This Saturday, President Yoweri Museveni will address the nation on the Covid-19 situation. He last addressed us on June 18 where he announced a snap 42 day lockdown that elapses today. Lockdown being “lockdown”, meaning that many things have been put on hold and life is not working out normally, everyone wants it to end. I, too, wish it could end; President Museveni would wish that he could have good news so that his people live life normally.
Unfortunately, the decision to end lockdown and restore normalcy is in nobody’s hands with Covid-19 still here. When the 42 day lockdown was announced in June, infections and deaths due to the pandemic had shot up at an unprecedented rate. I have no doubt that we were headed for a real catastrophe if government had not intervened at that stage.
Today, the lockdown is elapsing and we hold our breath for what next. Shall systems be opened, will schools reopen, will places of worship reopen, will public transport resume, and will curfew hours be cut down? After what people have been through, they can’t wait and it I am sure that the President understands everyone’s anxiety.
He wants normalcy restored since he has a responsibility to keep the country operational yet at the same time he wants people alive. We have already witnessed how the situation has improved, and how this validates the wisdom in the President’s interventions which, despite so much, have been very beneficial in terms of containing the second wave. Numbers are coming down, but they are not low enough yet. When I last checked on Tuesday, there were 31 deaths and hundreds of new infections being reported. By the time lockdown came into effect in June, infections were reading in thousands on some days. So, there has been improvement and we can attribute the reduction in the tide to limitation on people to people interactions.
Last year, at the height of the political season when some groups of people were dismissing the threat of Covid-19 and actively urging the public to defy safety guidelines, the President said what we were dealing with was not a matter of convenience but survival. That wisdom still stands, and even more apparent since the disease has visited almost every community and people can no longer deny its nearness. For that matter, if it means dealing with a little more inconvenience to our normal ways of life for the sake of surviving to enjoy life tomorrow, we may have to cooperate and do our individual best. It is about us as individuals as it is about government and country.
The hard part about this disease and other threats to life is that a person can die and the country will go on without them. So, really, the buck stops with citizens to understand that these are extraordinary times calling for extraordinary caution and vigilance. We have been through a lot already and we shouldn’t give up now.
Ugandans have exhibited a lot of disciplined this time, better than last year so much so that security has not been very hard on them as it was last year. They have been observing SOPs, curfew times, avoiding unnecessary travel and socialising. But a few black sheep are openly violating regulations. These include boda boda and private vehicles which are ferrying passengers. With such behavior, I don’t see how we can survive stayed under lockdown. Is it just impatience or defiance at play? This is not a political issue that anyone should take it as something between Museveni and opposition.
It has nothing to do with a specific ethnic or religious group, not even a particular race. All human beings are susceptible to the disease. We are yet to hear of anyone who is immune to it because of their political thinking or tribe.
Defying and violating safety guideline is to sign one’s own death warrant, while risking the lives of others.
Apart from staying the course on S.O.Ps, mass vaccination is going on and government is committing ample resources to ensure that a reasonable number of people are vaccinated since this reduces incidences of acquiring the virus, falling sick, dying from it and spreading it to others. I can also see that the need to vaccinate more people demands that people are free to move to centres of vaccination which movement is now curtailed, but I know government will work out a way to make vaccination available to everyone.
For now, individual actions will shape what comes next as we grapple with this novel pandemic that is still teasing the whole world.
Ugandans have the power; they can help the President make a favourable decision (to lift lockdown)-and that is by proving that they will stringently adhere to safety guidelines and that they can police themselves at all times. If we don’t show that we have learnt a lesson, whether lockdown is lifted now, it will not be long before it is reinstated. Sadly by the time that move is considered, we shall have lost many more people and registered higher infections than before.
The author is a Private Secretary to H.E the President in Charge of Media Management
Contact: kirundaf2@gmail.com
0776980486/0702980486
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