Give public corruption a chance to flourish?

I don’t want to be judged as a despicable citizen, but recently, I have had a wild moment of thoughts. I have spent a light moment to map out the possibility that we who have the honour to occupy positions of responsibility designed to function on behalf of the people of Uganda can actually embrace and practice corruption by consensus and end the anguish it is causing.
I have this imagination: What if every citizen publicly declared to steal from everyone that is stealing public funds, a young man once made such a suggestion to me? In this particular case, a position of honour is conceptualised as one occupied by any public worker at any level and anyone who pays taxes that sustain government. Before you can harshly judge me, read through my thoughts first. I understand corruption to mean dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power, typically involving bribery or the process by which a word or expression is changed from its original state to one regarded as erroneous or debased. The meaning of corruption, therefore, widens the target population of practitioners and various forms in which it manifests in our society today.
To many of us, the only form of corruption that characterise our public discourses is one currently practiced by public workers, but we often miss a point. Simply, this form of corruption is only a symptom of a deeply corrupt and potentially troubled society. The worst form of corruption we often forget to tackle head-on is one being casually practiced by a family. We lie to a child while still in the womb, we deliver and feed the new born on corruption money, and we cheat and steal public funds when the child is seeing all through into their adulthood. In short, we often curse our children to become eternally corrupt and the only known mode of survival. Why are we then dismayed sometimes by the corrupt tendencies in public offices today and why elders cry about their missing pension funds? Have you forgotten that the famous teacher of morality and applied ethics “the clergy” and the men of “god” are part of a deeply corrupt family. Many know well what they do today.
Now, back to Ugandans, who work in public offices and especially those in charge of decision making. I also note with deep concern the growing high shrewdness of entitlement characterised by the tendency of appropriating public resources to an extent that they have no or less fear of breaking rules that govern the common good with limited or no reflection about the consequences of their actions. Some are heard on radios, in bars and high offices justifying corruption as a necessary evil that they often compare with precapitalist modes of production aimed at primitive accumulation that was practiced by their colonial masters. Some African scholars have also linked it to our DNA and some blame it on our African customs forgetting that fraud and dishonesty were taboos that attracted the penalty of death.
I also note with deep concern the “Nfunirawa” (how do I gain from a transaction) and “term egenda” growing attitude among those in charge of public resources, systems and processes, who for purely selfish reasons, have contributed to the deepening of corrupt practices in public offices. Further to this, those in positions of responsibility seem to be the ones steering the malfunctioning of our public systems well aware that if systems functioned efficiently as per the established rules, chances of the ill gains (money and power) would be limited. I am also concerned that the corrupt in Uganda are so much full of confidence and certainty that one would begin to wonder whether they are morally dead or they run a parallel State with special protection. They are not even shy to put it straight in your face with certainty and arrogance that they actually act in the interest of the State.
I wanted to add on the above, but I cannot corrupt this newspaper to expand the space that I may be allotted, but let me say this: What if we all embraced corruption as a way of life by making fraud, bribery, trickery, lies and all forms of dishonesty part of our life game with no punishment on them? My argument is, it would seize to be a moral subject, would reduce the anxiety attached to its evil appearance, would attract no budget and NGOs to fight it. It would then pave way for a deep disagreement resulting into a broad consensus against this modern evil.
Using an example of where I work at Makerere University as a metal picture, the Management, Principals, Deans and Heads of Department would appropriate resources as they wish, recruit as they wish, account as they wish and do everything as they wish. Professors and lecturers would teach as they wish, mark as they wish, award marks as they wish and interact with students as they wish. The academic registry would prioritise transcripts of only those students who have paid “kitu kidogo”, would divert fees to their personal accounts, would be suppliers of goods and audit themselves, custodians would take away computers, sockets, bulbs and other goods in their custody and cleaners would take away all cleaning materials if at all supplied by the procurement unit.
This way, corruption would be given chance to work and show its beautiful or ugly appearance to the satisfaction of those who have made it their preserve. Soon, there would be no master or anyone talking about it as a moral subject, but an epidemic that must end at an instant. We would thereafter begin to reflect on a post-corruption era without an overrated position of an ombudsman. We would all begin to watch over each other having tested the real wrath of corruption as a social danger that is slowly denying struggling citizens an opportunity to enjoy their country. We would end the anxiety that has engulfed the youth compelling them to believe that their intellect, ingenuity, hard work and the totality of their efforts alone cannot deliver them success. We would end the growing belief that it’s only the corrupt that get what they want in life. We would redirect those who now believe that they cannot live without corruption.

Dr Muhwezi is the chairman Makerere University Academic Staff Association (Muasa).