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Uganda: Gadaffi Ruffles Feathers, TB Goes Up
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New Vision (Kampala)
COLUMN
22 March 2008
Posted to the web 24 March 2008
Elizabeth Agiro
Kampala
IF President Yoweri Museveni takes comrade Col. Muammar Gadaffi's advice seriously, then we have ourselves a president for life. During his recent four-day visit for the Afro-Arab youth conference, the Libyan leader told Museveni to never consider retiring from the presidency.
Gadaffi who has been in power for four decades, said term limits were alien to Africa and stopped people from expressing their will. He asked leaders like Museveni and Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe to fight or die fighting the war against Western powers which have robbed Africa of her natural resources. Politicians from the opposition, however, said the remarks were a mockery to the values of the Commonwealth, which Museveni chairs.
Gadaffi, however, was not done ruffling feathers. He suggested that the Bible is altered; something that did not sit well with the clerics, who argued that the Bible is authentic. In a 90-minute speech to celebrate the birth of Prophet Mohammed, Gadaffi said the Koran was the only holy book sent by God. He said the current Bible is not the one revealed to Jesus and the Old Testament is not the one Allah gave Moses. He argued that references to Mohammed could have been deleted from the original Bible.
According to one Makerere University lecturer, religious leaders have no business taking a holier-than-thou stance. Dr. Julius Kiiza castigated religious leaders who drive expensive cars while their congregations live in abject poverty. He said they had succumbed to capitalist greed with some buying Prados with the poor church-goers' money while others perpetrate defilement and pregnancies that ruin school girls' lives. One reverend defended the clergy, saying some places could not be accessed by ordinary vehicles.
Meanwhile, Uganda's oldest institution of higher learning intends to increase the number of private students from 11,000 to 15,000 in the next academic year, which starts in August. The 4,000 extra students will be distributed among faculties of technology, IT, social sciences, law and medicine. Ironically, Makerere University's Senate in 2004 slashed the number of students to reduce congestion. It is believed that this latest move will increase revenue for the financially strapped university.
While Makerere increases her student intake, schools operating under the Universal Secondary Education programme need to cut back on admission. During a one-day national head count of S1 and S2 students, it turned out the majority of them admitted more students than they could handle.
The Afro-Arab youth could not handle the thought of testing for HIV due to cultural biases and lack of awareness. Those from Arabic countries manifested sheer ignorance when they argued that their culture did not permit promiscuity and therefore there was no way that they could be HIV positive. One female delegate said it was up to her husband to decide when she took the test.
In Uganda, medical practitioners blame the high number of TB cases on HIV. According to Dr. Jennifer Baluka, a human resource development officer, immunity has gone down due to the HIV virus, while TB has adverse effects on the progression of HIV.
It was also revealed that whereas HIV prevalence stood at 6.4%, that of TB is 60%, with the combination of each speeding the other.
In other news, life for Internally Displaced Peoples' just may be getting better. The World Food Programme has swapped dependence for independence for the majority of these people. Only recently, WFP ceased food distribution to 600,000 IDPs in Teso and Lango regions. WFP country director Tesema Negash said most of these people were engaged in fish farming to improve their livelihood.
For Ugandans generally, the future of transportation just got better after Uganda and Rwanda signed an agreement to build an oil pipeline that connects their capitals. Originally planned to carry oil from Eldoret in Kenya to Kampala, the pipeline will not extend to Kigali. Talk about bringing services closer to the people.
Quote of the week
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"In Uganda we have Museveni. In Zimbabwe, we have Mugabe. They are real African leaders. They are serious. They should stay. Such leaders should not go." Libyan President Col. Muammar Gadaffi during the Afro-Arab meeting at Commonwealth Resort Munyonyo, encourages President Yoweri Museveni to forget about retirement.
The week ahead
The Lord's Resistance Army and the Uganda Government agreed to sign a comprehensive peace agreement on March 28 to mark an end to the 22-year war in northern Uganda. Hopefully, both parties go through with the programme this time round.
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