Vincent Nuwagaba
This article was first published by the Razor Newspaper on August 2, 2011
On Saturday July 30, on UBC Ground Zero talk show they were debating as to whether General Elly Tumwine will shoot corruption. General Tumwine started a civil society organization known as Volunteers Anti Corruption Campaign Africa (VACOCA), to fight corruption. I am one of the initial members that signed so that VACOCA could start. However, apart from hearing about it in the newspapers, I don’t know how effective VACOCA is in the fight against corruption. Before the debate began at Ground Zero, I told the Inspector General of Government Mr. Raphael Baku that while he had been invited to debate corruption on a programme moderated by Mr. Tony Owana, the moderator was the most corrupt person and I told him that we need to first sort out Owana’s corruption before we could make a step in the fight against endemic corruption that has eaten all our social fabric. The reason I said Owana is the most corrupt person is because he detests and stifles views that are critical of the current establishment hence ensuring that the regime orchestrated corruption flourishes.
I attended and spoke on the programme on 25th June but when I said our oil will be a curse if its proceeds are handled and controlled by the sharks Owana removed the microphone from me and made derogatory remarks about me. I have asked him to withdraw those remarks on air and apologise but he has adamantly refused. What he tells me is that since the party he supports is in power, none can successfully file a defamation suit against him. Accordingly, the level of impunity is too high.
Before one can effectively solve corruption, they must first put it into context. I have often times written about corruption and my understanding of corruption is that it is any aberration or deviation from the norm. I don’t know whether nepotism which largely favours people from one ethnic group regardless of whether or not they are the best is viewed by Gen Tumwine as corruption? When I graduated from Makerere University in April 2005, Mr. Semivule the convocation chairman then said in his speech that the number of Makerere University Alumni had hit 56,000. This includes Ugandans and non-Ugandans alike; dead and alive. Makerere University is the oldest and biggest university. It’s the biggest in a sense that its enrolment at anyone time outnumbers all other universities combined.
I have had an opportunity of teaching in two universities and I can authoritatively say that the number of graduates from the other universities is miniscule. Uganda Christian University which is one of the biggest private universities is yet to celebrate 15 years of existence; Islamic University in Uganda started in 1988 with only 80 students while Uganda Martyrs University Nkozi started in 1993 with only 84 students. When you count those that have graduated with degrees, you will be shocked at how small the number is. The question is, why don’t these people get jobs? The answer is corruption. We have many politically connected Ugandans who forge academic documents from Nasser Road and use them to get jobs. Otherwise, if the government was serious about fighting corruption, it would prevail on all employers be it in the private sector or public sector to verify their employees’ and job applicants’ documents with the universities they claim they went through. This is the nth time I am writing about this and nothing has been done. Why? Because people who use forged documents are politically connected.
This renders many university graduates unemployed and what the graduates do in order to make end meet is to open coursework bureaus thereby awarding papers to those who ordinarily wouldn’t qualify for them. They also open printing bureaus and start printing certificates, diplomas and degree transcripts for those that don’t have them. And those who get jobs irregularly steal as much as possible before they are discovered and kicked out. Ultimately corruption begets corruption and the NRM to me is synonymous with corruption.
I am sure Gen Tumwine’s VACOCA can only bark against corruption but will not bite. If Gen Tumwine wants to shoot corruption, he should first shoot the NRM. Otherwise, in an attempt to shoot corruption, Gen Tumwine will himself be shot by corruption. He will never raise a finger when the first family or any member of the historical high command is involved in graft scandal.
The author is a human rights defender
mpvessynuwagaba@gmail.com
Showing posts with label Corruption Debate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Corruption Debate. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Musumba’s directive to permanent secretaries props up corruption
By Vincent Nuwagaba
First published by 256news.com under The Mouthpiece Column on 24 November 2009
I was caught by shock and consternation after reading the press reports that Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (Chogm) witnesses were ordered to shut up. See Daily Monitor Tuesday 24 November 2009. “In an October 16 letter, Mr Isaac Musumba, the Minister of State for Regional Cooperation, asked all Permanent Secretaries not to answer some questions from MPs on the Public Accounts Committee, who are investigating the alleged misuse the funds meant for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting held in Kampala in November 2007”.
The order from Mr. Musumba is tantamount to propping up corruption and waters down the government’s resolve to fight corruption. It also tells us that maybe Mr. Musumba got the directives from the president. If that is not the case, I expect the president to sack Hon Musumba for he is sabotaging the president’s efforts to fight corruption.
