Friday , March 29 2024
Home / COLUMNISTS / Andrew Mwenda / Against privileges for a few

Against privileges for a few

Students

Makerere students and their cheerleaders in other sectors of Uganda’s public life need to wrestle with three things. First, why should other parents and students be excluded from the “right” of cheap or free university education? Second, why do students in other private or public universities, who come from the same income background and face similar expenses, not find strikes a weapon to employ regularly to advance their cause? Third, why should being at a public university entitle anyone to special treatment?

What we are seeing at Makerere is decades of indoctrination into a mentality of entitlement, victimhood, and grievance. It is a mentality that spreads across many aspects of our national life and is promoted by opposition politicians and by Museveni for selfish reasons – to win votes. This mentality has created a toxic intellectual environment among our elite. They want to get everything from the state for free or cheaply: health, education, roads, etc. and do not want to contribute anything in return. This was most evidenced during protests against the social media tax.

We have, therefore, a highly cultivated sense of entitlement without a corresponding sense of obligation. Many Ugandans want to milk the cow they do not want to feed. Many of them hide behind claims of corruption to abdicate their obligation to the state from which they demand so much. Citizens should always pay their taxes first and then demand accountability. There is also the lack of a sense of proportion to the resources available to the government to meet such entitlements that elites demand.

Many Ugandan elites – journalists, academics, pundits etc. support this dysfunctional entitlement culture because it places them on higher moral or intellectual plane than others, at least in their own estimation. It makes them feel they are championing the interests of the masses. Of course for opposition politicians, promoting a sense of victimhood and grievance among a section of the population is profitable as it brings them votes by projecting themselves as defenders of the downtrodden. For those in government like Museveni, giving concessions to such groups promises similar rewards by coming across as a generous father.

Yet this entitlement culture is economically counterproductive and socially destructive. It has created a dysfunctional dependency culture on the state, which the government cannot afford. Thus when these entitlements are not met, which is inevitable given the resources Uganda’s government commands, they create an ever deeper sense of grievance that someone else is holding the affected persons down. Hence the claims on social media that one’s success depends on the state rather than their own effort are suffocating.

****

5 comments

  1. ejakait engoraton

    “What we are seeing at Makerere is decades of indoctrination into a mentality of entitlement, victimhood, and grievance. It is a mentality that spreads across many aspects of our national life and is promoted by opposition politicians and by Museveni for selfish reasons – to win votes”

    THIS mentality, has over time right from the time he came to power, an example being the abolition of poll tax and the introduction of crudely thought out and even more crudely implemented universal education and likewise medical provision as well as other schemes like BONNA BAGAGAWALE(BAVUWALE) as well as the practice of walking around with and throwing sack loads of money at every problem , championed by none other than the VISIONLESS M7 and purely for his own political reasons and his evil grand scheme of putting the whole nation in a trance , and at his mercy, so that he can rule and loot forever. The opposition are only getting in on the act as a counter measure- what other choice do they have

    THE scholar of FANNON and MACHIAVELI that he is, this is the best way for him to go in order to achieve his evil goals.

  2. 1.The tuition MUK students pay is ridiculously low you may think they are paying for short courses.In Universities abroad you can’t access facilities like the Library when you owe the university money
    2.Its easier to implement a new fees structure when students have just joined the university rather than when they are continuing students.
    3.World over, in trying to play safe and not to rip the feathers of donors governments are finding it difficult to handle riots just look at HongKong.
    4.When i was still young i would begin a fight with my siblings then when beaten i would tell my parents that my brother has beaten me for nothing.This is the same with MUK they were beaten by soldiers for a reason i.e destroying property.
    5.Which poor student can afford a flat TV screen,Tinberland Jeans,wear lip stick while demonstrating?

    • Just like the the writer of the article, you seem not to understand the student’s grievances or the root problem. Cost of living and inequality!!! You have 1 percent of the population with so much wealth calling the shots! How have they made all this wealth we are talking of!! Can Andrew ever talk of this, probably long after this government. A civil servant earn net salary of 2m for example, has 4 children. House rent, medical, food and other expenses, there’s little left for education expenses. My friend earns 650,000 shillings a month as an administrator and has 2 children. You can help me out do the maths. Several strikes at the Makerere are as a result of what I described above. Andrew will tell us a different story but I don’t blame him, his income or wealth may be higher than those above. This government just like most African government want pple to serve them other than the other way round.

      • Let us leave the Makerere chaos for a moment and let me tell Mr. Yiga, Ugandan civil servants are a rotten lot, the majority are disproportionately wealthy, with wrotten sense of self importance and entitlement, they are feasting with the regime big time! To hell with them, I wish I could nuke them! Now we can go back to Makerere madness

  3. 1.@ Yiga what happened to people living within their means?Why would someone who earns 2m, has 4 children want to take their children to study at International School of Uganda or Kampala Parents and when he falls sick he wants to get treatment from Paragon of Nakasero Hospital ?
    2. Someone will always be better than the other whether in terms of beauty,intelligence,wealth you may do nothing about it and its ridiculous to blame government for such inequality.
    3.Government has done alot interms of welfare for example; government pays all the tuition for students at PTCs,NTCs,Nursing schools,UTCs Government owned universities its all about studying hard inorder to get government scholarship.
    4.Ugandans love keeping up appearance there is this craze that every one should obtain a Degree please go and obtain one but dont stress government incase you fail to pay tuition.
    5. Why are governments of late under alot of pressure whether in Asia Europe USA?
    6.What are governments not getting right?
    7. What Is the new world order?It used to be ideology.
    8. innovation and self employment is the way to go Richard.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *