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Mutualism Is The Glue To Sustainable Public Participation

Birds feed on food remnants inside a crocodile.

Birds feed on food remnants inside a crocodile.

Just before campaigns begun I saw President Museveni on TV struggling to show Ugandans what government has done. He gathered a few photo of schools, hospitals and roads and markets among others and ended with complaining about his team not being able to have a comprehensive resource of government information, atleast the achievements for that matter. Recently government ordered all media houses to broadcast or promote government programs and services or face closer. Unfortunately for them, there was hardly any ready information resource about government programs and services, meaning they  hard to invest money in promoting government /ruling party, meanwhile the ruling party was splashing billions of cash in bribing voters, appeasing its loyal cadres, among others.

The last few months have been tough for the ruling party as they campaign to seek re-election for is it the fifth or sixth term. It obviously is tougher than previous campaigns for a number of reasons but mostly because more hoodwinked citizens are finally removing the hoods off.

Governments are infamous at Public Relations (PR). We have seen people successfully talk against government on poor-performance not because they aren’t performing but because government is famed for poor PR. I mean severally government opposers have gone away with false claims like the road in such and such an area is not good yet it is good, there is no medicine in such and such an hospital yet there is, among others, just because they are pretty sure no one will come-up to oppose their claim as government hasn’t put the information out there. Of course am not saying government is performing but that even the little they have accomplished can be easily used against them thanks to their in-sensitiveness to publicity.

“Communication, communication, communication” is a popular idiom by relationship counselors. Government’s indifference to public interaction can be likened to a man who wins the heart and marries a beautiful wife after an expensive and competitive courting affair, then a few days after the wedding the man travels for business leaving the wife alone in the house. No communication, no gifts, phone calls “not available at the moment”, emails “Delivery failed permanently”, WhatsApp status “last seen 4 years and 7 months ago” no interaction at all she is basically fending for herself. Then from the blue he reappears asking to renew marriage vows. If the wife is kind enough to accept the new manifesto, with a great deal of lying ofcourse, it is unlikely she will accept the third term if the same disrespect is repeated.

With more likelihood of a loss or re-run than ever before, News has it that government has spent over 120 billion so far in this campaign, actual figures could be far more but going by the analogy above, government(s) are responsible such predicaments. They even don’t have to be good performers but good communicators. Rollo May says Constant, effective “Communication leads to community, that is, to understanding, intimacy and mutual valuing.” So what if both sides can mutually, positively, and richly interact throughout the term?

Former UN Secretary General Koffi Annan says that good governance is perhaps the single most important factor in eradicating poverty and promoting development. If governance matters, so does the need for more reliable and valid data and convenient public participation on key governance activities.

What if the government had committed just less than 5 Billion for citizen-state interaction to improve PR, am sure it would be spending far less in the campaigns since citizens who already know what they have done, doing, and planning to do. Governments therefore need to treat their citizens as mutual partners not just during election campaigns but throughout the entire term they are in power. Quality interaction through well planned and strategic constant communication about government programs and services can ensure this mutual trust on both sides. Thus investing in systems that promote this interaction can greatly improve government-citizens trust and ofcourse the ruling party won’t have to invest millions of dollars in campaigns since the citizens are in constant communication with government and already trust them.

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