Sorry, you don’t just eat the President’s money and go

What you need to know:

  • They think they are smart. Poor souls think they have pulled a fast one on their grandfather. That they, like prostitutes are ‘just eating his money’, but love him not.
  • That they are even smarter, they think than the prostitute, who releases something at some point in exchange for money.

Those who know these things say a solution many times correctly describes a problem. Probably at times it may not. For instance, if a man knocks on one’s door and the opener of the door takes one look at them then provides plenty of food and drink, perhaps they think the visitor is very hungry and thirsty. Or maybe they are just misled by their generosity when zeroing in on food.

Lately, President Museveni is going around with truckloads of money. The targets of the huge sums he leaves in his wake are what he calls his ‘grandchildren,’ mainly the plethora of unemployed youth of Uganda’s urban areas. You should see the multitudes of old and grey haired men and women that squeeze themselves in t-shirts and claim that they are also Museveni’s ‘needy grandchildren.’ the bazukulu.
Museveni is defining the problem of the unemployed and urban poor as lacking money so he is handing it to them by the sack load, of course to share.

Please note that each, by night fall, as they return to their homes or hovels, will have only a pittance, if at all any is left of what was announced on the news as billions for the groups.
Without fooling ourselves too much, this dishing out of huge money business, is another of those bad habits turned-good because of many things.

It raises the importance of poverty in the power relation. You can do anything with the poor for which they return fear respect and humility.
First the situation of poverty despite the glowing economic growth figures, is so dire. The matter is so desperately urgent that anything will do. We have to be seen to be doing something. We must also feel that something is coming to us. So we form all these ‘investment clubs’ and wait for the President to come funding them with big money. Whether it works or not is not the issue for now.

Secondly, the President is admitting failure in his success. He says he sends money, another very wrong thing to say let alone to do, for the State should be doing that, but the money does not reach the intended people. So it is stolen on the way by people who continue to hold public office and get paid by the taxpayer.

What happened to the mechanisms that lead such people to the prison gate? They continue to eat the fat of the land and we shrug our shoulders. We are living a lie a huge one at that as the justices and the police live with us and we know their purpose, but what can we say. Things are happening just like that, after all, life is short and we can do other things in the meantime. The other one is about the people whose money is used in the ping-pong. The proper channels are known. It is collected by the taxman. Then those we vote into office and pay handsomely also known as honourable members of Parliament (MPs) apportion it equitable after serious debate.

Granted, many times the debates are lacking and the debaters are known to miss in action, but the procedure and the mechanism is known universally. That is why we cry out to the government to help us (gavumenti etu yambe).
We do this when the roads are bad, the hospitals lack medicine, the schools are falling or the teachers are dodging and there are no scholastic materials to ensure that the future generation is well instructed.

Then the President decides to bring Christmas forward and dishes out money through the wrong channel and in total disregard of laid down procedure with all the provided checks and balances built therein. The same people who shout about bad governance, corruption and abuse of power, are now apparently the recipients of the same bad habits.
Happily, they partake of the same habits. Hands full, they claim they will see the other (now minor issues) like procedure and who should do what where and when, much later after the President’s monetary meal is served). With this, the moral authority to criticise the President for abuse of official channels of governance disappears.

In the crime you are now partners. How dare you turn round and complain going forward? You believe in systems, but you have no faith in them so you support those who break the rules as long as it serves you well like the money in the sacks.
Poor souls think they have pulled a fast one on their grandfather. That they, like prostitutes are ‘just eating his money’, but love him not. That they are even smarter, they think than the prostitute, who releases something at some point in exchange for money.

That they will just eat his money, but will not vote for him. ‘Detoothing’ it is called. Take but don’t give what is expected. Truth be told, it is your money that you are eating. The old money loses zilch. Secondly the old man has taken your soul with the money that you eat and has made you so cheap. He has exposed your hypocrisy and simplicity. Tomorrow when he is announced winner he may well say his fortunes changed because he gave you money in sacks. It was an agreement, albeit a silent one that has come to fruition.

Mr Sengoba is a commentator on political and social issues. [email protected].
Twitter:@nsengoba