UPC External Bureau Victoria, British Columbia

The NRMO Bus Has Square Tires

A commentary on the 2005/2006 multi-party campaigns

This is the first in a series of commentaries on ongoing political campaign in Uganda by the Victoria UPC Bureau. In this release, the subject is the movement bus.

The yellow bus has some problems. For starters it has a drive with myopic "VISION". The driver vision is limited to an area surrounding Mbarara. The driver cannot see anything when he drives outside the 100 kilometers parameter away from Mbarara. All developments are directed to Mbarara, and related cities. Some benefits may trickle to places such as Entebbe and Kampala, but that only because; the Mbarara-based citizens migrate to such areas. Otherwise everything is about Mbarara - much like all Judeo-Christian religions are about Jerusalem.

The driver tends to be prone to juvenile fantasies and vanity. He fantasizes about industrializing the whole of Africa when he grows up. He dreams of conquering neighboring countries to form an empire. He cannot see anyone else in Uganda being as good as he is.

Secondly, the yellow bus has square tires (see picture attached). The round tires have been turned into squares by the following mechanical problems:

1. Corruption - This started of as a tire block to hold the bus in-place while passengers got onboard, but due to the heavy weight of the rusting iron used to build the bus, corruption has welded itself to the wheels, and will not budge. The driver himself knows that removing this block might result in the bus getting out of hand running downhill with the driver chasing after it. Tacitly everyone on the bus has quietly agreed to keep the block in-place or risk loosing the bus.
2. Nepotism and tribalism - The NRM bus developed nepotism as wedge to assist friends and relatives to get onto the bus using the back door. It has ever since welded itself to the wheels, creating an immovable corner. Ordinarily, the back door closes automatically, allowing the turn-boys to load some luggage on to the bus, but the management of the NRMO decided to throw the back door open in order to gain passengers, who would otherwise been left outside the system.
3. Militarism - The militarism wedge was justified as a means for providing safety for everyone inside and outside the bus. It was supposed to stop the bus from killing anyone on the road or inside the bus. However, the effectiveness of the wedge has been over-sold and is quite costly. As a consequence, the engine is running, but the bus cannot go anywhere because, there are no resources to install a clutch and gears to allow the bus to engage the wheels.
4. Greed and avarice - This welded itself to the NRMO bus wheels because the driver believes no one else outside or inside the bus can run government business and be successful. The driver has done everything possible to discourage pluralism in driving the bus. This might be a job safety (insurance) issue given that the driver cannot do any other job successfully and is afraid the possibility of redundancy.

Fortunately, there are options to the yellow bus. The Uganda Peoples Congress, being a party of ideas is a better option for Ugandans. Not only is the party manifesto insightful and progressive, it has members with many of years of experience in politics. The party also has a strong record of education and health development. Health care and education are not privileges to be granted to Ugandans by one person, they are rights everyone should expect of a party running a government. Only UPC has a defensible record of fairness and equality in providing these rights to the people. The players in the NRMO have been in power for 20 years and yet they have not demonstrated fairness, and ability to provide these services to Ugandans.

Long live UPC. Long Live Mama Miria Obote. More power to the people of Uganda.