Is Uganda’s lifestyle matched with her level of poverty?

Author: Alan Tacca. PHOTO/FILE

What you need to know:

  • The IGG might find that much of that military is now used to intimidate a democracy-hungry citizenry, to abduct and torture the ruling NRM’s political opponents.

When the IGG, Ms Beti Kamya, talked about scrutinising the personal lifestyles of government officials in relation to their known legitimate income, President Museveni cautioned her to tread carefully, lest the thieves took their loot out of the country instead of investing it in Uganda.
Lucky fellows; a smart IGG would understand that there was not much point in investigating the President’s thieves.
But assuming the IGG’s idea was not a joke or a passing fantasy, all need not be lost. She can change her diet to a breakfast of fried scorpions and start with the State itself.
Yes, is the NRM government operating within its means? Or is it spending like a cynical monster that stumbled into a fortune? For instance, even with the ADF rebels reportedly lodged in the DR Congo, and Uganda’s military macho shines in places like Somalia, there are people who feel strongly that Uganda has too many soldiers and too many weapons. 
Does Uganda’s legitimate security needs and her wealth (or poverty) warrant such a military establishment?
The IGG might find that much of that military is now used to intimidate a democracy-hungry citizenry, to abduct and torture the ruling NRM’s political opponents. An anti-democratic mindset may have translated into huge military spending and a gun-toting government lifestyle.
On the other hand, the IGG might enter a zone of ideological awakening and discover that the 1986 NRM/A ideas were mistaken; that in fact Uganda can only exist under barbarism; that all the expenditure on the tools of repression has been reasonable, even if education, health, agriculture et al have ended up without sufficient resources.
Still with the government’s lifestyle; people who bother to count such things report that Uganda has 83 ministers, more than 140 elected district chairpersons, twice as many RDCs and their deputies, hundreds of presidential advisors; some living, some half-dead, and some possibly ghosts. Can the State, Uganda, afford such a governance style?
Nobody loves a big car like a Senior Uganda Government official (SUGO). You are not a true SUGO unless you have an SUV as big as Noah’s ark. Your prestige is measured in the mobile space around you, and the fuel consumption. You are a fake SUGO if your bush-city cruiser consumes less than 15 litres of government petrol on a return journey between Parliament Avenue and Entebbe.
Dear IGG, can Uganda, the State, afford that expenditure?
The salaries and perks of a SUGO are now a settled matter. They must be at (or close to) First World packages. The slaves of the republic have adjusted to this reality. With the rampant unemployment, a person who has no 1981-86 Resistance connection, or is not an ‘avenger’ or some other descendant of the Resistance; such a person will be lucky to get even a slave job in tomorrow’s Uganda.
However, against that background, it has now become fashionable – perhaps even standard practice – for SUGOs to die abroad.
Even when the most qualified consultants do not give their patient a chance of survival anywhere, a SUGO is sent to a foreign hospital. It is now considered undignified for a Sugo to die in their country.
Dying abroad ensures that you return rather like a hero, with befitting pomp.
But the cost of these arrangements makes spectators whistle. Then the magnificent funerals; burying a SUGO is creeping towards half-a-billion shillings.
The IGG can investigate and inform us whether Uganda can (realistically) afford all these things without begging and sliding into debt to meet its basic obligations.
Mr Tacca is a novelist, socio-political commentator.
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