You Are the One! | Saxon Ssekitooleko's Story

Now, I want you all to realize that I never ever thought for a second that I could lose. It never even occurred to me. On the voting day, which would turn out to be a fateful day, I lost by 9 votes.

The next two weeks would turn out to be a turning point in my life.

I remember that day like it was yesterday. I was devastated, confused, I felt betrayed—thinking of the nine people who didn't come to vote.

You see, failure was kind of new to me! I had always found patterns to make things work for me and found ways to come out on top. This time, that hadn't happened. I realized I could set out to achieve something and still fail. Devastating, right?!

People do not talk about post-election grief or depression enough. But the failure engulfs you. You have so much invested with nothing to show for it.

The Fear

The failure started playing new tricks on my head and unlocked new fears. I remember I started to look at the unemployment statistics in the country and started wondering if it was possible that I could be on the wrong side of the coin after my Engineering degree.

I remember thinking of ways of how I could make money and build something that would secure me after school. My quick thought was to get a "good" that every university student spent on every other day, but I could subsidize. So my research came to cakes. Everyone bought a cake on their birthday or for someone—especially lovers.

I couldn't bake, but I assembled a very good team, and that is how Criteria Cakes was born, ladies and gentlemen.

The Choice

Two weeks later, I got a call from the then President requesting me to take up a non-elective role. He told me, "Saxon, you have a good manifesto, and it would be nice for us to have you onboard to implement all these suggested changes together." I remember thinking of saying no—"Why did it have to be me taking on a consolation post?" I asked him for some time to think about it, but in fact, I was planning to slide in a no.

However, later that day, sitting by myself after multiple thoughts, I told myself that if someone was going to make the change and structure that I had been preaching for in my campaign, the only person to implement it to the best was me—"I was the One." I later (still a bit reluctant) agreed to take up the position. I realized that true leadership didn't lie in the post that I had, but in my choice to use whatever tool and placement I had to make a difference.

I didn't realize, in fact, that in accepting to build all these structures for others—organizing open days for students to showcase their innovations to potential investors, organizing seminars and afternoons with employers, securing internships for students and other engagements—that I was in fact building bridges for them and myself. It is in one of these engagements that I got introduced to my current life of spending half the year on rigs in remote areas, drilling oil and completing wells.

In one of the trips organized through the Petroleum Authority of Uganda for the petroleum students—and as well to broaden the markets and chances for other Engineering students—we visited the then-new Kingfisher project in the Albertine region. And that is how Oil and Gas found me, or let's say how I found it and picked interest. I realized then that I had to be part of this new industry.

The Action

2020, post-COVID. You know I'm a COVID graduate—in fact, I was talking to a friend that I might as well name my first child Pfizer, in remembrance of my first shot.

Anyway, EE degree in the bag—the fear that I had actually came to pass. Most companies were laying off workers, and others had their salaries cut. The statistics were indeed not even better. Knowing that I was the one to shape my destiny, I, together with a colleague in the audience today, decided to find ways to make a difference while making money out of it. We decided to provide power access to domestic users in remote areas using solar, and this is how Tangaaza Energy was born—and we have grown it from that to a commercial, industrial, and solar utility company both here in Uganda and the UAE.

[Pause]

The Truth

I have good news for you, ladies and gentlemen. There is someone coming to save you. That person is yourself. You are the One. We are the Ones who are going to change the situations we are in. We are the ones, whether we have a role or not, who can change the trajectories of our societies—whether we stand as leaders or not.

Imagine, as young Africans, if we had the same resilience about things that concern us here, determined to face our fears and make them work no matter the case. Because just like your destiny won't be determined by anyone else, the same thing applies to us here in Africa. Our destiny will not be determined in foreign boardrooms; it will be determined by us here when we choose to act upon what's failing us.

The Proof

Ladies and gentlemen, as I conclude today, Criteria Cakes still stands.

And I want to share a cake with you tonight as proof that when you dare to build your own path, sweet things can come out of it!