I am one of the very few people who protested the hosting of Chogm here in Uganda arguing that given the economic quagmire and quandary we are in, we were not in position to spend Shs 30 billion to host Chogm delegates for only one week. I asked what would my mother benefit from the hosting of Chogm and many people said I was antidevelopment because Chogm was going to open so many opportunities for the country. From what we were told before hosting the event, we have learnt from the state owned newspaper The New Vision that Shs 370 billion was spent on hosting the event. It is possible that the country could have spent 400 or 500 billion on the event.
Our country is seething with high levels of graduate unemployment. Yet our leaders always tell us to create our own jobs. I am sure that money could have built a number of factories to absorb our unemployed graduates. That money could also be enough to subsidise university education which is becoming inaccessible to the majority poor. Only four months ago, my mother was suffering from fibroids and when I took her for a surgical operation at Mulago I was asked Shs 3million. How many Ugandans can afford 3 or 2 million for medication? When you go to Mulago now there are two wings; the private wing and the general ward. In the general ward, doctors will tell you, a patient can spend three weeks without being attended to. Within that period, a patient can meet the creator before being attended to.
When I took my mother, a gynecologist told me, “I used to treat such cases from Naguru Health Centre IV but now Naguru is no more” When I asked him why, he told me, “Don’t ask me many questions, let us leave the Naguru issue” before adding that, “it is our system that has betrayed us”.
From the foregoing, we can infer that Chogm was not a priority in the first place but we need not cry over spilt milk. What we must do is to ensure that those who made a fortune out of the taxpayers’ money don’t only give accountability papers but refund that money in addition to being sent to the University of understanding. I know the president often develops cold feet while fighting corruption when his loyalists are implicated but this time he must show seriously that he is ready to fight corruption. I know that he fears that dealing with the corrupt will cost him electoral fortunes but he ought to pick a leaf from President Paul Kagame.
All of us must realise that corruption is a cancer that must be fought collectively. We need to learn that corruption causes unemployment, poverty, illiteracy, poor roads, and poor health services, widens the gap between the rich and the poor and breeds conflict and criminality. Corruption compromises criminality and whoever shields the corrupt is a societal danger. In fact the web of criminality that we are entrapped in is a direct or indirect consequence of corruption. Like I have always argued corruption begets corruption.
The civil society stands between the state and the citizens and accordingly, civil society is the voice of the citizens. Civil society activists ought to come out openly and decry Musumba’s order. I reiterate my call upon the president to relieve Musumba of his duties because Ugandans cannot stand corrupt ministers anymore at a time when the president has vowed to fight the corruption monster.
Ugandan politicians who have become synonymous with corruption ought to realise that pushing the people against the wall is unacceptable. My campus friend Paul Musamali used to tell me that the corrupt politicians need to be ostracised and I used to think that we can reform them. Now I strongly agree with him that leaders who have pursued self-aggrandisement at the expense of the majority who have been turned into the wretched of the earth must be shunned. We need to shun their functions; we shun their political gatherings and even their social functions such as weddings. We must make the cost of corruption very high; even if they slaughter cows and buy lots of drinks for us, we need to reach a time when we should say, we cannot come. I remember Mzee Boniface Byanyima refused money for condolence from one of the topmost personalities in this country saying it may be part of global fund.
For God and my country!
Vincent Nuwagaba is a human rights defender and can be reached via vnuwagaba@gmail.com or +256702 843 552
First published by 256news.com under The Mouthpiece Column on 24 November 2009
I was caught by shock and consternation after reading the press reports that Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (Chogm) witnesses were ordered to shut up. See Daily Monitor Tuesday 24 November 2009. “In an October 16 letter, Mr Isaac Musumba, the Minister of State for Regional Cooperation, asked all Permanent Secretaries not to answer some questions from MPs on the Public Accounts Committee, who are investigating the alleged misuse the funds meant for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting held in Kampala in November 2007”.
The order from Mr. Musumba is tantamount to propping up corruption and waters down the government’s resolve to fight corruption. It also tells us that maybe Mr. Musumba got the directives from the president. If that is not the case, I expect the president to sack Hon Musumba for he is sabotaging the president’s efforts to fight corruption.
I am one of the very few people who protested the hosting of Chogm here in Uganda arguing that given the economic quagmire and quandary we are in, we were not in position to spend Shs 30 billion to host Chogm delegates for only one week. I asked what would my mother benefit from the hosting of Chogm and many people said I was antidevelopment because Chogm was going to open so many opportunities for the country. From what we were told before hosting the event, we have learnt from the state owned newspaper The New Vision that Shs 370 billion was spent on hosting the event. It is possible that the country could have spent 400 or 500 billion on the event.
