Over-commercialisation of politics is ruining Uganda’s future

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OPINION

By Ssalongo Muwada Namwanja, NRM Masuliita

We, the National Resistance Movement (NRM) diehards from Masuliita, would like to wish our chairperson and former bush war combatant, Gen. Yoweri Museveni, a fruitful swearing-in ceremony as he takes up his mandate for yet another term of office till 2031.

We pray that the Good Lord blesses him and grants him all the wisdom, success and good health as he steers the country to yet another level of economic transformation. We also pray for the First Lady, Mrs Janet Museveni, for good health. 

In the same vein, we extend our deepest condolences to the President for the loss of his bush war fighter, Captain Sula Sserunjogi of Semuto in Luwero Triangle, who passed on last week. Sserunjogi joined the liberation struggle in the early days of the National Resistance Army and played a significant role in its success.

As NRM supporters, we closely follow the national events. This time, we would like to draw the President’s attention to the growing practice of commercialisation of politics in Uganda. Our elections have often been treated as a public sale, resulting in high campaign expenditures that have weakened the integrity and democratic process built by the NRM over the years.

During the just-concluded campaigns, we witnessed aspirants, both within the NRM primaries and general election, spending millions and billions of shillings to entice the electorate for their vote. It is public knowledge that many of our MPs and the party Central Executive Committee (CEC) members and district leaders invested a lot of money in campaigns to win the elections.

The implication is that we are now slowly deviating from the democratic principles promoted by the NRM, where leaders are elected on merit.

Instead, we get scenarios of whoever has more money getting the votes. More businesspeople, in the guise of politicians, are entering the race and heavily injecting cash into the election process, expecting profits. This kicks out real leaders who would make an impact and serve the people they represent.

Because of the prevailing economic squeeze, voters have also tended to open their arms to receive whoever is willing to give. They fall into the trap and vote for whoever gives them bread.

We would like to inform the President that we are not comfortable with this practice that is taking root in Uganda. It is regrettably dangerous and is ruining our democracy. It was so unusual that some CEC aspirants had just too much money; some of them were accused of bribing voters and were later whisked away to an unknown place, only to return them at the venue in the last hour of voting.

Now, as the President prepares to take the oath again, we would like to appeal to him to stop this practice. We do not want to see politics left to only those with financial muscle. Let it become criminal for any politician to give money to voters, starting with the NRM primaries.

Why? It is the root cause of corruption and diversion of government resources. The politicians in the local government and at the national level who borrowed money or sold their property to join politics would always want to exploit any opportunity at their disposal to get back what they invested and, in the process, start soliciting bribes in Parliament. 

We heard the President warning the NRM leaders against bribing his officials to be included on the cabinet list. He warned that this would automatically lead to disqualification. This is because politicians know that once one is appointed minister, the chances of getting better returns are higher. The President gave an example of three MPs he arrested for soliciting bribes from civil servants who take their budgets to parliament for approval.

The President should ensure that any leader caught bribing voters should be immediately disqualified if the country wants to eliminate corruption. Let us see sanity return to our politics, where people will be voted for on pure merit and their manifesto, rather than offering money to the voters. We want to see leaders with good qualities coming up instead of those who use money to win elections. 

Although the President warned the new leaders against corruption, we fear that many of them are already part of the group that invested heavily in the campaigns and want to recover their money. We are sure that many of them are still stuck with debts they acquired during the campaigns. That is why they cried to the President during the Kyankwanzi leaders’ retreat for a bailout. Because the President acts like a parent with love and sympathy, he agreed to advance the MPs with sh20m each and promised to add sh80m after the swearing-in ceremony.

However, as supporters of the party in power, we feel uncomfortable about this because as soon as they take up office, the same MPs will be allocated fat allowances and a big salary. Already, there is a big budget to buy expensive cars for them. One wonders why the MPs need this money at this time. If they say they have debts, what did they spend money on,  other than bribing voters?

Giving bribes is against the law and is also against the ethical conduct of leaders. For our NRM leaders, everyone knows that this dents the name of our party and weakens our system.

The President should not, under any circumstances, spend money on MPs who are waiting to receive cash from Parliament because it is equivalent to double payment. That is why the public reacted, and many Ugandans are not happy about this because it is heartbreaking.  

During the NRA bush war, many people supported the war by giving free food, animals and other items to the fighters just because they wanted peace, no returns. Many sacrificed their lives and died for a good cause. However, instead of yearning to serve people, our leaders ask for bailouts. We would like to appeal to the President that, in the next political campaigns, he should find ways of reducing the element of money in politics. Bailing out politicians should also stop because it interferes with the President’s programme to fulfil his manifesto. He makes pledges that are never fulfilled. 

Take an example of Masuliita, where the President has been making pledges to construct roads and build modern health facilities, which have never been fulfilled. The only road from Kakiri to Masuliita and Mawale that was scheduled to be tarmacked has remained undone for years.

The free money that was given to MPs would be enough to complete this road. Our area is still lagging because of the liberation war, and our people are still stuck in poverty.  Coupled with the rampant lack of jobs, many people will do their best to borrow money and join politics, expecting to get profits. 

The other danger is that those occupying seats will never want to leave because of the attached financial gains and, therefore, will do their best to fight off their rivals. We have a live example of a politician who has represented a constituency for many years, stood down and switched to the East African Legislative Assembly. However, after completing the mandatory two terms, they switched back to the Parliament of Uganda through special interest groups, just because of the financial gains attached to serving in Parliament. We, therefore, fear that the free money given to MPs will bring negative consequences.

We are also concerned that our national budget is partly funded by donors, who may not be comfortable with getting information that the Government extravagantly spends on nonessential items, such as giving extra money to leaders at the expense of ordinary citizens.

The writer is an NRM supporter