Watchdog : Cabinet turns NRM business into national business

As a Ugandan, I want to sit wherever I am assured that my government has my interests, or, those of my fellow citizens, at heart. That, at that given moment, government officials are putting aside our numerous differences and focusing on the hard task of governing well. Granted, we are a democracy that ostensibly has to go through a necessary divisive process to elect a government but what makes democracies the model systems that they are, is that an elected government has a popular and national mandate and by default should assume a national and united mind-set.

However, for the time I have cared about these things, the Ugandan government is something else. It’s actually not a government: it’s a party that never bothers to separate elections and politicking from a functioning government. (Or army and police, given the unfortunate partisan stances the leaders of those organs usually let off.)
What is Cabinet (persons appointed by a head of state to head executive departments of government and act as official advisers) doing recommending the expulsion of ‘rebel’ MPs from the NRM (Thursday’s Daily Monitor)? Is this national business? At this rate the ministers should be discussing how to expel themselves from the jobs they are abusing.

Good riddance, University of Buckingham

So the University of Buckingham, which I had never heard of till this week, decided to cut ties with Victoria University over the Homosexuality Bill? Or, as they put it: “We have both become increasingly concerned about the proposed legislation in Uganda on homosexuality and in particular the constraints on freedom of speech in this area. In the light of this, we have agreed to suspend our validation on the assurance that Edulink would produce viable arrangements for existing students on our validated courses to complete their studies.”
Now, I don’t support the anti-homosexuality Bill. I think there are better ways of dealing with people you don’t like rather than killing or throwing them in prison.

You can, for example, ignore them: it’s how some of us live with politicians. I also don’t believe, and reality agrees with me on this, that homosexuals are “recruiting” school children, the dumb explanation supporters of the Bill usually fall back on.
Still, Buckingham University took a particularly stupid turn on this too. That Bill has not been passed, and probably won’t be passed. As for “constraints on freedom of speech in this area,” this newspaper is proof enough that that holds little weight. Stupid decision, whichever way you look at it.

Ireland takes its aid back, taxpayers lose

On Monday, the government repaid Euros4 million (Shs14 billion) to the government of Ireland. This was Ireland’s contribution to the misappropriated aid in the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), and came on the insistence of Ireland that Uganda repays the aid as well as take action against the thugs. Ireland was the first country to cut aid to Uganda because of the scam, with other donors following suit.
The Irish say their suspension of “development assistance” to Uganda for this fiscal year stands until its officials are satisfied that financial control measures are in place to prevent a reoccurrence of the OPM scam.

Even better, they are not taking back the refunded money but are putting it to its original use, supporting development programmes in war-torn northern Uganda. There’s a caveat though: the money won’t be channeled through the government.

Good, sound proposals, until you look at how the money was paid. Government, relying on what’s turning out to be a controversial constitutional article (amend it, you people!), raided the treasury without parliamentary approval for the money.

So, taxpayers are paying for a few thugs who will at best get off with light prison sentences. Since we are getting the aid back, it means our benefit is zero. Instead it’s the thieves who get to keep their booty.

Media licences face cancellation over ‘bad’ stories

If certain organisations or people often come off as very critical of the government it’s because this intriguing regime gives us too much to work with: it’s the proverbial gift horse that keeps on giving. One day they can’t keep an Intensive Care Unit in the national referral hospital running, the next they are making more promises to fight corruption despite evidence to the contrary, the day after that, they are creating more districts and appointing shady characters as presidential advisers… The list is endless. This week, and in a certain New Year’s message, they turned their guns to the media, wagging fingers at those who call out their bluster.

The argument is that certain media outlets are so anti-government and have as a result skewed their coverage to exclude even positive government initiatives. How can the President launch a ferry and you people don’t cover it, or, as certain other outlets are wont to do, refuse to assign it a multi-coloured headline? Who gave you the free space in which you are operating?

It seems redundant to call out the bullying. If it seems petty it’s because there’s nothing behind it rather than looking for veils to cover themselves with as they take cheap shots at people who think for themselves.