The Uganda of 1986 vs The Uganda of 2021: 35 years, 35 flashbacks

The Bus Park in Kampala in 1970. Uganda had a fully 
functioning public transport system. PHOTO TWITTER @JONDINNEN

OPINION | Faith Athieno Norah in Tororo | When I last checked on my beloved Uganda in 1986, which is 35 years ago, this below was the situation -  in 35 points:

1. In 1986, Uganda had just come out of a civil war, and a few years earlier, a war with Tanzania, that had also followed eight years of Idi Amin rule,  but even then, there was minimal power load shedding once the fighting had subsided.
2. There were 32 well facilitated districts with each one having government civil servant housing quarters and their own regional economic infrastructure that boosted their revenue and local population employment.
3. Smuggling was rife, but there was also a lot of free cross border trade with low or in most cases no taxes for smaller amount of goods that are not transported in huge trucks.
4. There was very low cost railway passenger transport from border to border. The longest journeys, of 100 of kms, were equivalent to today's rate of 5,000/-. 
5. There was an active Cooperative Society in each district that bought agricultural produce from local communities. The communities were engaged in all forms of agricultural from crops to animal.
6. There was generally a thriving fish market and no fishing restriction. 1kg of Nile Perch was not 15,000/- as currently. In 1986 1kg cost 2,000/- in the current money value. The lake was equally accessed by all East African citizens no land titles on water sections except islands.
7. Loans were accessible to most people at a low interest rate equivalent to 3% lending rate compared to the current 18%.
8. Education costs were much much affordable for all civil servants, farmers and peasants. Many students were given free scholastic material i.e. school exercise books pens and pencils and rubbers.
9. Free relief food for those in need. Not a good thing for a country, as it undermines local production, but there was free relief food aid to cover food shortage in the country. There was free US and Japan Cooking oils, Herrings and Mackerel tinned fish, whole chicken chicken. Yellow maize floor, milk powders, etc for every social worker and civil servant and all affected communities, and most importantly, schools.
10. The agriculture extension workers were visible. There was free farming aids inform exotic cross breeding of animals and free seeds or seedlings from each district farm institute for farmers from all political backgrounds.
11. There was a district presidential lodge in each district so the president did not need to travel with his home wherever he went.
12. Each of the 30 or so districts often officially hosted the president for 2 to 3 days and all roads in town had the Uganda flag on all the electricity polls.
13. The government universities admitted the best students in the country for free education. If you were among the first 1,500 A level students in the country, you were all admitted to Makerere for free education. The next about 1,500 went to Institutes of Commerce, teacher training for free.
14. Each district had a government hospital and at least 2 ambulances with well paid health practitioners and patients never paid any amount of money for treatment or drugs, not even any form of vaccinations, every thing was free. 
15. Each school in the district was well built with flashing toilets and all modern school facilities in place. These included kindergarten, nursery, primary, secondary and higher institutions of learning. Each school had a truck or bus to carry its students from location to location free of charge and there were no fees required for school study trips. Each school had a play ground and a well built sports field. Also, each region had at least one of the top 10 ranked schools in the country, There was Layibi in the north, Ntare and Nyakasura in the West, Mwiri, Tororo College and Tororo Girls in the east etc and attracted students from right across the country, with students from the North studying in the South, and those in the South studying in the North.
16. All main streets and roads in towns upcountry and their suburbs had lights, zebra crossing, and there was gazetted free packing within each town. All town councils had official free space/gardens for celebration purposes. 
    
    
    
17. Each of the main towns upcountry had fumigation teams that would go around the towns every six months to destroy mosquito habitant. 
18. The town councils mowed the grass patches on the road reserves, and kept them clean. That was the case in Tororo, Jinja, Mbarara, Soroti, Gulu and Mbale, that had the reputation as the cleanest town in Uganda.
19. All security facilities like barracks and housing quarters were well painted and well organised with fences and hedges in place, with compounds and training grounds, and many with their own schools and health facilities.
20. Uganda was divided into regions, and each region had a number of golf courses
21. Each region had a fully functional air field - including Jinja, Tororo and Soroti in the East for example.
22. There were factories or industries in each region to create an economic development balance in the country. This also created more employment opportunities for the surrounding communities.
23. There was the Cooperative Bank that easily provided loans and grants to local farmers in every district in Uganda.
24. A national Commercial Bank owned by the government called UCB, was located in every district. This is where all the civil servants had accounts and a channel for their salaries and was a source also for jobs in each town for the skilled. 
25. The government employed a cross section of people to run its institutions based on competence and track record regardless of ethnic backgrounds e.g. schools were run by English, Americans, or Indian Headmasters and there were Indian teachers as well etc employed by government. E.g. Mr Doshi was Headmaster of Rock View School and Elgon View had another Indian head teacher, Father Grimes was heading Namasagali, etc 
    
    
    
26. Best preforming students were given bursaries to foreign universities like Nairobi and Dar Es Salaam, and were paid allowances by government to help in facilitation. 
27. All students in government universities were paid some sort of "living" allowance by the government. Each room in halls of residence had social distancing set ups i.e. one student per room or wide space in between beds in the common rooms. They were given free accommodation, food, scholastic material including free textbooks per course etc.
28. Civil servants salaries came in time and it the money was well above the status quo i.e. salary alone was able to take care of a lot of things, including education of children, and there was no need for bribery.
29. Pensions were well managed.
30. There was no backlog of court cases.
31. Public land was free for all to use and access and public parks were located in all districts.
32. Each district had a government hotel, freely accessible public library with all books in the academic curriculum and other social amenities.
33. The army and police children had their own schools and free additional essential supplies e.g. clothes, beddings, food, shoes, etc. The emergency call lines 999 were connected to the nearest police station which each had at least one fire fighting truck ever ready to fight fires.
34. Uganda had a fully functioning Airlines with a fleet of aircraft that included several large Boeing planes.
35. The public transport system worked, with UTC buses to narly all corners of the country. 

The list is longer... I will leave the reader to chart the course of their own future at this point as Uganda goes into an election January 14, 2021 – over 35 years since 1986 - when I last checked on by beloved Uganda.

For God and my country.

*****

Athieno is a social media critic