Writer: Rt. Rev. Dr. Fred Sheldon Mwesigwa. PHOTO/FILE
On a Sunday morning, while being driven to Kampala for an Ankole Diocesan fellowship Sunday service, I receive a passionate and desperate inbox message from one of my former Ntare school students decrying the incessant corruption scandals in Uganda. The message reads: “How I wish you can do an article on the get rich-quick syndrome, its destroying Ugandans and our top institutions, only the Church can save the country.”
As I mused over the predicament of my former student, who should be in his 40s, in a middle level senior position. I couldn’t help to think of how his mental and moral struggles were being shared by many of his colleagues. As a religious leader, I preached my sermon and touched on corruption but took up the challenge.
The antidote to corruption is simple advice from an Indian business friend and my personal experience. On Monday, December 2, I chatted with this 40- year-old something adult who recounted to me the Ugandans get rich corruption virus that stifles the spirit of hard work, professionalism and effective service delivery. My Indian friend told me his father worked his socks off and lost hairs of his body having started off with only $150 but now boasts of a multibillion business empire.
The trick behind the success story is hard work and a saving culture, which seems foreign to many Ugandans.
Although his father started off in a two roomed house, he now lives in plash mansion in upscale Nagura, Kampala.
Notwithstanding, the father and mother share a house with their son and daughter in law! This suggests that they are saving on accommodation, electricity, water, domestic workers and other bills. The family drives a TX Prado and Ugandan friends ask, ‘why don’t you drive big vehicles?’, his answer is, ‘If I get as rich as Mukwano or Metha, that is when I will buy one!’ ‘What I have now is for re-investment’.
The lesson is that a Ugandan would already have bought a monster vehicle, implying more fuel charges, service, repairs etc. The Indian friend assured me that majority Ugandans will announce their ‘arrival’ in the class of financial big boys by taking on a second wife or a side-dish. All this heaping financial pressures to have more money thus more dubious deals.
For Indians, it is a taboo to take on a second wife, he opined. He said: “Why would I have to travel business class when I have not yet reached the level of Mukwano or Metha?’ I really nodded in approval and shared with him my own small experiences. I started to work at the age of 23. Having adopted the saving culture, I can attest to the theory of one by one makes a bundle instead of the get rich quick.
As a qualified teacher in 1985, the small salary, and later on that of my wife, was augmented by salary loans and we were able to invest in small pieces of land. In 1996, the 100 x 100ft plot we bought in Mbarara Town, now city, at a cost of Shs3 million, is now worth about Shs200 million! Oh, how much we worked hard to complete the loan and secure the property.
These days the ‘get rich corruption virus’ will eat up even the relatively well-paid civil servant so that he can drive a monster vehicle, stay in a plash personal house, perhaps get a family holiday trip to Ibiza! How does one sustain such a life style? The easiest route is corruption.
Sadly, some have lost jobs, some are in jail, families have broken down and dreams have been shattered. The antidote for corruption is hard work, patience and trust-worthiness. My personal philosophy of life is, "let those who are blessed with the power and soaring swiftness of the eagle fly ahead, I’ll go slowly but I too, will arrive."
The writer, Rt Rev Dr Sheldon Fred Mwesigwa, is the Anglican bishop of Ankole Diocese and chancellor Bishop Stuart University.
