Ugandans on Twitter (#UoT) resurrected a tweet from Senior Presidential Press Secretary - Don Wanyama (@nyamadon) in which he erroneously posted a picture of a highway in the US as a Ugandan road in Kisoro. What ensued was the hashtag #TweetLikeDonWanyama with ingenious Ugandans posting a series of hilarious tweets mismatching various landmarks in the world and attributing them to the Ugandan authorities.
The gaffe from Mr. Wanyama aside, what got me riled up was his response. “It was a light-hearted tweet. I am glad that people have had a hearty laugh; the memes are rib-cracking. But I also notice lots of people tweeted great images of government infrastructure, showing the leaps and strides made by government in that direction”. (2017, December 5) Museveni’s spokesperson under fire over “wrong tweet” -Daily Monitor (Online). Granted that a section of social media actually pointed out the good work being done by the various authorities, it seems that the thinly veiled mockery of the majority went above the eminent Senior Presidential Press Secretary’s head.
But let’s take a pause right here.
At no point, broadcast interviews or online, did Mr. Wanyama apologise for his erroneous tweet. “Misleading, false, humorous” - the adjectives to describe the tweet are numerous.
However, what happened to accountability? What happened to mea culpa? Are we so disenchanted as a nation to expect public officers to recognise a wrong and simply say I'm sorry? I could count on one hand the number of public servants that have apologised and tried to the best of their capability to atone for their actions, directly or indirectly (Just for the record, I have 5 fingers). This brings me to the point referenced in the title of this article.
The indifference towards perceived or pseudo acknowledgement of resource mismanagement, communication inclusive, signals an ingrained apathy towards being held accountable by persons in authority. Questions could possibly be raised about how often public servants are found lacking in the execution of their respective dockets, I gather the responses would be mostly unfavourable! It should be noted nonetheless, that there are several public servants that carry out their assignments with the utmost professionalism – kudos to you all!
This apathy extends to simply saying sorry to our fellow person. The lassseiz-faire attitude of our citizenry towards simply apologizing for a misdemeanour needs to be eliminated, as does our “Let Go and Let God” attitude. If you unintentionally shove a stranger on the street, it would not take anything from you to say “Excuse me, I’m sorry.”. One could even forgive someone for employing the millennial equivalent of an apology “My bad!”. The value of simply acknowledging a wrong and working towards correcting it cannot be overstated. Perceived slight or otherwise.
Mr. Robert Nsibirwa (@rvnsibirwa), an illustrious marketer, avid blogger and self proclaimed “millennial patriot” had this to say about the infamous tweet : “But @nyamadon, wouldn’t a normal dignified professional of integrity apologize instead of trying to laugh it off? We are not having a hearty laugh but trying to show you that what you did as your status as Presidential Press Secretary is simply wrong and dishonest.”
As Press Secretary to the President, seasoned media practitioner and Ugandan citizen, it would not be too far from mind to expect Mr. Wanyama to apologise in line with keeping the record straight. This piece may seem a bit unfavourable to what I am told is the venerable character of the SPP Mr. Wanyama and the others in the Presidential Press Office but as the mouthpiece of the constitutionally named “Fountain of Honor”, a little more care should be taken when communicating to the public. After all, Chinua Achebe told us, “If one finger brought oil, it would soon soil the others.”
Mr. Wanyama, in cricket terms, you were “Caught Out!”
It’s about time that we start requiring more of our public servants, neighbours and fellow citizens. “Light-hearted tweets” or not."
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