NGOs in Uganda a threat to democracy

The Uganda Governance Monitoring Platform (UGMP) under the stewardship of the NGO Forum recently launched a mid-term audit of the NRM Government in what it called its fourth term. The UGMP faulted the NRM leadership for its abysmal failure to implement “a citizens’ manifesto”. In his rebuttal to the accusations by the UGMP, NRM mouthpiece and the Government media centre executive director said, “We don’t implement the Citizens’ Manifesto because we had only one manifesto – the NRM Manifesto. He added, “It is the only manifesto implemented”. As to whether the NRM manifesto has been and is being implemented is highly disputable. Maybe if Ofwono Opondo wants to tell us that the NRM manifesto is implemented in the breach.

The motive of this piece, however, is not to fault the NRM for failure to implement its manifesto. At least, I don’t find that surprising. I would only be surprised but also shocked if the NRM worked in the interests of Ugandans. My motive is rather to tell UGMP that as we point an accusing finger to the NRM, three fingers are pointing towards us. Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) are guilty of murdering this country. We have two cults that we must contend with if we are to redeem ourselves as a society. I do not want to use the concept state because I am not sure whether we now have a state. The first cult is presidentialism which I prefer to call Musevenism. The second cult we must contend with is NGOism. I define presidentialism as the inordinate powers placed in the hands of the sitting president so much so that he overrides all other state institutions. NGOism on the other hand refers to the excessive civil society and media space that NGOs have assumed so much so that they have deprived the downtrodden of the right to speak for themselves. The Ugandan NGOs have stifled the citizens’ voices.

We have President Yoweri Museveni demonising academic programmes and disciplines that are critical for national/global development on one hand. On the other hand we have NGOs comprised of wrongly formatted individuals specializing on telling the government of its ills. I would appreciate anybody telling the government of its ills but what difference does it make. In Museveni’s Uganda, NGOs are free to say whatever they want and the ruling party is free to do whatever it wills.

Albert Einstein defines madness as doing the same thing, over and over again, expecting different results. We have had NGOs talking, grumbling and speaking ceaselessly. But the government continues to be corrupt, continues to flagrantly violate citizens’ rights and continues to have the country’s priorities misplaced. And one wonders, are these people serious? What is their motivation? I would like to have a scenario where donors would close their taps for a year and you see whether the people who have hogged the civil society space will be the same people talking for no pay. I get dismayed that our so-called activists have to be paid for speaking for the voiceless; have their conferences in air-conditioned houses and eat like there is no tomorrow yet they claim to be a voice for the hungry, the voiceless, and the downtrodden. Uganda’s civil society leaders are the richest for they account to nobody and nobody monitors them.

The NGOs are themselves far corrupt than the government they demonise day in, day out. On Friday October 1, 2013 I asked the Executive Director of the Uganda National NGO Forum Mr. Richard Ssewakiryanga to tell me if NGOs are headed and manned by angels if he thinks they are not corrupt and he agreed they are headed by same Ugandan people cut from the same fabric and therefore that they are corrupt cannot be farfetched. NGOs largely comprise of average or sometimes below average staff. Whoever is brutally honest is isolated. The NGOs get funds from donors on behalf of the citizens but they never account to the citizens. They never account to the taxpayers from the donor countries/agencies. They just give accountability reports or what they call audited accounts to their conduits for the funds (the donor agents). In most cases, the auditors are themselves in cahoots with the NGOs themselves and they tilt the pen the way the NGOs want as they also share part of the spoils. In organisations where people with stagnant brains thrive while the philosopher kings starve, there must be something fundamentally flawed. And I feel cheated when I continue associating with such flaws. I don’t believe in killing civil society institutions but if it is through death that we can have them resurrected so be it.

Some of the Ugandan NGOs are now so powerful that they determine which community based organisations (CBO) or which young or small NGOs get what funds from where and for what. The work of the NGOs does not translate into the welfare of Ugandan citizens. The NGO executive directors are chauffeured in multimillion vehicles, sit in air-conditioned offices and are always globetrotting giving presentations on the state of human rights, democracy, governance, rule of law and constitutionalism in Uganda and other African countries. NGO workers talk in conferences everywhere and are the ubiquitous panelists in every function after which they are handed envelopes with cash or cheques.

