I HOPE I NEVER LABELLED MYSELF AN INTELLECTUAL

 Bernard B Nuwagira, I hope I never labelled myself an intellectual. If I did then I am sorry and I beg to be forgiven. As to whether I should speak less or more, I have no control over it. It is God who directs to speak and what to speak, how to speak, where to speak (audience) and the same God directs me to keep quiet. I am very sure my brother Bernard you know very well that until this month, the whole of this year I almost never posted things on Facebook. 

That is not the best thing to do but you only speak when you have what to speak. I am sure you also know that I rarely make remarks on people's posts. That is not to say that I don't appreciate what they say. If you post anything that I disagree with, if I am to make a comment I will say with due respect I take exception to what you say and give reasons why but I maintain I have no right whatsoever, in fact it is obukopi (omuntu nkogwe naba ari omuntu wenyima munonga) but still you shouldn't blame them for that. 

Bernard, I was not in the same class with you but I know you used to top your HED class. Even in seminars two of which we met first at your school and second at my school you proved to be a philosopher and indeed you are. Actually, thanks to social media we have remained true friends although I am sure I spend some times up to five years without meeting you. Wherever you are, you will always earn my respect. I respect you without any reservations not because of your account size but because of the constructive words that flow from your rich mental faculty. 

Our role as philosophers (and I mean you and I ) is to continue to philosohise and prophesy ceaselessly. In future, the generations to come will reap greatly from your philosophy and good works. It is because of speaking and writing without ceasing that Dorothy Day is about to be canonized a saint. It is because of what you are of course not out of malice discouraging me from doing that Julius Kambarage Nyerere is set to be saints. In fact what makes you a saint is not refusal to sin or even go for penance like we believe in the Catholic church. 

Rather it is being liberal and generous with your good works. There is nothing destructive to society like words, equally important there is nothing constructive to society than words. The advice I will take from you is not the stoppage of the expression of ideas but the refinement of ideas to ensure they don't encourage people to kill each other, exploit each other and dehumanise each other.

I do not know whether you know about the Catholic Social teaching. Let us preach love. Let us preach justice, let us preach equality, let us preach fairness. In fact, my brother Bernard B Nuwagira, there is nothing like death, there is only migration. When you sow love, you give love,  you will receive love. I am very sure wherever you go if you go with a soul full of love and you give out love, you will always receive love. For me there is nothing on earth  or in heaven or in mars that will ever stop me from working for love. I DON'T KNOW WHETHER YOU KNOW THAT IN MY MOTHER'S WOMB I CAME ALONE. I HAVE NO BIOLOGICAL BROTHER, I HAVE NO BIOLOGICAL SISTER, ALL I HAVE ARE SOCIOLOGICAL BROTHERS AND SISTERS. 

And since we live in a global society, everyone with human blood and a human heart is either my brother or my sister. I have been socialised in the pan- African and trade union movement. In these movements there are no bosses, there are superiors or inferiors, there no subordinates. They are only brothers, sisters and comrades. Get time one day I take you to the National Organisation of Trade Unions and you see how they address each other. Even a tea-girl or the custodian like Mwanje Vincent has to be addressed as a brother. 

At least that may not create economic equality but it creates social equality. Tell me for instance why we should address MPs as honourable? Tell me why a president should be addressed as His Excellency even when there is nothing excellency about what he does? Why should a man like Museveni be addressed as Fountain of honour when there is no honour dripping from him? Just tell me, why would I think that I am more equal than an old woman such as Kankindo Generoza from Kamabare, Kigarama, Bitereko just because I have a degree and she doesn't have it?

 Why should anyone think because they may have papers - dollars/notes then they are more important than anybody else. I remember my latest article which I think ran in July I stated that I am a human rights defender and social justice crusader. It is you who in remark added "also MP 2021. That means you have trust in me that I can make a contribution as a parliamentarian. In 2009 just when I had declared that I was standing against Otafiire, Norbert Mao then invited me and we met at a place called PINCER in Kamwokya. He gave me a strategy with which anytime I chose to stand I will inevitably win. But most importantly, he assured me that people like me products of teenager mothers, born alone having gone through various hurdles but stay uncompromising have a future. Indeed I have a very bright future.

 By the standards of the world I should be having a wife, children, farms and so many things such that when there is a function you make a generous monetary contribution. People have become unacceptably selfish. My brother whenever you have a platform to speak, speak. Norbert Mao addresses speeches for five hours without anybody being bored because his words are always full of wisdom and humour. Follow him on the frontline every Thursday and appreciate. I am proud to have been born in a DP family and I am proud that my grandmother instilled in me the values of DP. Long live DP, Long live Africa, long live humanity.