Our country is seething with high levels of graduate unemployment. Yet our leaders always tell us to create our own jobs. I am sure that money could have built a number of factories to absorb our unemployed graduates. That money could also be enough to subsidise university education which is becoming inaccessible to the majority poor. Only four months ago, my mother was suffering from fibroids and when I took her for a surgical operation at Mulago I was asked Shs 3million. How many Ugandans can afford 3 or 2 million for medication? When you go to Mulago now there are two wings; the private wing and the general ward. In the general ward, doctors will tell you, a patient can spend three weeks without being attended to. Within that period, a patient can meet the creator before being attended to.
When I took my mother, a gynecologist told me, “I used to treat such cases from Naguru Health Centre IV but now Naguru is no more” When I asked him why, he told me, “Don’t ask me many questions, let us leave the Naguru issue” before adding that, “it is our system that has betrayed us”.
From the foregoing, we can infer that Chogm was not a priority in the first place but we need not cry over spilt milk. What we must do is to ensure that those who made a fortune out of the taxpayers’ money don’t only give accountability papers but refund that money in addition to being sent to the University of understanding. I know the president often develops cold feet while fighting corruption when his loyalists are implicated but this time he must show seriously that he is ready to fight corruption. I know that he fears that dealing with the corrupt will cost him electoral fortunes but he ought to pick a leaf from President Paul Kagame.
All of us must realise that corruption is a cancer that must be fought collectively. We need to learn that corruption causes unemployment, poverty, illiteracy, poor roads, and poor health services, widens the gap between the rich and the poor and breeds conflict and criminality. Corruption compromises criminality and whoever shields the corrupt is a societal danger. In fact the web of criminality that we are entrapped in is a direct or indirect consequence of corruption. Like I have always argued corruption begets corruption.
The civil society stands between the state and the citizens and accordingly, civil society is the voice of the citizens. Civil society activists ought to come out openly and decry Musumba’s order. I reiterate my call upon the president to relieve Musumba of his duties because Ugandans cannot stand corrupt ministers anymore at a time when the president has vowed to fight the corruption monster.
Ugandan politicians who have become synonymous with corruption ought to realise that pushing the people against the wall is unacceptable. My campus friend Paul Musamali used to tell me that the corrupt politicians need to be ostracised and I used to think that we can reform them. Now I strongly agree with him that leaders who have pursued self-aggrandisement at the expense of the majority who have been turned into the wretched of the earth must be shunned. We need to shun their functions; we shun their political gatherings and even their social functions such as weddings. We must make the cost of corruption very high; even if they slaughter cows and buy lots of drinks for us, we need to reach a time when we should say, we cannot come. I remember Mzee Boniface Byanyima refused money for condolence from one of the topmost personalities in this country saying it may be part of global fund.
For God and my country!
Vincent Nuwagaba is a human rights defender and can be reached via vnuwagaba@gmail.com or +256702 843 552
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Graft begets graft
My opinion was first published in Daily Monitor on March 16, 2008
I read with a sigh of relief the front page Sunday Vision story that government wants 14 years in jail for corrupt officials in a new law it is proposing. I am however sceptical that the present government will actually follow through.
My scepticism is not unfounded. It is as plain government officials and top politicians have perfected the art of corruption. Corruption in Ugandans’ parlance is no longer a monster it should be regarded to be. Rather, the corrupt are hailed as “smart”.
But also, assuming for argument’s sake the minister’s plea is enforced, who would be the very first victims? I hope there would not be selective application of the law since all Ugandans are supposed to be equal before the law.
Unless we separate form from substance Mr Nsaba Buturo’s bill will never see the light of the day and even if passed it will never be enforced. I have taught political science in a university and the subject I enjoy most is constitutions and constitutionalism.
I always tell my students that a constitution and constitutionalism are related but the former is useless if it doesn’t lead to the latter. At best it remains a paper document merely for window dressing purposes. I strongly feel that law enforcement has eluded this country.
My emphasis is on political corruption which by definition is abuse of office by public officials, not because I condone corruption in private offices but because I have limited space, and it is public offices that should account to me given that they directly use my taxes. I also make the direct link between what one would call deliberate unemployment and corruption. And I say deliberate because there is no political will to fight unemployment.
Corruption can also mean any form of abuse and any aberration or moral decadence- sectarianism, cronyism, influence-peddling, forgery, perjury, vote-buying, bribery, marginalisation, foul play including Machiavellian politics.
