#BringBackOurPerspective

I failed to make the deadline for this week’s column in the Daily Monitor because a public officer decided that his time was far more valuable than that of the people he is paid to serve. So he kept us waiting a total of six hours and completely ruined my day. The editor was patient but could not accomodate me beyond 7.00 p.m. and I was still trying to recover all the time I lost standing in a corridor, waiting. There were several other people standing there with me, multiply this by the number of people across the country who were waiting for one public official in one venue or another across the country and you get an idea about how much productivity we lose every day, week, month and year to public officers who abuse their offices by failing to keep time!

To all you public officials, big and small, who waste our time because you think your time is more valuable than ours, I say - #BringBackOurTime

I have posted a modified version of the column that I submitted to the editor at 7.30 p.m. on Thursday 8th May 2014 below.

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For the past few years, it has been trendy to be an Afro-optimist. Coverage of any bad news coming out of Africa has been generally condemned as being pessimistic and, essentially, racist. Afro-optimists complained that most reports about Africa in the global media concentrated on war, poverty and disease. The Afro-optimists prevailed and so, lately, the preferred narrative has been about Africa’s promise and how Africa is rising. News reports have concentrated on the improving social and economic indicators and Africa’s story has been about roads, bridges, dams, mines, oil wells, pipelines, immunization and gender. Conferences have been held in Europe and in flashy hotels in capitals across the Continent. I doubt that there is any investor out there who hasn’t heard the song about the highest and quickest returns on investment being in one of Africa’s fast growing economies.

I am sure that the WEF in Abuja this week was slated to be another in the many Africa Rising conferences.  But reality has crept in and exposed the naiveté of the single strand narrative. How do we deal with the continued fighting or instability in Mali, Eastern DRC, Somalia and the Central African Republic? How do we reckon with the persistent terrorist attacks in Nigeria and Kenya? Then, as if those problems were not enough, how do we reconcile the calamity of South Sudan with the Africa Rising narrative? What about the political instability in Libya and Egypt?  

The truth is, whilst things are not all bad on the Continent, it is highly misleading to say that they are all good. They simply are not, and anybody who would argue otherwise needs their head checked. How do you reconcile the jolly Africa Rising narrative with the massive loss of life being caused all over by conflict, poverty and disease? Would anybody in their right mind say that Europe or America are booming if as many people were dying from conflict and disease as are dying in Africa? If Africa is booming despite all the death and suffering around us, should we conclude that African lives are cheaper or of less significance than European or American lives?

Speaking of the relative value of African lives, what better example can there be of the lack of respect for lives than the reaction of the Nigerian authorities to the recent kidnapping of three hundred school girls from Chibok, in Northern Nigeria, by the Boko Haram terrorists? It took the Nigerian President, Mr. Goodluck Jonathan, a good three weeks to bestir himself to say something about the kidnapping of the girls in public. The public statement only came after social media had goaded the global media into covering the issue with the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls. The noise from social media grew so loud that soon celebrities and international public figures were talking about the kidnapped Nigerian girls. Only then did the Nigerian authorities realize that this tragedy had happened to young girls under their watch and that they had to express some concern as well as do something about it.

If there had been no global social media outrage, it is most likely that the story about the missing three hundred girls would have gone the same way as all stories of the numerous Boko Haram attacks that have come before. They would have been drowned out by the chorus about how well Nigeria is doing economically and lifestyle pieces about “Afropolitan” Nigerians, with cut glass English accents, doing so well in the creative arts.

The trendy social economic development approach to things has also made it easier to disregard the worth of human beings. Where else in the world would a Minister of Health attend a glitzy launch of a report that states that 16 women die every day during childbirth along with 106 new born children under his watch and not only keep his job but also have a drink and a piece of, what Kalundi Serumaga calls, roast Millennium Development Goat at the cocktail? Only in Uganda, which is in Africa! Let me say that again, in case you cannot read bold print -  in Uganda today, 16 women die everyday whilst giving birth and 106 newborn children die every day of neonatal complications! 

