporaries from wealthy families get jobs in National Social Security, Uganda Revenue Authority and some of them joined police and many of them are now District Police Commanders; Divisional Police Commanders, Officers in Charge of stations and Officers in Charge of Criminal Investigation Departments while some of them are Officers in Charge of Traffic. In fact, Francis applied to join the Police Force in 2007 but he was unsuccessful and the reason he gives for this is that he never had any government bigwig to recommend him. This is the time when it was proved that police recruitment was marred by awful sectarianism.
Francis, wonders why government wasted taxpayers’ money educating him and later deny him an opportunity to serve his country. Joan laments the fact that her father sold his land and cattle to have her educated. These are some of the people that government officials have been telling that Uganda is not a welfare state! The right to work is clearly fundamental to the enjoyment of many subsistence rights and livelihood rights such as food, clothing, housing and so forth.
The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights stressed that, “The right to work is increasingly important as governments world over continue to withdraw from the provision of basic services, leaving these to market forces and non-governmental actors”.
It is ironical that the government wastes money on non-productive ventures at a time when our health centres are deathtraps and some people can starve to death. The core principles of human rights are human dignity, equality and welfare. The right to liberty vanishes when the right to equality is not ensured and in its turn the right to equality vanishes when freedom is not assured. This clearly is how interdependent and indivisible human rights are.
Finally, the president swore to defend the constitution at a time when the police and the military are brutalizing those who have expressed dissent with the government. This is a mockery of the constitution and the bible with which he swore to defend the constitution. The president can promote the welfare of the people of Ugandans by first and foremost ensuring that he pays heed to the concerns of the people. He must ensure social justice and desist from feeding the nation on his usual platitudes. Ugandans need jobs; drugs in hospitals; access to education and so forth. It is meaningless for the president to keep telling us of improvement in economic growth when it doesn’t translate into economic development.
Mr. Nuwagaba is a human rights defender
vnuwagaba@gmail.com