Museveni on corruption: A stitch in time saves nine

COMMENT | OBED K KATUREEBE |  “A stitch in time saves nine” is a British proverb, meaning that taking immediate action to fix a problem prevents it from becoming a larger, more laborious issue later. The phrase originates from sewing—sewing a tiny tear in a piece of cloth immediately saves you from needing nine more stitches later.

For the last few days, social media and, indeed, traditional media have been in frenzy following the joint investigations on the former Speaker of the Parliament of Uganda, Anita Among, on allegations of corruption. The investigation began with searching Among’s various palatial homes in Kampala and Wakiso on allegations of unexplained wealth that she was always quick to splash in everybody’s face.

The investigations follow a story published recently when she acquired a Rolls-Royce Cullinan, a luxury car believed to cost over 1 million USD. For quite some time, there have been allegations of corruption in the August House, where dirty deals are believed to have been taking place. The former Speaker, Anita Among, is alleged to have amassed abnormal wealth, and people think this could be ill-gotten wealth.

For some time now, President Yoweri Museveni has complained about misuse of public funds and vowed to get tough on corrupt officials. People didn’t listen and thought it was the usual noise. Now the music seems to have begun. Ugandans want accountability; they want service delivery, integrity and responsibility.

Many times, we have heard the president exhorting Ugandans to be ideologically focused, especially the different leaders at different levels and arms of state and government. He has also been extending the appeal to non-state or government leaderships in order to be able to plan and prioritize together the ever-scarce national resources. This is all intended to achieve better organizational and national development goals. However, all this is being failed by primitive greed that has become the new creed.

However, one would be right to ask, ‘What went wrong?’ When did some Ugandans begin losing the national consciousness and become kleptocrats? Could this be as a result of the neoliberal policies that we adopted along the way and are now driving this crazy materialism?

Hyperneoliberal economic materialism is always dangerous to society. This is because it reduces all human interactions and societal values to market transactions. By prioritizing hyper-individualism, relentless wealth accumulation and unregulated free markets, it threatens democratic institutions, deepens wealth disparities and fosters social isolation.

The current ruling NRM used to have a National Political Commissariat Secretariat, whose role was to ensure that ideological clarity of the liberation struggle was attained by all Ugandans and preserved and to know where the country was heading in terms of socioeconomic transformation.

This political department was indeed, at one time, led by such senior political leaders as the late Eria Kategaya and James Wapakhabulo; Col Dr. Kizza Besigye and Dr Crispus Kiyonga  before the country’s political landscape metamorphosed into the current political pluralist dispensation, which has since let loose all shades of ideological pluralism.

As a result, we now have Ugandans without ideological direction who are obsessed with self-aggrandisement. So this training was and is meant to achieve two fundamental objectives. First of all, to prepare Ugandans mentally, (say ideologically) technically and physically to defend our motherland Uganda from all imaginable threats. Secondly, to empower Ugandans to engage in constructive criticism and principled disagreement but be able to pull together on strategic issues of socioeconomic and political development of our country.

This ideological reorientation and empowerment, which was the mandate of the National Commissariat, has since gone into abeyance as a national priority. Leaders have been, and legitimately so, absorbed by the ever-demanding needs to run the state and government.

Unfortunately, this has happened to the detriment of the competences that help us to distinguish between the strategic priorities necessary to develop our country together and the different tactical means and ways of how to fulfil these priorities.

In short, it was originally an effort to ensure we do not confuse the primary ‘what’ with the secondary ‘how’! It is this confusion, quite abundant among our people, at all levels, that has exasperated the president, which he has redefined as ideological disorientation.

Unfortunately, this disorientation can’t be ignored, nor can it be wished away. It can only be tackled with a conscious and deliberate collective effort by all leaders at all levels of our leadership. Can it be done by all shades of ideological proponents contributing to the curriculum? If need be, as long as there are point men and women to guide the process, such that it does not degenerate into politically partisan manifestos, get discussed, even up to the National Legislature so that no one undermines it as partisan.

We need this action, rather than throw in the towel, put our hands on our heads in despair, and then wait to be judged harshly by history when we shall have squandered the opportunity to at least set the pace and give direction to posterity.

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The writer works with Uganda Media Centre