But to our leaders and the flippant Africa Rising narrators these are just numbers not real human lives. They can be waved away by saying that things were much worse in 1986 or that there is a mega hydroelectric dam, a refinery or a pipeline on the way. Would we think and speak in the same glib way if 16 women and 106 babies were lined up at Constitutional Square and shot in the head every day? Do we need pictures of their bloated corpses and coagulated blood get us to realize that something is still very wrong?

I do not raise these issues to induce a feeling of hopelessness or depression but to provoke deep thought and to call for perspective.  Yes, lots of good things are happening in Africa today but people (yes, flesh and blood human beings like you and I) are still dying needlessy from those things that the Afro-optimists would have us believe no longer exist - war, poverty and disease. We all need to focus very steadfastly on these issues. We need to celebrate what we are doing right but we must also realise that there is still much in the realm of governance and development. And if we can't realise the importance of anything until it is trending on Twitter, then perhaps Michelle Obama could be so kind as to tweet a photograph herself holding up a placard with the hashtag #BringBackOurPerspective.

Terrorism is Not An Ideology.

Prof. John Kozy, an American mathematician and logician, said that “The careless use of language makes it easier to have foolish thoughts”! I love that quotation not just because I am a lawyer who is trained to obsess on the definitions and meanings of specific words or phrases but because it is just simply true. A lack of care in the application of words to any situation can lead us into dead ends, unnecessary escalations, false solutions and worse because if we do not use the appropriate language, carefully weighing up the true meaning of each word and phrase that we are applying, it is easy for our attendant thought process to wander and miss the mark.

In the aftermath of the outrageous and tragic Westgate siege, the words of John Kozy came to mind. As politicians, the media and commentators looked for words to express their outrage, sorrow and disgust at the acts of the despicable people who subverted the teachings of a noble religion to murderous ends and were wreaking havoc, murder and mayhem in the centre of Nairobi, we started to hear refrains of language from George W. Bush’s “Global War on Terror”. We heard President Uhuru Kenyatta referring to terrorism as “the philosophy of cowards” and saying that Kenya will not yield in the war on terror. We heard other officials talking about this being a global war and how terrorism will be defeated wherever it is. We read about “Islamic terrorists” and “Somali terrorists” and in Samantha Lewthwaite, the so-called “White Widow”, we have a new terror mastermind, a white female Osama Bin Laden, if you like.

Let me be clear, I do not condone for one moment the outrageous acts of the terrorists and feel the deepest sadness for all those who lost loved ones or were injured in this gruesome and mindless attack.  However if we are to get a solution to this problem we cannot start by applying wrong definitions. 

Terrorism is not a philosophy and nor is it an ideology. Terrorism is not a state of mind, a state of being, a religion or an ethnicity. Terrorism is a method of war that is nearly as old as war itself.  It is used and has been used by legitimate and illegitimate armed groups that are engaged in asymmetrical fights over legitimate and illegitimate causes. It is the use of violence to achieve political ends by inflicting a psychological blow (fear or terror) on a larger adversary so as to cause the larger adversary to behave in the way that the terrorist desires. By necessity, terrorists do not operate openly or engage well protected and armed targets as conventional armies would do in a conventional war. They operate clandestinely and go for the “soft” targets, looking to inflict civilian casualties and/or massive economic damage so as to sow fear and reap a political reward.

The trouble with declaring war against terror, despicable though it may be, is the fact that you set yourself an absolutely impossible objective.  You cannot win a war on terror any more than you can win a war on conventional wars! Further by declaring “war” a legitimate government arguably bestows some kind of legitimacy on otherwise illegitimate violent non-state actors who mete out terror.  This is part of the political objectives that the terrorists actually seek, a propaganda victory which suggests that the state is panicking and has gone into war mode.  Then having inflicted a few blows they rely on the inverted principle of victory that Henry Kissinger illustrated when he said “The conventional army loses if it does not win. The [terrorist] wins if he does not lose.”

