Don’t be fooled, Museveni loves corruption
By Elijah M. Tumwebaze
1st Nov 2010
Just hear this people of this land: “I will stop corruption, President promises”. That was the headline of a Daily Monitor story on 26th Oct, a day after President Museveni was nominated to contest for the presidency of Uganda “again” in the 2011 general elections.
Please excuse my “French”; I just can’t help saying this: “What a bloody joke”! Ugandans should not be fooled even for a minute. Museveni loves and thrives on corruption in Uganda. Without it, his regime would definitely collapse and he knows it. He knows that his “popularity” and bogus election “victories” have only been made possible through corruption; namely, bribing voters with their own taxpayers’ money.
He knows too that if he were to crack down hard on his thieving cronies, they would run out of money to bribe their way into parliament and his NRM would lose its fraudulent majority in it. In other words, entwined in the corrupt octopus that is the NRM government is Museveni the man himself. Everything, including corruption, revolves around him. Can the same man who moves around with brown envelopes stuffed with money to bribe people fight corruption?
Every single Ugandan knows why the NRM primaries were so violent. But let me repeat it; just in case. All potential NRM flag bearer knew that the primaries were the surest way of getting free taxpayers’ money to bribe their way into parliament and other political offices. So for them, it was literally a matter of life and death. And for that, they were prepared to kill; and did in fact kill each other.
If Museveni and his cronies all know it, then why can’t Ugandans finally realise that after a whole 25yrs of promises to wipe out corruption, Museveni is not about to do it in the next five years. How could he? It would be the same as asking Museveni to put a rope around his own neck and he is not that stupid.
At Museveni’s nomination last week, for example, I would say more than half of the people who turned up for his rally in Kololo did so with the expectation that there would be “something” for them to “eat”. Boda Boda riders came in their thousands expecting free fuel. In the end, some killed themselves at a patrol station fighting over Museveni’s bribe of petrol.
So the evidence is there for all to see and it’s inexhaustible. UCB sale, Junk Helicopters, Chinese size army uniforms, NUSAF, Global Fund, GAVI, Temangalo, Chogm and all its mess including the $1.3million given to the appropriately named J&M Hotel [perhaps standing for “Janet” & “Museveni” Hotel] two days before the Chogm summit. I could go on, and on until the cows come home. The list is endless.
In all these cases, however, not even one Museveni crony implicated in these corruption scandals has spent a minute in Luzira prison. None, zero, zilch! Only those who never fought in Luwero like Cheeye have been punished for their crimes. All the others have on the contrary been rewarded with juicy government jobs by Museveni himself as the supreme appointing authority in the corrupt “Kaguta Empire”.
All the while, the same Museveni has been quick to order his NRM police force to charge his political opponents with trumped up and politically motivated charges. We saw it in both the rape and treason charges against FDC President Dr. Kizza Besigye. We saw how he ordered his police to investigate UPC President Olara Otunnu over some allegedly sectarian statements that Otunnu is reported to have made in Lira.
So where does Museveni get the audacity to insult our intelligence by telling us that if we elect him president “again”, he will eliminate corruption. It just goes to show the level of contempt Museveni has for Ugandans. He holds Ugandans in so much contempt that of all things, he even promises to build for them toilets under his new “Bona Bapame” policy.
And it is all because we as a people allowed him to stay in power too long; too long that he now believes he can say and do anything and get away with it. He now believes that if he told us that we all have two heads, our response would be: “How did you know that Sir? You are a genius”! It is an absolute tragedy.
“…Uganda is free and peaceful. Why should people say Museveni should go? Now you see Uganda is settled and then you say Museveni should go?”, Museveni is reported to have told his supporters after he was nominated last Monday.
I mean to the situation where a vicious despot like Museveni now feels secure enough to tell us that since he contributed to bringing relative peace and stability to Uganda, he should therefore be allowed to rule us forever; “Pakalast”; as his 2011 campaign slogan declares.
My foot! How the hell did we get to this? I am so angry I could kill someone. END. Please log into www.ugandacorrespondent.com every Monday to read our top stories and anytime mid-week for our news updates.
