Late-coming eating up Parliament

African Time: [For some Africans], time moves ‘backward’ rather than ‘forward’; and people set their minds not on future things, but chiefly on what has taken place…. Time has to be experienced in order to make sense or to become real — John S. Mbiti.

The truth is that poverty rates throughout Africa have been falling steadily and much faster than previously thought. The death rate of children under five years is rising in many countries, with clear evidence of accelerating rates of economic growth.
In fact, the notion that Africa is full of horror stories is progressively changing. But in this part of the world, in spite of the good news, we are still widely derided for our frustrating time-keeping skills and this, according to researchers, explains our laxity and the recurrence of challenges on the continent.

Our lawmakers have their own “African time”, quite different from the Western time. When they invite witnesses for a meeting at 10am, they take it that 10am could be anywhere up to 11:30am or slightly after. It seems our leaders don’t wait for time; rather, time waits for them.
In fact, for many, they have adopted the saying “better late than never”, a complete opposite of William Shakespeare’s “better three hours too soon than a minute late.” They forget that better late than never is always a consolation for a shameless person who has lost a lifetime opportunity.

Nigeria way
I am told in Nigeria, this thing called: “African time” has become so annoying to the extent that for official meetings, the organisers are forced to provide two invitation cards, either formally or informally: one for Nigerians/Africans and the other for the whites. The one for Nigerians/Africans would normally indicate that the event would start about two hours before the actual time, while the one for whites would indicate the exact time the event is supposed to start.

Uganda is not alone, in Zambia, the former Speaker of the National Assembly, Amusaa Mwanamwambwa, at one time threatened to close the Parliamentary Chambers for some time if the lawmakers continued coming in late. Mr Mwanamwamba said late coming was hurting taxpayers’ money.

Nowadays, poor time management has cut deep into the fabric of our society and even among its top officials like, the Executive, Judiciary, Legislature and the private sector. In Parliament as well as in Judiciary and Cabinet, punctuality appears to be a crisis.

Parliament is currently considering the 2013/14 budget and the MPs are expected to attend the sectoral committees but unfortunately, they are busy in workshops and seminars. This explains the rampant late-coming and absenteeism in the House. However, the blanket condemnation of Africans as poor time-keepers does not mean that there are no time-keepers in Africa.

In the 8th Parliament, we had Prof Apolo Nsibambi and former Chwa MP Livingstone Okello-Okello (UPC) and Mzee John Arumadri Drazu (former Madi-Okolo). These were known time-keepers and you could not fault them on time but their exit has worsened things in 9th Parliament. These people, the exceptional breed of our leaders, clearly understood that time is the scarcest resource and unless it is managed nothing else can be managed.

No updates

Can you imagine one of the Committee chairpersons on Thursday showed up at 1pm for a meeting which began at 10am? Even in this mobile phone era, the MPs don’t bother to inform others of the delays.

When they finally show up for meetings, they come one-by-one. But how are we going to progress as a country with leaders who cannot even manage time? Since we know that “time is money”, it’s high time we stopped this naughtiness.

While late coming is an indication of sloppiness and lack of accountability, the members on the committees like Public Accounts, Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises and others have not been spared either.

Money issues

I understand MPs need money, but must they sacrifice Parliament work by chasing transport refunds in seminars and workshops? In fact, the saying “late-comers eat bones” does not apply in Parliament because even late-comers get allowances. This is theft.

MPs forget that in Uganda, unemployment is at its highest ever (more than 80 per cent), as is the rate of business failure. They need to devote time and think for the country instead of chasing deals. Because of this impunity, late-coming and absenteeism is greatly affecting the service delivery. For instance, a lot of business is gathering dust in committees including key Bills, petitions, reports from the Office of the Auditor General, Inspectorate of Government and Human Rights Commission. Unless Speaker Rebecca Kadaga cracks the whip, our Parliament risks degenerating into something else.

If we cannot introduce performance appraisal, then, we shouldn’t allow late-comers to sign for allowances.