Bunyaruguru Dispatch: End of a decade and a fresh beginning

By Aggrey Nshekanabo

It will be 20 years when the world survived the K2 bag. Everyone was worried about the year 2000 thinking the world would come to an end. Some godpreneurs dispatched thousands of people to hell in the Kanungu inferno. Some people thought computers would crash and therefore there was that talk of being 2K compliant.

I do not know how many of us any longer care being 2K compliant. The world has moved on. 2K today means just two thousand shilling and that cannot afford you a decent cup of good coffee in this coffee growing country. There is even a telecom company that nearly goes by the same moniker; K2 Yeyaffe (K2 is ours), which is associated with Buganda Kingdom. Radio Sanyu caught the 2K bug and on being bought from Mzee Kato by businessman Sudhir Ruparelia, renamed it Sanyu 2000. I understand if you were a presenter and forgot to mention 2000, you would risk a sack. So many things have since happened and now, we are counting two decades past the year 2000 and the world has not stopped.

It is still 20 years that a certain Col. Dr. Kizza Besigye, then though to be a disgruntled NRM ideologue dissented with his then boss turned nemesis and he broke ranks with the movement and a new movement; Reform Agenda was born. Even, the idea of letting political parties operate beyond Kampala was mooted and Mzee, (he was not yet an old man) stated, it is time to let those who had been held in and under the movement go.

That is too much to remember for my readers who will remind me that those are tales of old men. At the time, God was not a business idea but a deity of some sort. Today, Godpreneurship is the in-thing. A few who were in it, were not so upfront about it. In Uganda today, if you need a good business proposal, do not look further than church business. The emergence of godpreneurship is by all means an indicator of desperacy on the part of many ‘Christians.’ There is so much need for answers for so many personal questions. It is a good indicator that indeed the masses are worried and they need some supernatural answers. Their hope is not in the leadership that they are purported to have elected. It is somewhere in space.

The year ahead is great business for politipreneurs. There will be denouncements and pronouncements. New faces will emerge to compete for the political space. Whoever did not polish their academic credentials by going to class will now emerge with tonnes of certificate equivalents. Nasser road printing enclave will be a beehive for posters and graphic designers will be in business. My advice, do not give discounts if you are in printing business or graphic design. Such business will only resurface five years later.

But how has the year ended for most of us? At a personal level, some goons stole my telephony and called whoever cared that I have been involved in an accident and that my friends and relatives must send them money to transfer me from a small clinic in Iganga to a better hospital. When they called my dad, he asked the guy on the other side, who pretended to be a doctor, a barrage of questions; “Where has the accident taken place? Was it Aggrey driving? Was he alone in the car? Was it another person driving? Which clinic is he admitted in? Have you informed police about the accident? Despite that, he was a worried old man. He had to report to Police, fearing I may have been harmed in some way.

I have seen and read about some of my friends and acquaintances who have ended the year in tears; their loved ones have passed on (died). May you be comforted. I have also read about family reconnections. May the cords continue to hold in the year 2020. There are those who holidayed. May you resume your duties so much rejuvenated. And there are those who never had a break. May your hustles pay off soon.

And my wish in the new year is for each one of us to experience genuine love, genuine care, more happiness, more business growth and fair enterprise. May hustlers be paid their full dues by their bosses and may none of us cross into the year with more debt. And remember, within a month’s time, school fees and school requirements will be knocking on the door. And may each one of us experience God’s love and mercy that surpasses human understanding. May the new decade of 2020 plus bring you new tidings.