Response to Dr Spire Ssentongo’s corruption appeal

I am an admirer of cartoonist Dr. Spire Ssentongo’s satire and I esteem him for being one of the voices against corruption in Uganda. Dr. Ssentongo’s December 13 article on corruption---where he rallies all Ugandans to become corrupt in order to survive in this country--- was a real stinging satire on our political and institutional leadership.

There is no doubt that corruption is the bane of our country just as several media articles have previously highlighted.

However, when I read Dr. Ssentongo’s appeal for all Ugandans to abandon our values and embrace corruption as our new value system, I felt the need to challenge his call.

For as a man thinketh, so is he! We all don’t need to be corrupt just because some people are corrupt. Ssentongo’s article suggests the corrupt have outnumbered those genuinely doing their best to serve this country out of a sense of duty, integrity, honesty, and patriotism. On the contrary, I know Uganda is sustained by many unsung heroes of integrity and patriotism.  

Sadly, the media has been unfair to this nation by often mainly exalting and publishing the corrupt and thus, it appears as if everybody is corrupt. That is not factual. If the media published those heroes of integrity and patriotism- entrenched in every sector of the public service and private sector, our nation would be more glorious because positive news inspires and uplifts but constant negative news dampens the spirit of the masses.

It is obvious that corruption, in all its shades, will always be a clog in the wheels of progress of any nation and a perennial impediment to the achievement of its full potential.   Nevertheless, as actors we cannot sow the seeds of falsehood and discord and reap the fruits of peace and progress.

If this trend continues where we individually demonstrate wrong values of dishonesty, corruption, and intolerance and still expect our nation as a whole to be great, then we deceive ourselves. Great nations and strong institutions are never built on the faulty footing of immoral values but on the solid bedrock of good character and sound virtues.

When we talk about corruption, the leaders are often the scapegoats. But the leaders we have are the product of our value system as a country. Uganda’s problem is not that of leadership alone but that of abrogation of responsibility by the masses – all Ugandans – and a wrong value system.  Change of mindset is required.   Despite corruption being widespread, it can be surmounted. However, this cannot be done without the collective efforts of the entire citizenry. This is because the act of nation building is more elaborate and much more complicated than the singular capability of an individual leader. A leader is just a single component in the structural framework of nation building. The act of nation building demands a symbiotic synergy between courageous leadership and patriotic citizenship, a synergy built upon the infallible foundations of trust, integrity, patriotism, and unyielding spirit of nationalism, with the aim of building strong structures and institutions.

Therefore, this is not the time to sit idly by the sidelines and continually wish and hope that things would get better. Rather, it is the time to join the train of nation-builders prepared and determined to rescue the nation from its present excruciating fetters of corruption, poverty, and underdevelopment. We must not resign to fate; for to do that is to be betray our country. Every citizen deserves the kind of nation he gets. So, we must awaken the spirit of nationalism and patriotism, and take the destiny of this great nation in our hands in order to pave the way for its upward economic, political, and social mobility. I think that if we must be fanatical at all, our fanaticism should be in sticking to the virtues of honesty, truthfulness, justice, courage, fairness and strict conformity to the rule of law.

One of the primary anchors on which the Ugandan masses have rested their hopes over the years is the emergence of a “messianic” leader.  The belief is that once a good leader emerges all their sufferings would cease. For this hope, the ordinary man prays in his church, mosque, or even in the secrecy of his home. Yet, a nation does not become great by the resignation and silence of its good people. It doesn’t become great even by the hope of its masses. It is preposterous to just hope that things will get better. The good people must move into action.

 Let us look at the example of Switzerland. They are known as the nation with the highest level of financial integrity, because of the efforts of the reformer, John Calvin, who ruled Geneva. The virtues of honesty, integrity, and hard work which he instilled in the citizens of that city affected the whole of Switzerland in a positive manner. Consequently, today, this nation is the most respected in the world regarding financial integrity and practices. This underscores the fact that the value system of a nation determines its greatness, especially its ability to produce great leaders.

It is incumbent to note that while change should indeed start from the leadership, it must go down to every citizen. There must be a massive campaign that will make our people to reject corrupt leaders and politicians that go against the values we wish to be known for. When this happens, the people will automatically produce upright leaders who will shun corruption. The values of the populace determine the kind of leaders that they produce.

The behaviour of the leaders of a nation only reflects the value system of the population. If the citizens do not tolerate corrupt behaviours in their leaders, there is no way corrupt leaders will retain their positions; they will be quickly overthrown, no matter the amount of military might they possess. Where the citizens can be bought, the converse is true.

President Richard Nixon once argued that “we must always remember that America is a great nation today not because of what government did for the people but because of what people did for themselves and for one another”. I believe the failure of leadership in this country, is also a failure of the citizens.  Leaders are not angels.  They don’t drop from the skies. Leaders are a product of their environment; they emerge from among the citizens. Therefore, if the leaders are corrupt, it is because the citizens are corrupt. Conversely, if the leaders fail, it is because the citizens have failed as well.  So, I call upon my fellow countrymen and women with the virtues of integrity and patriotism to rise up and be counted. We are not few; we are the majority. Uganda depends on you. Helen Keller once noted that, “The world is moved not only by the mighty shoves of heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker.”

The writer is a Former Commissioner in URA, a Co-Chair of the Revolutionary Guards Thinktank, the Prime Minister of NFBPC, and an Associate Consultant with Uganda Management Institute.

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