“Uganda will be a middle-income country by 2020, President Museveni declared during several campaign stops (during the 2016 campaigns).”

Alon weigwa, on page 5 of The Observer, July 13-14, 2016

Well, we are here now and it is 2020. Had we arrived and were a middle-income country before COVID-19 hit or not? But then again:

“While Uganda can attain the much talked about middle-income status, it does not mean ordinary persons will be much better. It might be just superficial when the rich become better and the poor actually fall more into poverty. Schools can be awful, health can be dire and millions can’t put food on the table yet a country can still boast of middle income status.”

Alon Mwesigwa, on page 5 of The Observer, July 13-14, 2016

Whatever the case, it would appear that the COVID-19 pandemic has sharpened and clearly explosed our different experiences in this country of ours.

No doubt, many schools in our country are “awful”, simply by their inability to do ‘scientific-teaching’. They don’t have the requisite hardware and soft ware to be able to deliver lessons on-line; and at the same time their pupils and students are also too poor to afford the requisite hardware and software in order for them to receive lessons at home.

Are we going to say that if COVID-19 had not hit, this situation would be different? The alternative proposals for pupils and students to learn via television and or radio is frankly out of touch and are comical, many of those involved in television and radio programme production say.

Yes, “health can be dire.” Not many can ever forget the images of nurse Doris Okundinia, for example, pushing a patient for more than two kilometres, because there was no ambulance to transport the patient.

And it is not that the ambulance(s) or suitable vehicles were not available in the whole of Arua District. The patient was not about the privileged. The latter, the local authorities, instead accused the nurse for exposing them. Can we really accept that the situation of this patient would have been far better if it were not for COVID-19?

Pardon me, if I am not bothered too much by the cries of politicians currently outraged that they will not be able to have face-to-face campaign rallies. Are the lies told by politicians on both sides of the aisle really worth risking the lives of Ugandans?

Moreover, if there were a time that many of us would support the postponement of elections, this is might be it.

After all, according to an analysis by The Independent, titled: “2021 Elections: How practical are scientific campaigns for Uganda?”, the scientific campaigns will likely only be accessed by the few haves. The majority who among those who have not will not be able to access such ‘scientific campaigns’. And this is because of the same reasons as shared prior on the matter of ‘scientific teaching’.

One need not say more, surely you catch the drift.