There has been a lot of talk and debate about cessation in the last few weeks sparked by remarks made by Hon. Hussein Kyanjo and Gulu LC5 Chairman Norbert Mao. I know these two honourable men. I don't think they were advocating cessation, either of Buganda or the north.

They were bringing to the attention of the country the pressing problems of marginalisation, exclusion and alienation. They were actually crying out that these issues must be urgently addressed, otherwise the affected people might think of resorting to extreme solutions.

This does not call for arrest and prosecution as those with intolerant streaks have been advocating. The security state mentality is beginning to influence the thought process of people who would otherwise be of a liberal outlook. This alone should raise danger signals.

Marginalisation, exclusion, alienation are not only restricted to regional matters. In present day Uganda there is exclusion and marginalisation everywhere in daily life. For example, how many business people who do not support the ruling party, have won contracts related to the Chogm or other government contracts whether at local or central government level?

The order from the President, who in normal countries should be a president for everyone, to his followers is to "shun" all those who don't support his life presidency project. He has even gone as far as saying that he wants only teachers of his political persuasion in government schools.

As the president gives free money, land and privatised enterprises to his favoured business people, other business people deemed sympathetic to the opposition couldn't be paid what is owed to them by government. A whole ministry, headed by Gen. Salim Saleh, has even been created to spread these benefits to the supporters of NRM at the grassroots level.

What happened to Beti Kamya's attempts to have access to some of this money for her constituents is instructive in this regard.

Even the recent Kyankwanzi military training of ruling party MPs is an example of marginalisation and exclusion of the leaders of other parties.

It is like the five million shillings, which sometime back was exclusively paid to supporters of the life presidency project. How would opposition MPs access the Commandant of the Kyankwanzi military "retreat" facility in order to freely (we don't know of any fees paid by the alumni MPs or by their party) acquire leadership skills and the military uniforms as well? There has not been any advert of the courses available before or since the last exclusive retreat.

The opposition is gradually being excluded from the airwaves, even of government owned media, such as radio and TV facilities, which the law clearly stipulates, must be available to all parties. Then of course there is regional marginalisation in economic development and official appointments arising from patronage, nepotism, cronyism and favouritism of all sorts. So although poverty levels are said to have fallen to a national average just above 30%, in the north the average is more than 70%.

Regional marginalisation cannot be addressed by such mechanisms as cessation or even federalism as the smaller federal units could themselves have the same problems. Only a tolerant democratic environment in which the rights for all are respected and protected, can resolve the problem of marginalisation, exclusion and alienation.

This environment cannot be expected to prevail under the current autocratic regime. That is why it is important for all opposition groups to come together and defeat the regime, which though very unpopular is nevertheless still strong because of the disunity of the opposition.

The president recently, at Kyankwanzi, owned up that he is funding his political party by making its Secretary General a minister so that his ministerial budget allocation can fund his party activities. He has done the same for the ruling party Chief Whip. There is nowhere else in the world a chief whip of any description is a minister.

This is in addition to the revelations so far made regarding the political purposes the Gavi funds were put to. The court proceedings, if they ever take place, will perhaps reveal a lot more than has come out so far. Perhaps the donors involved in General Budget Support will then get proof that, though they have denied financial support to the opposition, they have done so for the ruling party through budget support.

Mr Ruzindana is deputy secretary general for policy and research in FDC