So how should the State react in the face of such heinous crime? The State should take a leaf from Sun Tzu’s Art of War and take on the terrorist where he is unprepared and appear where it is not expected. The terrorists and terrorism should be placed in perspective. It is crime; violent and gross, but it is crime nonetheless.  It should be defined and treated as such. Security agencies have to step up their game and citizens have to be vigilant but the threat must be defined as it truly is, a criminal threat against peace, law and order and not as an existential threat to a well founded and run state. The State should also contextualize the risk of injury or death arising from terrorism.  You are far more likely to die in a motor or other accident than you are at the hands of terrorists. Lastly, the State must find innovative and comprehensive ways of dealing with the underlying political issues that give rise to terrorism. Doing this is not giving in to terror, but a legitimate engagement in the solution of political problems. With the political problems solved the terrorists are denied a cause. This may not be easy or cheap but it’s definitely far easier and cheaper than trying to win a war against a concept or an endlessly shifting and morphing target.

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The Palace Is Not Safe If The Cottage Is Not Happy.

As I write this week’s column, school term started four days ago but most children in state owned and run schools have not been doing any studying because the teachers are on strike. The detailed facts, factors and actions behind the ongoing strike are beyond the remit of this column but suffice to say that it is in reaction to Government’s failure to honour a promise to raise teachers’ salaries by 20% in this financial year. Not being privy to the earlier negotiations between Government and UNATU, the teachers’ union, we have no idea about how the figure of 20% was arrived at or why the respective parties agreed upon it being paid in this financial year. However it is safe to assume that both Government and UNATU were represented by well informed, capable and adult representatives who understood the gravity and financial implications of the matter that they were discussing. So if a figure of increment and the date of commencement were mutually agreed upon, why are we at this juncture, with teachers on strike, the children idle and the Government belligerent? 

It is not unusual for people, corporations, or even Governments to fail to honour commitments to pay. If it was unheard of then lawyers and courts all over the world would be idle. So we need not dwell too much on the fact that Government has failed to keep its word to the teachers. What we need to look at closely is the fact that Government is unapologetic about its failure to meet its own solemn commitment.  We also need to ask ourselves why Government has failed to pay and is now talking about sacking the striking teachers, or sweeping them out of the way, as one minister was quoted as having said.

Education is a vital public service that is managed and provided by the State. Education policy and the spending priorities are set by the Ministry of Education and some of the bigger decisions are made at Cabinet and higher levels. However there is a key ingredient missing in the decision making matrix, which, I suggest, militates against the permanent resolution of the ongoing problems in this sector. None of the key decision makers in Government have their own children or grandchildren in state schools. This creates a fundamental disconnection between the decision makers and those teachers, parents and students whose very basic lives are affected by the decisions made. The key decision makers might as well be making decisions about schools in Liberia, because the decisions that they make do not affect them or their loved ones in a real tangible sense.

I have said it here before that if Uganda was a restaurant then it would have the dubious distinction of being a restaurant in which the chefs and waiters do not eat the food that they cook for and serve their guests.   In such a restaurant the guests must not be surprised by the poor quality of the food that is presented to them. The cooks and waiters show, in the loudest possible way, by their actions, that the quality is poor by not eating the food. However the restaurant analogy becomes strained here because guests can choose to take their custom elsewhere. Ugandans are captive in this system and must either pay through the nose for an alternative education for their kids or simply grin and bear it hoping that in the random hit and miss of Government decisions on education, there will be more hits than misses and that their children will get something useful out of it. But hope, as they say, is not a strategy.

The opting out of the elite from public services that they manage for and on behalf of the people of Uganda is not limited to education. No self-respecting official would be seen dead (pun intended) in a Government health facility yet they expect the people to suffer those same services or die in the hands of traditional healers. The problem of poor or irregular power supply does not affect them because they have dedicated lines that are not subject to load shedding or they have powerful standby generators which run at the taxpayers’ expense. In other words, the elite have opted out of or devised means of working around every key public service that they manage for and on behalf of the people. To add insult to injury, these opt-outs and work-arounds are funded by you and me the victims of the poor services.

