Many years ago, while we were chatting in the classroom with my desk-mate, Robert Ojok, a rattled Rev Laban Bombo (may the Lord keep him well) marched in wielding a bamboo cane. Without any introduction, a surprised Ojok received two lashes on the back. Mine followed in quick succession.
Then he turned to Ojok who by now was voting with his feet and gave him two more as he disappeared. I was cornered waiting for Reverend Bombo’s next move. By now the mathematics teacher and School Chaplain at King’s College, Budo had calmed down a bit, having let off some steam with the ferocious swing of his stick, landing painfully on our backs. He then read out our charges.
‘How do you see school property being destroyed and you just sit here as if nothing has happened? You take chairs to the field and leave them there overnight for the rain to destroy?’ It was common practice for students to pick chairs from nearby classrooms just behind Nigeria House. They would make themselves comfortable on the side of the pitch when the football game was on. After the game, the victors were elated beyond words while the losers were too crestfallen to remember the chairs. So, there was barely any effort to return the chairs to the classroom. It is only the students of the classroom who would endeavour to fetch them when they needed a seat the next day.
Rev Bombo did not wait for me to enter a plea. He started from where he stopped. Two more lashes sent me talking. My alibi which was a lie to save myself anyway, was that I was actually one of the people playing on the pitch so I could not have picked a chair from the classroom to watch myself play! (That lie aside, even God in heaven knows very well that on that day I did not pick a chair from a classroom.) This made him even angrier. ‘You mean if you find plates on the floor at home, you simply walk on them because you are not the one who put them there?’ By this time everyone in the classroom had hurriedly left for the pitch leaving me to face the fuming Rev Bombo and his bamboo cane. I joined them in a matter of seconds after receiving a few more lashes. As is the wont with students, Ojok and I were the recipients of jokes by those who had not met with Rev Bombo’s cane that day.
I remember we vowed to revenge for the gross injustice and humiliation we had suffered at the hands of Rev Bombo that morning. When the chairs were cleared and cleaned a much calmer Rev Bombo then gave a sermon about the individual and responsibility toward society. ‘Public property is your property,’ he said. ‘You lose when it is damaged…. you fall sick when you live in a dirty environment. It is your responsibility to see to it that the place is clean and orderly even if you did not make it dirty…’ When Uganda announced that every last Saturday of the month everyone would have to clean their surroundings between 7am and 10am, I remembered Rev Bombo with nostalgia.
Some people denounced the exercise because they pay taxes and the fees of municipal authorities. Others just saw it as an opportunity to disobey a government they don’t like. You don’t get a better society by simply sitting and wishing for it. Or in certain circumstances even contributing to what makes it what you don’t like, say by littering. A reasonable person has to make an effort to correct what is wrong and not simply watch as things go wrong. Order and cleanliness benefit everyone. Similarly disorder and lack of hygiene affect even those innocent ones who do not contribute to it. I have been to very clean and orderly cities, especially in Europe, yet they don’t have national cleaning days enforced by the police and army. They have achieved it by making it very costly for those who litter.
The law is enforced to the letter, with stringent punishments for those who err. One time a friend Francis Bwette (RIP) lent me a jacket when it got too cold. The pockets were full of papers and all manner of litter. He just did not toss them on the ground. He kept the litter there, to be disposed off at the next available bin. But secondly, they have made it convenient for societies to be clean. There are bins at almost every corner to dispose of rubbish. The rubbish is segregated into plastics, organic material and metals etc. They hit two birds with one stone by making the bins, spaces for adverts. Companies that need visibility contribute to the collection of refuse and benefit from it.
They also collect the refuse regularly and take it to recycling centres which makes refuse collection valuable and beneficial for business and environmental protection. In some cases, empty containers like reusable glass bottles are bought back by manufactures of beverages like beer. A refundable deposit is left at the point of sale to be utilised when the container is returned for reuse. This shows the significance of packing in reusable containers unlike the current rampant practice of relying on plastic bags and bottles.
Clean societies are those where individuals have cultivated a culture that teaches them to understand communal purpose and the role they have to play towards the prosperity of the collective. They are enabled to be clean by facilitating the process of disposal and beating in line those who take it lightly. Everyone has a responsibility to keep the society clean even when no one is watching and it should become second nature. That way everyday should be a national cleaning day without the need for official announcements and all manner of conditions.