What race for Speaker reveals about our politics

The race for Speaker of the 11th Parliament has kicked off in earnest, pitting the current Deputy Speaker, Mr Jacob Oulanyah, against the sitting Speaker, Ms Rebecca Kadaga.

The race is alleged to be a hot one, but I believe the ‘hotness’ is a media creation. I know it is not and won’t be. In the final analysis, the President will ‘appoint’ the Speaker. In the meantime, the two have swallowed the bait. They have been duped into ‘expressing interest and competing’ for the job.
 
Consequently, like grasshoppers in a bottle, they are biting and throwing salvos at each other and smearing themselves with mud. To invoke contemporary political parlance, they are indulging in gutter-politics. This style of political campaign is common place in Uganda today, so it is not surprising that the two are perpetuating the tradition.

What is more catastrophic, however, are the revelations that the protagonists in the race make about their role in mortgaging our country to one mortal soul, Gen Museveni.

Both of them have boasted about their roles in the removal of the term and age limits from the Constitution. Mr Oulanyah boasts of removing the term limit and Ms Kadaga brags about removing the age limit so as to allow Gen Museveni to rule for life.

Abhorrent also, is the deplorable spinelessness and sycophancy of our politicians. The idea that every NRM politician, young or old, educated or illiterate, woman or man, does whatever is within their power to please one mortal being. I have no idea about why and how people who are supposed to be intelligent, bold and exposed, can stoop so low to promote the whimsical desires of one mortal soul at the expense of a whole nation’s future!

Even more depressing is the revelation about the annihilation of our country’s institutions. The Legislature, for instance, is supposed to be one of the most powerful institutions of the State.

 It is often said, albeit in jest, that the only thing that parliaments cannot do is to turn a man into a woman! But in Uganda, this is a mirage; the Legislature is an appendage of the presidency. In other words, Parliament does the bidding of the presidency, rather than performing its constitutional mandate to the people of Uganda.

In a related development, the race for speake also brings to the fore the dilemma of being a leader, especially a Member of Parliament, in the context of breakdown of institutions. It is a fact that MPs are among the most paid Ugandans. However, it is also true that MPs are among the most stressed, frustrated and heavily indebted Ugandans.

This is because almost all the institutions that should render services to the people of Uganda are either non-functional or half-functional.
Therefore, MPs have to shoulder the overwhelming burden of ‘providing services’ to the entire population.

Whether it is medical treatment, burial expenses, school fees, weddings, sinking a borehole, opening a new road, providing agricultural in-puts or fundraising for a village savings group. That is why when MPs meet the omnipotent President, they abdicate discussing national issues and resort to asking him for loan bailout, goodies, donations to the constituency, etcetera.

That is the context in which Mr Oulanyah and Ms Kadaga have to seek the President’s endorsement and blessing to become the Speaker. In fact, Oulanyah or Kadaga may defy CEC, but they can’t dare defy the President. That would be sacrilegious.

This is the tragedy that our country faces. The destiny of an entire nation of 40-plus million people has been surrendered to the idiosyncrasy of one mortal soul. A sad state of affairs in Uganda’s body politic.

The writer is a politician, trainer and writer
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