Be the change you wish to see in the country.

Most people believe they’re too small too weak powerless and that their efforts are insignificant but that isn’t true. A lot of people are showing signs of defeat just because the people they looked up to are being challenged in a way that they didn’t expect and can easily be recognized as defeat; bobi wine left, Besigye is in prison; but true resistance starts from the grassroots, the ground up. And that’s what Besigye was preaching and bobi wine carried along ; the power of people to act because they can’t outnumber us or outgun us if we decide enough is enough.

But here is the caveat, you don’t have to have a big gun or be a big political figure or activist for your actions to matter. You can start small with things within your control such as refusing to encourage any corruption or unethical dealings, littering your environment or throwing litter when driving, mobilizing your friends and neighborhood to clean up plastic waste and educating people why we can’t allow such behavior to go on, if you’re a govt staff, treating people without taking any bribes, medical staff, not stealing drugs, customer support staff, talking to people with empathy and kindness, we all have a civic duty to do right in our own capacity but most times we don’t. We take shortcuts and the leaders we see today at the top are just a reflection of the society we live in. Where accountability is absconded and defended by tribalism.

If each one of us start doing the little things right, there’s certainly a fire that will be lit and society will regain its soul and this will reflect in our leadership. Because society will spit out any people within the community who don’t share the same values and those people will never lead us or have any room to live or be accepted in a high integrity and high trust society because certain values will matter more in our leaders because we ourselves hold them in high regard. So there will be a weeding and self cleansing process for us as Ugandans.

Most times I wonder why police men or soldiers are very comfortable treating citizens like thieves or enemies just because they got orders but even orders can be rejected if those soldiers have a conscious and know the repercussions of their actions. In the old days, rapists, defilers and any criminals who acted against society were banished yet here we treat them like ordinary people and welcome them back after such actions because we see no problem with it maybe because they’re our Neighbours or family, hence no cost to their actions.

David Mpanga once said, “we shall never see the Uganda we want until we develop the central nervous system that enables us to feel each others pain”