In the result, Uganda is increasingly two countries sharing a single geographical location. One Uganda is a small self-entitled and deluded bubble that floats over the other Uganda, which lives in the daily reality of destitution and discontent. Bubbles are always very pretty when inflated and floating gently through the air. But they always burst when they come into contact with solid, sharp reality. Benjamin Disraeli put it in more stark terms, “The palace is not safe when the cottage is not happy.”

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Speak Out Against Abuse of Rights By Service Providers

A good friend of mine who migrated from law into active politics once told me a hilarious story.  He told me that his cantankerous and loud nature manifested early in his childhood. If ever he was sick or had any problem in the middle of the night, he said, he would cry and scream at the top of his lungs to ensure that the whole family heard him. That way, his parents attended to him quickly because if they didn’t his siblings would also wake up and start kicking up ruckus.

I took a leaf out of my friend’s childhood tactics last week when I related the tale of Umeme Limited’s illegal and unethical conduct. Fellow consumers woke up and filled my Twitter feed and my e-mail box with wide ranging related and unrelated complaints against the corporation. Perhaps the funniest came from a popular TV personality, who wrote that Umeme really stands for “Uganda’s Management of Electricity Mystifies Everybody” and signed off with the words “They are robbing us in the dark!”

As I told you last week, Umeme made a quiet apology to me and hoped that the problem would go away but, going by the volume of responses that I have had all week, it would appear that I was just one consumer caught up in the nightmare of Umeme’s bad behaviour. So this week, as the tide of complaints grew, the savvy public relations team stepped up Umeme’s game by offering an apology to the consumers on Twitter and on Sanyu FM’s Breakfast Show. This is, no doubt, a step in the right direction. But there are several unanswered questions and the gravity of the situation seems to me to merit a statement and an apology to all consumers from the top management of the corporation. There is no plausible way that such wide ranging and persistent misconduct could have gone unnoticed by the top management and Board. If it did go unnoticed, then top management and the Board should step forward and admit that they are not competent to manage a utility company. It is also beyond doubt, that all of this reprehensible conduct was done in the pursuit of the profits out of which top management and the Board have taken hefty chunks. An apology from a person who is paid to tweet on behalf of Umeme is good, but an apology to all consumers from the people who got the tangible benefits in the form of fat pay cheques and bonuses would be far better. To those whom much is given, much is expected.

In the ordinary civic narrative, the citizens’ need to know their rights is expressed as a guarantee against abuse or exploitation meted out by the State or State officials.  We tend to think about human rights in terms of the Chapter 4 of the Constitution; regularly citing the right to a fair trial, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, the right to life etc. against the Police, the Army, RDCs and Ministers. But few of us have realized the subtle but important change in the terrain that came as a result of the World Bank imposed structural adjustment program. The wide ranging privatization of the delivery of basic public services means that these days, your fundamental human rights may be impacted as much by a foreign owned corporation seeking and working purely for profit as by a government official motivated by local politics. 

Over the years, our history has taught us to fear the Government and to roll over when our basic rights are being trampled upon, if only to save the most fundamental one of all – life. A few bold souls speak out against abuse of rights by the State but the overwhelming majority has been preprogrammed not to rock the boat. We grin and bear it, just grateful to be alive. 

Therefore it is no surprise that some of the private corporations which acquired the parastatal organizations that used to deliver public services have premised their plans for profit on the back of the presumed ignorance and gullibility of Ugandans. They make a calculation of profit based on practices that they simply wouldn’t contemplate doing in their home countries. They get away with it most of the time because of our predisposition to silent compliance and our inordinate gratitude for services that we are paying through the nose for. We are cowed by the fact that we could have been going without and made to suffer in silence because these corporations are allegedly doing us a big favour.  

I believe the key lesson that we must draw from this still unfolding Umeme episode is that we must end the twin culture of ignorance of our rights and suffering in silence.  There is every reason to fear men with guns but we should not also fear these men with briefcases. If you are reaching into your pocket and paying for any service the service provider is your servant and you are his boss. The corporations have no right to disrespect or treat you shabbily as they take your hard earned cash. Speak out and you will be heard.

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