President Museveni, patronage only perpetuates corruption

I was intrigued by press reports that President Yoweri Museveni has given Shs 1 billion (Ugandan shillings) to buy buses. The story reported that that money was part of the Shs 2 billion pledge the president made to the ex-legislators' Sacco to improve their welfare. While it is alright to get concerned about the former MPs’ welfare, we need to ask a number of questions: Did the President draw that money from his personal account or was it drawn from state coffers? If he withdrew it from his personal account, how does he intend to recoup it? Is it only former legislators whose welfare needs to be improved or other citizens who don’t merit the attention of the president? The president and his lieutenants have vowed to crush corruption, but is this possible when he is busy dishing out patronage to his clients? Has anybody told the president that if he has drawn that money from state coffers, his action is tantamount to and props up corruption? If no one has told him, I would beg to inform the president that what he is doing is a naked abuse of office and the worst form of corruption.

Our country has suffered a great haemorrhage of funds. Only a few days ago the state-owned newspaper The New Vision reported that Shs 370 billion had been spent on Chogm (Commonwealth heads of government meeting). I am one of the few Ugandans that questioned on air what benefit an ordinary Ugandan such as my mother would get from Chogm after the country had injected in lots of money. The sceptics are now being vindicated after all and it is now being revealed that Chogm cost us far greater sums of money than we were told before. Ugandans are dying of famine, higher education has been reduced to the preserve of a few as fees in public institutions have been overly hiked, and our country is being turned into a man-eat-man society. It is ironical that those who were preaching Marxism before capturing power have now turned into far-rightists hell-bent on promoting individual welfare instead of the common good.

Ugandans must stop their complacency and begin asking tough questions such as what is it that we benefit from our taxes? Why is it that the leaders who preached frugality have become wanton big spenders? Could it be the disease of overstaying they diagnosed upon capturing power has caught up with them? I strongly pray that day in, day out Ugandan elites keep reminding our dear president of his 1986 inaugural speech and his book, 'What is Africa’s Problem?' I know like my area the Honourable MP Otafiire has always said, 'ebibagamba nibanyuka tibyo bagamba nibataha' ('what they say while making local brew is different from what they do while drawing it'), but our leaders need to be told that not all Ugandans are too daft.

Uganda has a miniscule number of university graduates. And besides, most of these have no jobs and the government is always telling them to create their own. Why did former MPs, who were earning huge sums of money, fail to create their own jobs and resort to continue sucking state coffers?

Could the money dished to former MPs be a reward from the president for having struck out the constitutional provision which limited the president to two five-year terms, hence giving Mr Museveni a green light to rule the country ad infinitum? I am asking all these questions while well aware that the president never used his own money, because he has never declared all that huge wealth as per the leadership code. Accordingly, I am fully convinced that the president used our taxes to reward former MPs, some or most of whom could not retain their seats as a result of non-performance, at least according to voters’ standards. Assuming many lost because of non-performance, should the president continue rewarding non-performers?

I have argued time and again that the unemployed in Uganda are not those with skills but the highly educated. I know of many first class and second upper graduates who fail to get jobs because jobs are given on patronage and the unfortunate graduates have no godparents because they are from humble families. These people have chosen to write coursework for others in order to make ends meet. Others have chosen to do printing business and are busy forging O level, A level and university documents. And the NRM (National Resistance Movement) government deludes itself that it is fighting corruption!

Last year on 6 April 2008 when I was hosted on UBC TV with Hon. Charles Bakabulindi, I said the government was sitting on a time-bomb because of graduate unemployment. I am happy now the government has seen it. Sadly, the NRM takes too long to learn and learns the hard way. I doubt whether they would have deciphered that had it not been for the events of 10–12 September 2009, which claimed the lives of more than 20 people. Now the government clearly knows that unemployment can push people into frustration and hopelessness, which ultimately results in a wave of criminality. The truth of the matter is that we have a minute number of genuine university graduates but we have too many people with academic papers. I have advised the NRM government to order all employers to verify the documents of their employees, but the government has chosen to keep a deaf ear. Personally, I am tempted to believe that maybe the NRM is the one that sends the criminals to forge documents and use them to obtain jobs for which they are not qualified. If that is not the case, I demand an explanation as to why the government doesn’t crack down this grave form of corruption.

In 2001, corruption was a big campaign tool against Museveni. This time I call upon the opposition to use corruption, unemployment and the denial of higher education to the poor as tools to dislodge Museveni. I would also expect Museveni to give accountability for the proceeds of all our parastatals that he sold. We have become so complacent that the state house tenants now take the state to be their personal property. I don’t know how many times I have been illegally arrested, detained and tortured. Right now I am undergoing a malicious prosecution and my crime was writing a letter to the president complaining about tuition increment in Makerere University. Each time I am arrested, my property is stolen by the police and to date I have never recovered anything. I have a case against the state in the High Court but I guess there is a deliberate effort to frustrate it. I would pray that the president explains why the blatant abuse of my rights and freedoms continues unabated. I also call upon all the human rights defenders to be concerned about my plight because just like Martin Luther Jr said, 'injustice anywhere, is a threat to justice everywhere'. I know Museveni fears those armed with the pen and the microphone as opposed to those armed with the gun, but I would pray that he heeds the constructive critical voices rather than heeding destructive praise singers.

I have a problem with the Ugandan opposition parties because they rarely address critical issues. For instance, I was jailed for opposing the inexplicable hike of university fees but scarcely did the opposition address this issue as serious. I wish the opposition parties would have think tanks and research desks to help them address critical national issues. Only then shall we look at them as viable alternatives.

President Museveni and the NRM should know that we have a new generation of voters which we may call 'Generation X'. This generation shall not be fed on deception and manipulations of bringing peace and stability. This generation of voters wants jobs, education, good roads and an assurance that the country belongs to them. This generation shall not be duped by money, and we are busy sensitising it that if money comes its way, it should not be spared. We are ready to chew the money and do the needful. We shall never see any university graduate languishing on the streets if jobs were given on the basis of a meritocracy and not patronage–clientelism. Finally, the MPs fleece the taxpayers too much when they are in parliament; they shouldn’t be allowed to continue after losing their seats. For God and my country!

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* Vincent Nuwagaba is a political scientist and human rights defender.
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