ARTICLE BY EDWIN NASASIIRA (THE PATEL OF RUHINDA NORTH). When a constituency elects out of touch and non-visionary leaders, it automatically affects the area and the whole country in different ways. As we clearly know, leaders are a representation of the people, and whether they are the best representation or not is another matter.
The person who likes “better things” must become better and do better things, like Ruhinda County North MP and deputy speaker of 11th parliament, Rt. Hon. Thomas Tayebwa Bangirana is doing. Like Thomas Jefferson drove the point home, the government you elect is the government you deserve.
The citizens’ responsibilities do not end at electing practical and visionary leaders like him,but the elected leaders at all levels must be held accountable for whatever is happening. We are either beneficiaries, or victims of our leaders’ actions or inactions.
Can we flip that thought of how good this young (just 42 years old) politician is? He has always ensured that the victims of indifference and passive opposition should not take his attention rather than thinking of how best they can work together to avoid excuses in his leadership. He is among the bright products of Mitooma District to Makerere University who studied,and understood adaptability. He has made sizeable significances within the shortest time in top leadership with the rank and files of being “a visionary leader”, and he values accountability.
About 7 years ago, Hon. Thomas Tayebwa who has been a legislator since 2016 and deputy speaker since March 2022 literally had to build from scratch, and most people doubted if he would ever succeed. He also served as Government Chef Whip before becoming deputy speaker, so he knows that elected leaders must live up to their promise, and their performance has to be assessed.
In his first term, he showed the true colors of real leaders and his achievements made him attain another term of leadership with overwhelming win. This instigated everyone’s mind on how sharp and bright the young legislator was and he even filed in the request to compete as the Speaker and his request didn’t go through. But at the end, due to his capacity, he was chosen to be the Government Chief Whip – the position that made him express his standard leadership skills that aim at togetherness. And at the end of it all the young man from village came to meet his dream of being a Deputy Speaker of Parliament. Apparently in his new role as the Deputy Speaker, he has inherited leadership that had been afflicted with a lot of political indifferences.
Hon Thomas Tayebwa is now one of lionized young famous international politicians especially when he addressed the issue of LGBTQIA+, while speaking at the sidelines of 61st session of the Organization of the African, Caribbean and Pacific States Parliamentary Assembly (OACP SPA) and 42nd Session of the ACP-European Union joint Parliamentary Assembly (ACP-EU JPA) in Maputo City, Mozambique where he boldly said “issues concerning LGBT are issues that will never be accepted and their laws will never be passed to operate in Uganda”. He assured Europeans that the Parliament he leads will never sign any agreement that they can never domesticate and as sign of love to African culture, norms & values, he openly told the world that African values are not for sale and that our values should not be exchanged with donations.
He is also trying to fix the root problem of ethnic and region of origin discrimination, and curtailing groups and individual activities. His leadership is bringing every region and ethnic group under the same umbrella with a unity of purpose to build a country that they can call their own regardless of political parties or affiliations, and he has always tried to show and prove that leadership and citizenship are serious work that requires mutual sacrifices and compromises. A village boy now shining worldwide! ARTICLE BY EDWIN NASASIIRA (THE PATEL OF RUHINDA NORTH).
