Will politicians fulfill promises made?

I have firm conviction that this Zimbabwean proverb will sum up what I am writing’, that buffaloes are held by their horns and men are held by their words’.

By our words contracts are made and enforced. The Electoral Commission is almost winding up on the last set of elections that have seen public offices change faces with new office bearers or additional mandate for incumbents,

Uganda as a republic derives its legitimacy from electoral politics and not any other source that I know of. In this spirit, various political actors with conflicting ideologies were able to traverse the different villages of Uganda numbering in their thousands to market their manifestos and also listen to day-to-day challenges that affect the ordinary citizen.

The electoral process allowed our political actors to see and hear from their masters, the voters. A summary of my findings indicate that truly power belongs to the people and not to the leaders.

I noted with interest how every politician yielded to the demands of the masses and sometimes wondered if the politicians will have the necessary resources to execute all their promises on time before 2021 when the five-year term ends. As they say, time will tell.

This reminds me of Zimbabwe’s president Robert Mugabe who has mastered the art of blaming ‘whites’ for everything. This is the nature of most politicians. They blame everyone but themselves. Even their failure to fulfil promises made on the campaign trail is blamed on someone else.

In George Orwell’s Animal Farm, the pigs would openly blackmail those who would complain about their bad leadership style with words like, ‘Do you want Jones to come back?’ Jones being the fellow that all the animals had participated in overthrowing.

Uganda’s population that stands at about 36 million as per statistical projections depends heavily on agriculture and some bit of trade. Citizens are patiently waiting for political actors to translate their promises on agriculture into reality. I truly hope these promises will be fulfilled.
Steven Masiga,
stevenmasiga@yahoo.com