The NGOs – shockingly many of which are human rights organisations - pay journalists to cover their functions! The academic horizons of many NGO staff are fundamentally narrow and limited. They rarely employ sociologists, political scientists, economists, psychologists and anthropologists. They are full of people who delude themselves that they know a lot!

Some NGOs erroneously think it is only lawyers qualified to do human rights work. Their research outputs are normally skewed and unscientific because their research officers lack the scientific rigour and tools to do scientific research. The elite-formed NGOs have assumed and hogged the civil society space. Yet practically we have no civil society to talk about. The elite formed NGOs’ primary concern is securing jobs or money or both. The NGOs remain aloof with limited participation and involvement of the grassroots communities. The elites in NGOs erroneously portray themselves as experts on social problems never mind that their knowledge of social science is utterly wanting. Why can’t the NGOs that portray themselves as liberators empower the downtrodden people to speak for themselves? They have turned themselves into our lawyers who must speak for us as we are in the court docks even when we have not hired them! How absurd! Why do NGOs want to remain “voices of the voiceless” without amplifying the voiceless’ voices?

Populism, opportunism and self-aggrandisement are the rules not exceptions for Ugandan NGOs. The more they appear in print, broadcast or electronic media, the more funding they get from donors! Some NGOs flatly cheat and fleece their employees, some invariably do clandestine recruitment and if they advertise it is for formality. No transparency on entry, retention and exit of staff members. Membership organisations have been individualised – members are mere rubber stamps. Organisations are represented by workers and not members on coalitions, networks, umbrellas or federations. Yet practically the relationship between staff members and the organisation is a monthly pay cheque. Staff members not organisation members represent the NGOs in international conferences and roundtables. Capacity building is always done for the staff members and not the members. And if a member frequents the organisation premises, some tough questions begin to be raised. Members are estranged and alienated from the NGOs and all they do is attend the Annual General Meetings in which they make no meaningful input.

NGOs get more funding than political parties. I have not seen any NGO in Uganda that does civic education. NGOs are heavily infiltrated by security operatives. Approximately 80 percent of the NGO staff are pretenders, hypocrites and outright dishonest. The human rights organisations flagrantly abuse human rights. The anti-corruption organisations are more corrupt than corruption itself. Bashing the government is a daily job for the NGOs and without any doubt; Uganda’s NGOs are a threat to democracy and human rights.

Finally, the media are always awash with stories chronicling ghost soldiers, ghost teachers, ghost students, ghost pensioners and virtually ghost everything. Does it not logically follow that we have ghost leaders including political and civil leaders? Does it not plausibly follow that we have ghost NGOs, ghost CSOs. What we have in NGOs are shadows. In fact, while some people used to refer to NGOs as Nothing Going On, today Uganda’s NGOs have morphed into what I like to call Negativity Going On.

Only strong parties, well-funded can fill the democracy and human rights void created by a predatory political elite and scavenger NGO elites. Civil society ideally organically emerges from the grassroots or professional bodies with a commonality of concerns and interests. People with common problems, therefore, must come together to adopt common means to solve them. We need the association of social scientists if we are to cure our social maladies. Political scientists, sociologists, psychologists, anthropologists and economists must come up, unite and provide lasting solutions to the decay that currently characterize our society. We cannot afford to sit cross-legged and arm-folded as our society eternally dies. We cannot gaze in disbelief as dogs come to our country. For God and my country.

* Vincent Nuwagaba is a human rights defender, researcher and life member of the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative (FHRI).

* THE VIEWS OF THE ABOVE ARTICLE ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHOR/S AND DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE PAMBAZUKA NEWS EDITORIAL TEAM

* BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Please do not take Pambazuka for granted! Become a Friend of Pambazuka and make a donation NOW to help keep Pambazuka FREE and INDEPENDENT!

* Please send comments to editor[at]pambazuka[dot]org or comment online at Pambazuka News.