THE BLUE AND WHITE

In Uganda, we’ve witnessed dismaying plummets in various subjects. The aggregate economy declined immensely, while the quality of life for the citizens hit the bottom. Bellicose militants and thugs teemed the streets, brandishing weapons, enkindling civil unrest. While in Botswana and South Africa, the economy is conspicuously proliferating, placing its economic condition at the zenith. What happened?

Can you name an African political hero other than Nelson Mandela or Desmond Tutu? Probably not, and this shows the tragic reality of African politics. Totalitarianism was spreading quickly amongst African nations in the 1970’s. Many nations were starting to become ruled by authoritarian leaders, yet the most notorious out of all was Idi Amin of Uganda. Idi Amin legalized ludicrous political institutions that only benefited himself, not his citizens, and took all the food that was supposed to be in his citizens’ mouths, and took all the money that was supposed to be in his citizens’ wallets using military dictatorship. Amin also went on to kill and massacre anyone who opposed his political ideologies. He is known to have massacred and tormented at least 500,000 people during his 8 years of reign and thrown their bloody bodies into the Nile River. Just like this, the citizens of Uganda had to live under an undemocratic, corrupted,violent government with no rudimentary human rights, causing all the money and affluence going to the government and none to the citizens, ultimately causing poverty and low quality of life. We can also infer how much of a critical impact political corruption could have on a nation’s economy by looking at Botswana and South Africa, which are both democratic and non-corrupted nations. Even though they are located geographically near Uganda and have similar cultures, Botswana and South Africa still have a flourishing economy compared to the plummeting economy of Uganda. We can infer from this that even though there are numerous factors to an economic plummet, political corruption is the primary progenitor of the countless socio-economic calamities nations encounter nowadays.

If we fail to learn from previous mistakes and learn, the same mistakes, same disasters, and same tragedies will occur again. If humankind doesn’t learn that political corruption will lead to poverty and catastrophes, another totalitarian leader will rise up to reign and massacre another 50 million innocent people, disrupting world peace. If only humankind can learn from the case of Idi Amin and Uganda and evolve, the world could become a much more peaceful place, with blood and tears replaced with joy and laughter.