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Ugandans have a negative attitude towards the Government: can a “simple brand” solve the problem?

COMMENT | Olivia Nalubwama |He Daily monitor The paper has earned a prestigious place in the president’s heart as “the bad paper.” High praise coming from the honorable source who regularly takes offense at the paper’s “Daily Truth.”

July 9th Daily monitor The article about the ICT report, titled “Report shows Ugandans have very negative attitude towards government,” included a telling photograph: three tough-looking soldiers on a police patrol vehicle on a busy street in central Kampala.

The soldier in the lead stands above the surrounding crowd and is every bit the main character he believes himself to be: arms akimbo, gun hanging loosely, dark glasses covering his eyes, and an impassive face. All three soldiers have the intimidating appearance they set out to project. What a bad article!

According to the article, the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) released a report titled “Government Communication Snapshot.” ​​The report takes an in-depth look at how Ugandans communicate online, especially what they communicate about government agencies. Sadly, the report shows that 78 percent of these online messages are negative.

In internet parlance, 78 percent of Ugandans sent out bad vibes about the government and its agencies. Most of the bad vibes were about corruption and theft, attacks on government officials, the Uganda Parliament Exhibition, rising crime, criticism of MPs and other government officials, etc.

Perhaps the bad vibes reflected in the report are due to poor timing on the part of the ICT Ministry. The data in the report covers the first half of this year. The ICT Ministry might have noticed: Ugandans have been quite active on the Internet this year. Internet activism, thanks to activists like Spire Ssentongo, Agather Atuhaire and others, has been shouting loudly and rudely at our flammable snowflake leaders who are not used to being held accountable by citizens.

Home Affairs Minister Kahinda Otafiire, a civil war veteran and head of the ruling party, did not mince words when he rebuked leaders for mixing calls for accountability with hate speech. Aminah Zawedde, permanent secretary at the ICT Ministry, seemed baffled by the negativity. Recalling her earlier years, wondering how we had come to this, Zawedde said: “When I was growing up, Uganda was not considered a very bad country, but today it is disheartening and sometimes you don’t want to say you are Ugandan…”

Zawedde highlighted the lack of coordination of messages between different government agencies, saying: “I know that everything starts with a simple brand image. The brand image we have today is not unified as a government.”

Dear reader, can a “simple brand” fix a government’s poor image? Can a slick PR campaign get Ugandans to speak positively about their government?

In 2016, The Reputation Institute (RepTrack), a global data and analytics organization, ranked Sweden, Canada and Switzerland as the countries with the best reputations. RepTrack’s rankings are based on key determinants such as contribution to global culture, a robust economy, high quality of exports, standard of living, beauty, safety and general tolerance.

It seems that good governance is at the core of these ingredients. Thus, the most reputable countries also have the highest rates of social progress and the lowest rates of corruption. A country’s reputation has a multiplier effect on its tourism, its exports, its foreign investment and the arrival of highly qualified workers.

The head of the State House Investor Protection Unit, Colonel Edith Nakalema, was grim in her assessment of the ICT Ministry report, noting that negativity would scare away investors. However, to attract high-end foreign investors, attention (not lip service) to our inner workings is necessary.

There are no shortcuts to a good name. No amount of coordinated government communication is going to change the way Ugandans perceive their government if it fails to meet the expectations of its citizens. One of my elders once reflected on the euphoria he felt when, as a teenager, Uganda achieved independence in 1962.

Now in his 70s, he watches the news and wishes he could take a holiday from being a Ugandan. He argues that it is necessary to take periodic breaks from the vagaries that come with being Ugandan these days. My PR teachers taught me that the most important target audience in corporate communication is the internal audience. Ugandans have to accept whatever the Government of Uganda (GOU) is “selling” them at the moment, but Ugandans are not accepting it.

Dear Ministry of ICT, imagine that the GOU is a restaurant, very high and empty like the Pearl of Africa hotel; you are the customer. Bambi. As you read the menu, your salivary glands anticipate a sumptuous feast. When you finally manage to catch the waiter’s attention, he walks around lethargically like a petulant brat.

Once at your table, you greet them exuberantly; they respond with glares and grunts. They strike a pose that challenges you to speak; waiting for you seems to hurt their supposed self-importance. Minutes later, they return to your table to inform you that whatever you ordered is not available, nor is option two, or three, or four.

A little irritated, you ask the waiter for details about another dish. He/she sucks his/her teeth and says: “I don’t know, we are not allowed to eat this dish.”

When your order arrives, it embodies the helplessness that grips many citizens in the face of dysfunctional service delivery. You give up; your raging hunger is no match for the poor, challenging customer service. But! You still pay. Good dayThis is Kampala. The server will gladly insult you and call you a “bum” if you try to pull off those foreign imperialist whining stunts.

The waiter watches your walk of shame, triumphant at having disabused you of your high expectations. He absentmindedly scrolls through his phone again, waiting for the end of the long day to help himself to some food. Like you, he will struggle through Kampala’s overwhelming traffic to get home.

Later, when you post a bad review about the restaurant, the owner will respond with sleazy insults and accuse you of being a hateful homosexual. The next day, you read on the Internet that the owner is hiring PR experts to counter bad reviews from hateful homosexuals like you.

In the Ugandan language, we are playing with the answers.

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Olivia Nalubwama is a “tayaad Muzukulu, tired of mediocrity and impunity” [email protected]

THIS ARTICLE WAS FIRST PUBLISHED IN THE OBSERVER