At many road junctions especially in urban areas, a few young people mostly male woke up, got some wet piece of cloth and started cleaning posters of their favourite candidates. Every few minutes, they would be cleaning the posters. Some got a piece of a necklace that symbolizes victory that they placed around the neck of the portrait on the poster while sometimes a red carpet was placed beneath the life-size image of the candidate.
Some even ‘fed’ the posters some bottled water or even soda. Those with a bit of resources, had a mobile public address system which they used to play music and dance for the posters.
Although some of these youths may genuinely have believed the rhetoric of their candidates, many did so as a way of eking a living. Supporters and even candidates themselves handed a token of appreciation to these youths in form of money and the poorest quality t-shirts ever made.
However, the main reason these youths were spending the day in the smoldering sun is not necessarily because they loved their candidates so much rather because they had nothing else to do. Those who had what to do, were busy at their real jobs and turned up on election day to cast their votes.
After 60 days of ‘feeding’ posters sodas and dancing at road junctions, the politicians both the victors and vanquished are back to their palatial homes chest thumping about their results regardless of the outcome. The youth, with the election over, have no more posters to clean and feed and dance for. And therefore, no more money to make.
Many have been waking up to stand in trading centres to discuss politics as they waited for a lorry that could take them to the next rally where they could earn some little money or just to while away their time.
Uganda’s biggest challenge today is the unemployment of our people — young and energetic with many dreams to fulfil. Many of those who are employed are underemployed. The number of young people leaving education institutions isn’t matched with the number of jobs the country is creating at the moment.
Those gifted with a silver tongue have become politicians — just look at the sheer number of people who stood for elective offices. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing but ambition and dreams can’t all be fulfilled by everyone trying to become a politician. Politics unlike manufacturing, for example, doesn’t create many jobs. It simply creates a bureaucracy of people who can survive on the public purse.
Yet I actually found the people feeding posters of political candidates ingenious. I don’t think in my entire life, I would ever think of waking up to feed posters soda as a job but somebody out there identified it as a source of income during political campaigns and got somewhat paid for it. What else that is actually sustainable can such youth come up with?
How can we get these young people and mentor them into sustainable entrepreneurship or have them work in jobs that are meaningful? The youths who have been waking up to whistle and drum for candidate’s convoys, what are they going to do now?
Politicians love talking about stuff in abstract terms — the most common ones being unity and development. How can these terms be unpacked to create real jobs for people? Instead of promising abstracts, how can we train young people to be employable and work hard to bring jobs?
Many of today’s workers are only serious when they are looking for the job. Once they land one, the excuses start — coming late, killing relatives every now and then so they could nurse hangovers, leaving jobs without resigning or saying goodbye and then calling a few weeks later on their knees again begging for the jobs they abandoned in the first place.
Others especially the self employed type are fond of getting deposits on stuff they can’t deliver leaving frustrated clients thereby crippling their businesses.
Politicians whether victorious or not need to advocate and put in place systems that can have the majority of our young people meaningfully employed otherwise unemployment is an existential threat to the country.
The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com
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