Isn’t President Museveni bribing Acholi Chiefs?
By Dr. Vincent Magombe
29th Nov 2010
Houses for Chiefs, Land Cruisers and Pajeros for bishops, jobs for defecting opposition politicians, and brown envelopes for powerful opinion leaders and businessmen – you name it; the Ugandan President is at his game again.
Isn’t he basically buying votes using public money and property? How about the wild promises to deliver ‘small things’ (kitu kidogos) which he could not deliver even after 24 years in power?
The latest ‘act of kindness’ from the President has been the commissioning of 49 houses for Acholi traditional chiefs. Are they all innocent and graceful acts from a President who cares about his subjects? Let’s find out.
If you take a closer and critical look, the ugly truth starts popping out like white ants from an anthill. The gifts to the Chiefs are being dispensed right in the middle a national election campaign; and all as part of the campaign tour of the NRM party’s presidential candidate Yoweri Kaguta Museveni.
President Museveni and his men have argued that as a Head of State, he has every right to ‘serve sweet goodies’ to the nation at any time he chooses. According to Mr. Ofwono Opondo, the acerbic NRM campaign spokesman, there would be a “vacuum” were the President to suddenly stop doing the needful.
It is not clear which “vacuum” Mr. Opondo is referring to here. Is it the vacuum where the country would cease to be governed by a President who bribes voters with cars and houses?
There is no one calling for the President to stop executing his rightful duties as Head of State. The recent report by the Democracy Monitoring Group (Demogroup), which brings together well-respected institutions, only accuses the President and his NRM party of “…abuse of incumbency” when he dishes out public money and properties in exchange for votes.
When Mr. Opondo compares President Museveni’s ‘Housegate’, ‘Pajerogate’, ‘Envelopegate’ ‘Landgate’ and ‘Jobsgate’ scandals to American President Barack Obama taking a ride on Air Force One, most clear-headed Ugandans will want clarification from the NRM spokesman on a number of issues.
For example, when and where did President Barack Obama give brown envelopes to American voters during campaign time? Was he ever pictured anywhere handing over houses to public servants in exchange for votes?
Ugandan chiefs are traditional authorities who are legally supposed to remain non-partisan during election campaigns. What President Museveni is doing is effectively appropriating public property for use by his NRM Party.
A wounded man turning his sword on the Doctor
Mr. Ofwono Opondo is on record threatening Demogroup that they will face the wrath of the government for asserting that President Museveni is “…abusing the incumbency” for electoral gain. If I were Ofwono Opondo, I would find more sensible ways of defending the President’s misdeeds.
His venomous attacks on Demogroup are nothing but frenzied yells of a wounded man who turns his sword on a helpful doctor, threatening to kill him for treating his wound. By castigating the good guys, Mr. Ofwono is merely exposing the ugly credentials of a terminally wounded regime hell-bent on rigging the elections by any means necessary.
Donor aid money for bribes
But where is the bribery money coming from? It is definitely not from the NRM party’s own kitty. It is public money in the form of local revenue collections. It is also donor money given to Uganda in form of grants, budgetary support finance, and loans.
According to the Ministry of Finance’s own figures, in the financial year 2008-2009, the country’s national budget was Shs6.16 trillion. This was financed by domestic revenue to the tune of Uganda Shillings 4.29trillion and external support of Uganda Shillings 1.87trillion.
Donor aid during financial year 2010/11 is projected to amount to US dollars 887.9million. While these external sources of finance can no doubt enhance the livelihood of some Ugandans, there have been numerous complaints about the NRM government withholding significant portions of donor finances.
Museveni has explained that he had to wait for proper plans and visions of how the money was going to be used before he could release the said money. Now that the national elections are a stone’s throw away, it is becoming clearer as to what the President meant when he said that the money would be released when the ‘plans’ were in place for effective implementation.
Take the “Houses for Votes” saga in Acholiland. It is a tragic comedy. My view is that Museveni was waiting for the ‘PLAN’ to be in place; and the plan was for the houses to be handed to Acholi traditional chiefs during election campaigns while the ‘Big Man’ was on a campaign tour of Acholi sub-region.
Next week, Dr. Vincent Magombe continues his analysis of President Museveni’s conduct so far in this 2011 election. END. Please log into www.ugandacorrespondent.com every Monday to read our top stories and anytime mid-week for our news updates.
Dr. Magombe is a UK based Ugandan Journalist and Director of Africa Inform International