But it should be broadened to cover the entire society because corruption is not exclusive to office bearers. Can anyone convince me that people who forge documents including Makerere University transcripts along Nkrumah and Nasser Roads are not corrupt? What of the unemployed bright Ugandans who do course works for students in order to survive? Unless, the root causes of the cancer are addressed the minister’s bill won’t go a long way.
What explanation can the government give for the high unemployment rates when people with university degrees are less than 0.5% of the country’s population yet government departments alone employ around 500,000 according to the figures from the Labour Market Information Bulletin from the Ministry of Gender Labour and Social Development? I have told my students a degree is intrinsic within the person, it is the knowledge attained in the course of study.
If you have course works done for you, you forge documents, or cheat exams you get a certificate which is a mere paper and not a degree.
I have never had a full time job ever since I finished Makerere University with very good grades in 2004 purely because of political corruption; because the offices some of us would occupy on merit are sometimes given on know-who and come-from-where basis.
I know of a family in this country where virtually all the sons and daughters upon completion of their studies are recruited into the police and they become District Police Commanders in a blink of an eye.
The problem of corruption in this country is structural. The government can hire me as a consultant if it genuinely wants to fight the monster.
The bible says what you sow is what you reap.
If fake people are the ones hired what stops them from perpetuating the system that saw them enter office? If one forged papers or cheated exams what would stop them from stealing public funds?
But also, if one was brilliant but failed to get a job because of corruption what happened in the recent police recruitment what would stop them from pursuing the end using any possible means? Corruption begets corruption.
Mr Nuwagaba is a political scientist, human rights scholar and activist
My scepticism is not unfounded. It is as plain government officials and top politicians have perfected the art of corruption. Corruption in Ugandans’ parlance is no longer a monster it should be regarded to be. Rather, the corrupt are hailed as “smart”.
But also, assuming for argument’s sake the minister’s plea is enforced, who would be the very first victims? I hope there would not be selective application of the law since all Ugandans are supposed to be equal before the law.
Unless we separate form from substance Mr Nsaba Buturo’s bill will never see the light of the day and even if passed it will never be enforced. I have taught political science in a university and the subject I enjoy most is constitutions and constitutionalism.
I always tell my students that a constitution and constitutionalism are related but the former is useless if it doesn’t lead to the latter. At best it remains a paper document merely for window dressing purposes. I strongly feel that law enforcement has eluded this country.
My emphasis is on political corruption which by definition is abuse of office by public officials, not because I condone corruption in private offices but because I have limited space, and it is public offices that should account to me given that they directly use my taxes. I also make the direct link between what one would call deliberate unemployment and corruption. And I say deliberate because there is no political will to fight unemployment.
Corruption can also mean any form of abuse and any aberration or moral decadence- sectarianism, cronyism, influence-peddling, forgery, perjury, vote-buying, bribery, marginalisation, foul play including Machiavellian politics.
But it should be broadened to cover the entire society because corruption is not exclusive to office bearers. Can anyone convince me that people who forge documents including Makerere University transcripts along Nkrumah and Nasser Roads are not corrupt? What of the unemployed bright Ugandans who do course works for students in order to survive? Unless, the root causes of the cancer are addressed the minister’s bill won’t go a long way.
What explanation can the government give for the high unemployment rates when people with university degrees are less than 0.5% of the country’s population yet government departments alone employ around 500,000 according to the figures from the Labour Market Information Bulletin from the Ministry of Gender Labour and Social Development? I have told my students a degree is intrinsic within the person, it is the knowledge attained in the course of study.
If you have course works done for you, you forge documents, or cheat exams you get a certificate which is a mere paper and not a degree.
I have never had a full time job ever since I finished Makerere University with very good grades in 2004 purely because of political corruption; because the offices some of us would occupy on merit are sometimes given on know-who and come-from-where basis.
I know of a family in this country where virtually all the sons and daughters upon completion of their studies are recruited into the police and they become District Police Commanders in a blink of an eye.
The problem of corruption in this country is structural. The government can hire me as a consultant if it genuinely wants to fight the monster.
The bible says what you sow is what you reap.
If fake people are the ones hired what stops them from perpetuating the system that saw them enter office? If one forged papers or cheated exams what would stop them from stealing public funds?
But also, if one was brilliant but failed to get a job because of corruption what happened in the recent police recruitment what would stop them from pursuing the end using any possible means? Corruption begets corruption.
Mr Nuwagaba is a political scientist, human rights scholar and activist
vnuwagaba@gmail.com
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