Are donors angry or shocked with OPM?

As the pages unfold and people aspire to the new heights, everyone, including the donors, will need strong heart medication.

Last week, courtesy of Hurricane Sandy, I happened to be a guest of the British people. The British press has an edge to it but sometimes a depth to it as well. News of the World from the Rupert Murdoch is gone but the Daily Mail, associated with conservative causes, remains. Last Wednesday it delivered two screaming headlines: the first one about foreign aid going to the cronies of the Ugandan Prime Minister.

Of course, this is misleading. None of PM Amama Mbabazi’s homeboys is directly associated with benefitting from this loot. Ugandans already have enough details about the OPM scandal; there is little to add apart from the saying that deadly graft exposes have left even Kampala’s most ardent defenders with little to say - even though this newspaper is published in the vicinity of ‘lobbying firms’ retained by Kampala to polish Uganda’s image abroad.

The second headline was more damaging. It accuses the Prime Minister of living a life of pomp in a country that still routinely begs for foreign aid to deliver services to its poorest citizens. Another old story about kickbacks in the oil deals is mentioned. The first story repeats a list of perceived slights and could have as well been written with the help of the foreign office. It mentions the 30 million Pounds Gulfstream jet purchased by “Uganda’s-67-year old ‘autocratic’ ruler who has launched a nonstop crackdown against democracy campaigners”. Everyone knows that the ruling Conservative Party is close to two of Uganda’s opposition parties; FDC and DP.

The Daily Mail is a tabloid and references to it stop there, but the weight of the story cannot go away. In one week - after the Irish threw in the towel, the British and Norwegians are suspending aid to the Office of the Prime Minister. For most of these countries, especially the EU members, there are already scores of other good reasons. The EU is down on money, members are divided on new financial supports to its budget.

There are domestic concerns. In Britain, there is concern that the international development budget has grown too fast even during a period of austere budget cuts.
The Daily Mail scratches around the theme of the luxury and pomp we have accustomed our leaders to that does not match our country’s resources. With the exception of Joyce Banda, the Malawian President who some observers may call naïve for deliberately trimming the accessories of her office, the colonial hangover of a “feel important-colonial overlord” or the “imperial rule” is a deeper cancer than what we let on publicly.

We are not necessarily rooting for our offspring to become the next Alexander Bell or Steve Jobs or the Wright Brothers but rather to end up with developed drawings close to our State House - an architectural feat by itself. The sense of numbness has been exploited by the President who now meritoriously dumps on the population scores of dubious, improper and unqualified presidential appointees with little or no review or relief from the electorate.

Our beloved donors, of course, have been around for some time during all these developments. They pay for the most essential functions of government, the justice, law and order sector, etc., to allow the police free rein to clamp down on the so-called democracy campaigners. That programme to transform northern Uganda from its war-torn past keeps them close enough to observe developments in the Albertine rich oil region.

But this methodical laziness is about to run course. While we continued to entrench or centralise power, there are hungrier and more deserving cases that have shown promise to do good with such resources. Most of the short-term oil story has run its course. Uganda’s oil still has five more years before reaching full viability and populist causes like 5th term or the now inevitable presidential succession question are likely to make it difficult for the faint-hearted to access this resource.

Nothing makes Mbabazi a sole figure. He has simply been unfortunate to be mentioned every now and again; the regime’s critics reach out for a fig. Nothing is said about Edward Ssekandi, the Vice President, because he has never propositioned himself as a presidential successor. He does not have the palatial homes or mini State Houses that larger mortals below him in the pecking order regularly maintain. Mbabazi’s forays into business and the banking sector have not ended well. The National Bank of Commerce ended up both in court and under Bank of Uganda’s auctioneer’s hammer. The President’s help on this particular subject through a no-objection to the Temangalo transaction shows that the proceeds from this transaction did not necessarily end up going to shore up Temangalo.

The civil servants currently commuting from Luzira to the courts have not done more than simply read from the cues of the book by Mbabazi’s political supervisor: Uganda at 50: Privatised, you are on your own! As the pages unfold and people aspire to the new heights, everyone, including the donors, will need strong heart medication.
Mr Ssemogerere, an attorney and social entrepreneur, practises law in New York.

kssemoge@gmail.com