The British Medical Journal and Health Service Education Program in the UK on Monday awarded President Museveni for his remarkable leadership in managing Covid 19 hence reducing the virus related deaths in the country.
The award was received by the East African Affairs Minister Hon. Rebecca Alitwala Kadaga during the ongoing 6th Annual UK-East Africa health Summit in London. President Museveni was accredited for recording 164,069 infections and 3,596 deaths out of the 48 million population of the East African country.
But like many people who decried the stringent measures President Museveni applied in the fight against covid 19 and how they impacted citizens, The Fatboy Show presenters James Onen aka Fatboy and Olive Najjuma have reasoned that the President Museveni might have won the award for compliance with the international policies used to manage the pandemic.
In his argument Fatboy said that the young demographics of the country made it easy to anticipate that Uganda would record less infections since it didn't have many high risk people such as the elderly and overweight.
Secondly, he said that having a warm climate limited the spread at which the virus spreads as it mostly thrives in colder temperatures in addition to the consumption of organic food. Having all these in place made the presenters question whether it was fair to conclude that President Museveni managed the virus infections and death rates.
“I feel like this is one of those things where they are giving out the award for compliance rather than for anything else.” He added that when trying to get loans from IMF and World Bank, post colonial countries were told that they had to liberalise and privatise and when Uganda did so it was celebrated and used as an example to others and what they would gain if they followed the same path.
“In Uganda’s case, given that we had strict lockdowns and closed down our schools I think that maybe it is to make other countries emulate us in our heavy handed approach in dealing with these problems.
Olive agreed with Fatboy referring to how Tanzania was biasly covered by international media that reported that the people in the country were dropping dead, mass graves being dug and that people were buried in the night because it had rejected the international Covid 19 mandates that were being followed to curb the virus
However, Fatboy was glad that the President promised no more lockdowns. But Olive responded, “but there will be further closing of roads when we are celebrating things like birthdays.”
The Fatboy show is hosted by James Onen aka Fatboy, Olive and Sarah every weekday from 6am to 10am on RX Radio.