Last Updated on: 22nd January 2023, 03:16 pm
In1998, Mr. Museveni still had some goodwill and credibility at home and internationally.
By Odaka Asuman
Tororo—14, December 2021: Like it has become a norm, debate agenda seems to be set and determined by Mr. Museveni. His actions/in-actions and declarations are a complete opposite of the other, unless it’s completely inevitable.
In his pursuit of power, the four [4] decades Machiavellian militant political ruler has distinguished himself in using deception, corruption, and violence to preserve his family rule in a country used to be Pearl of Africa but being transformed into “Pearl of China in Africa”.
What annoyingly surprises me, are the people who still get surprised at what the ruler of Uganda says and or things he does.
A person who told you he would leave power after 1989 but didn’t honor his word, changed that he would retire after restoring the Constitutional order by [re] writing the Constitution which he didn’t honor, then changed to 2006 after testing the Constitution. But, at the end of his Constitutional term expiry, in 2005, he found nothing wrong with bribing MPs with shs5m each to remove the Constitutional term limit.
Then he went on TV’s popular program “On the Spot” and swore that he would never rule after 75 years of age, which he later changed, calling it a mere argument of biology, not ideology. Of course, characteristically after bribing MPs this time round with shs20m each.
He is a person whose government has overseen collapse of national institutions, killed health care system, destroyed educational system, “Boda-bodaised transport system”, distorted the economy, militarized the politics and politicized the service delivery. To continue trusting and hoping for better from him and his government is to ride in the jaws of a hungry crocodile, hoping that it might help you cross the dangerous deep end of the river.
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On matters of corruption, Mr. Tibuhaurwa has distinguished himself as a decorated supporter of the corrupt, glorified the system of corruption and shields them whenever cornered.
When NRA/M captured power, under the guise of currency reform of 1987, with no legal backing striped off 3 zeros and taxed 30%. It was understandable to take the 3 zeros, but nobody can explain the 30% deduction; what worse record can a government start with than defrauding its own citizens?
In1998, Mr. Museveni still had some goodwill and credibility at home and internationally. The world was shocked to hear from him saying corruption is part of development as long as those who steal use it in Uganda. If this is not moral support, then what is it?
Since then, it has become predictable that in every grand corruption matter; the bar has ended with the President, almost himself or his family as associates.
It’s even rumored that the biggest reason the President formed State House Anti-Corruption Unit of Col. Edith Nakalema was to render the IGG toothless and useless after the former IGG Justice Irene Mulyagonza made a damning report that directly connected the President himself to grand corruption in Uganda.
In one of her reports, she noted that “… the biggest incumbencies to corruption fight in Uganda is that all big corrupt officials hide behind the back of the President….”
On protection, what Mr. Museveni gives is selective and uses corruption as an effective tool to get rid of those he doesn’t feel confident of their loyalty in the future.
David Chandi Jamwa, who according to courts of public opinion is innocent, is still rotting in Luzira despite his enormous contribution to what NSSF is today.
All facts, including from his former supervisor, former Minister Zoe Bakoko Bakuru show he was only a scapegoat. Yet others are being protected and promoted, according to official IGG report.
The statement against Hon. Betty Kamya’s “life style audit” was intended to draw the red line for Kamya, who thought this IGG job was to whitewash her image, which got dirty when she joined the very “devil” she viciously criticized and resented most of her adult life. But also to reassure the corrupt that nobody will touch them.
For now we should all know where it starts and ends with corruption. That is why we in the National Economic Empowerment Dialogue (NEED) we insist that the only decisive way to end corruption is to change the regime.
The writer is the National Coordinator, National Economic Empowerment Dialogue (NEED).
Tel. +256753195384
Email: asumanmrjn@gmail.com