MBALE – While watching Television on Wednesday 26 September, I marveled at the apparent talk by President Museveni on corruption.
President Museveni was addressing the NRM caucus and he was visibly furious, I will crash these corrupt officials, I will crash them”
This speech drew an argument in my house between my wife and my daughter for about 20 minutes with one insisting the President Museveni can’t fight corruption adding that “this is usual rhetoric, “he will never because he is a victim of corruption like most of his cadres”
Why do Ugandans think that President Museveni is a barking dog that does not bite, it only scares away enemies and later folds its tail and looks on.
Just in 2006 announced a policy of zero tolerance for corruption, in 2016, the president vowed to renew the fight against corruption when he took the oath for his fifth term in office and in 2019; he led an anti-corruption walk in Kampala but there is nothing on the table to show his efforts.
While addressing the nation in 2019, President Yoweri Museveni called corruption “Public Enemy No. 1,” the remaining obstacle to Uganda’s development and called upon everyone his government to stand up against corruption, four years down the road, corruption still persists.
When these statements come from the head of state, many of us are awash with excitement; our dear president has joined the war against corruption but these are lacking in sincerity or meaningful content
My grandmother [rest in peace] used to tell us that “Greed loses what it has gained.” And I have come to learn that greed in the form of corruption has eaten away the NRM government for years and has become unfairly synonymous with the party leaders and cadres.
In his book Animal Farm, George Orwell says “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely and I want to add that great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority; still more when you superadd the tendency of the certainty of corruption by authority.” Our dear president should get lessons from this.
I want state that corruption, some groups of people in Uganda are tolerating corruption as long as the president champions their religion or race, some are tolerating bribery as long as they champion their own pockets.
Mr President you must walk your talk such that corruption can end in Uganda and be reminded that according to Transparency International., 2019, corruption in Africa has been cited as one of the major impediments to economic development and more recent studies have revealed that the majority of countries in Africa believe corruption is on an upward trajectory.
Note must be made that the factors that exacerbate corruption in Uganda are crystal clear; the Institutional weakness is a key factor that fosters corruption in government institutions and thus the difficulty in accessing public services, lack of availability of the broadest and most straightforward access to information, and electoral manipulation –
My grandmother told me that “sometimes and most times the mouth speaks what the heart is not speaking” and maybe we can draw some lessons here.
Mr President government stop merely talking tough about corruption and consider adopting systems that can guarantee easy access to public services, and public information from the government, particularly how the government uses revenue, portend a bleak future of runaway corruption and talk with sincerity about fighting corruption to help me not to think that it is ‘your mouth speaking and not your heart’.
I have lived in Uganda long enough to see most people that shouted anti-corruption slogans against the former regimes have no problem bribing a police officer today and vote for leaders of their choice as long as these leaders championed their own race.
President Museveni, our dear president, despite your tough talk, corruption has continued to be a salient subject in the NRM government and the theoretical debate on how corruption is fostered and indoctrinated in institutions continues to be an exciting subject, eliciting divergent views and hypotheses.
This is despite passing a variety of laws that have been shelved like the Inspectorate of Government Act (2002), the Leadership Code Act (2002), the Public Finance and Accountability Act (2003), the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Act (2003), the Access to Information Act (2005), the Audit Act (2008), the Anti-Corruption Act (2009), the Whistle-Blowers Protection Act (2010), and the Public Finance Management Act (2013).
The Government agencies have also been established to deal with reported corruption, including the Inspectorate of Government (IGG), the Office of the Auditor General (OAG), the Directorate for Public Prosecution (DPP), the Directorate for Ethics and Integrity (DEI), the Anti-Corruption Court, and the State House Anti-Corruption Unit but all these are doing nothing apart from making reports about corruption.
And just recently ministers were caught in the Karamoja iron sheets scandal; investigations were allegedly done by police but nothing remains done as the ministers have remained ministers and nothing has been done.
We also had the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), caught in a deepening refugee scandal where they were accused of buying a wetland with a forged land title at Shs8b government funds and then the same organisation was hit by a scandal of abuse of funds for refugees etc, the list is endless.
What have you done about this apart from merely talking tough? Or you want us to give you a medal for merely talking tough against corruption? Mr President learn to walk your talk.
Although all these indicate that the president has demonstrated some level of commitment in the fight against corruption, his silence also indicates there is something up the sleeve of a garment.
Yes, you have set up institutions to fight corruption but have you given them powers to prosecute? And do they really have these powers or you give them using the right hand and take the powers back using your left hand?
I want to state clearly that “without strong watch dog institutions, impunity becomes the very foundation upon which systems of corruption are built.
This reflects that the president is not internally prepared and morally justified to fight corruption but instead he is consumed by visions of attaining and dispensing political power and patronage by barking about against corruption and not biting to end it.
And now the campaign against corruption in our country, such as it is, has only managed to corner the government in a house where both the doors and windows to the house remain open and it can freely climb through the windows into the NRM constituencies, which support it.
I like other Ugandans feel there are no reasons advanced for the persistence of corruption but government officials never run out of reasons; ‘these are allegations, unfounded rumours and Mr President you usually add “institute investigation” and when the reports are given to you, you just shelve them look at the Commission of Inquiry into Land Matters led by Justice Catherine Bamugemereire etc.
Today, what is seems evident is that government cadres practice corruption with impunity and they disregard the rules and regulations knowing that when they bleach them nothing will happen to them or if anything happens it will not be serious to eliminate the gain from corruption.
It is crystal clear across Africa that when the leader you support was caught in a corruption scandal, many will say there are bigger fish to catch while ignoring the fact that their leader is corrupt.
Mr President, you cannot fight corruption with corruption, all forest fires start from small and eventually grow massive and if Ugandans voted for you because you champions our race or religion, then we deserve everything we asked for – corruption, crime, robbery, violence and etc.
For us who have lived right from the time you took power, know that we started well under your NRM government by preaching Zero tolerance for corruption but now 37 years down the road, we have been caught up in the same rubber stumps. And now we make an alarm after stealing, only to confuse those coming to our rescue.
Today, President Museveni is patronizing over a regime of serious rising impoverishment of Uganda in terms of moral, ethical, social, political, cultural and economic development. This is the socio-political reality: take it, leave it.
The grand scale of corruption in Uganda itself should not be surprising. What should worry Ugandans of goodwill is why it continues in spite of the institutions and offices to fight it that are created almost monthly.
The author, David Mafabi is a veteran journalist and PML Daily senior writer