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OPINION

By Opiyo Oloya

In a letter to the Attorney General, that was described by State House as FAKE, President Yoweri Museveni reportedly wrote: “I have been following the public debate on the service awards apparently given to the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament and what you call backbench parliamentary commissioners in May 2022.

A total of sh1,700,000,000 (One billion, seven hundred million) was shared between Hon. Mathias Mpuuga and the three NRM-nominated commissioners. Were you aware of these ‘awards’? Or the Attorney General does not need to know about this. If you were aware, did you advise that it was legal?”

The President asks rhetorically, “When we are struggling to find money for roads, electricity and other sectors that bring value into our economy?”

Let us assume the letter was true; Perhaps the better question the President should have asked is,

“Why is Uganda struggling to find money for our roads, electricity and other sectors that bring value into our economy?”....

Framed this way, the answers that come out are more honest. For one, yes, Uganda is one of the richest countries on continental Africa, blessed with good weather, soil and a hardworking population not afraid to get dirty to get the job done. On paper according to a paper released by the Economic Policy Research Centre in 2021, as many as 8.3 million Ugandans (22% of the population) are classified as middle-class.

Yet here is a reality check. Uganda’s middle class comprises “people whose per capita daily consumption expenditure is between $2-$20 (sh7,300-sh73,000) in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms”.

Translation: These folks at least can afford something to eat at the end of the day, but do not have much money left for everything else, including the improvement of the family.

In fact, Uganda is increasingly becoming a country of the rich One-Percenters and the Ninety-Niners who struggle every day to scrounge, subsist, and survive on the barest resources.

Some of the One-Percenters know extreme luxury, wealth and avarice. Their leisurely waking moment is filled with looking for ideas of things to do to stave off boredom.

The question is not whether there is food for lunch, but where to go for lunch, which swankiest or most popular restaurant or café to hang out at. Flying out of the country for a few days is not a huge decision, rather to which destination — Dubai, Paris or South Africa is the question.

The case in point is the recent report of extravagant graduation prom in Kampala and Entebbe. Elegantly attired young prom attendees arrived in choppers and late-model limousines for an evening of wanton partying and good time.

Members of Parliaments being given service awards worth billions of shillings is all part of this same self-dealing. The list is endless and, thankfully, the President has taken notice.

For the Ninety-Niners, tomorrow is as dark as the night before. They work and live in the moment, trapped in ever biting poverty. Indeed, the very education some privileged youth celebrate in style is becoming unaffordable for most Ugandan children.

To put it another way, schools upcountry, especially in northern and eastern Uganda are simply shut out of the celebration of success in the PLE, and these have direct cross-over effects on the Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) and Uganda Advanced Certificate Education (UACE). The bleak results from these areas speak for themselves.

The Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) results for 2023 released early this year, for example, illustrated vividly that children coming from homes with money tend to do better. According to Uganda National Examination Board (UNEB) as many as 88,269 2023 PLE candidates were ungraded.

In simple language, these candidates failed to reach the minimum level of performance to be awarded at least a division Four, and as such were ineligible for admission to Senior One.

The parade of failing districts with students receiving U grades include Kibuku (31.5%), Madi Okollo (31.5%), Dokolo (28.9%), Kween (28.4%) and Namisindwa (28.9%). In fact, many of the districts with at least 20% scoring Division U grades are in the Acholi, Lango and Teso sub-regions.

Yes, children continue to stream to publicly funded schools every day. Moreover, publicly paid teachers are in those schools. But lacking the resources, including textbooks and other essential scholastic material required to perform well in the various state-wide exams, the in places considered as backwaters of the country have nowhere to go.

The inequality in education is a symptom of a larger problem. Uganda cannot afford the basics the President often talks about — good roads, hospitals, and schools because expensive self-indulgence folks continue to empty the public coffers to sustain their lifestyles.

For example, how many publicly funded “government vehicles” are out there, and how much money does the country spend each year servicing and putting fuel into these vehicles? Now how many of these government vehicles do demonstrably public-related work every single day? One story best illustrates this waste and looting of public coffers.

Somewhere in an upcountry town there is a government-owned generator which has not functioned for the last two to three years, yet the concerned ministry continues to spend millions of shillings every month on fuel to run it. How much of this story is true of the billions that continue to flow from public funds?

Simply, if the President is truly serious about fighting the waste and corruption, let us start from the beginning — let there be a thorough accounting of every government asset and property paid for by public funds.

How many ministry-owned vehicles are running around the country doing private business on publicly funded fuel and service cost? Even better, how many government assets are currently not working, yet the concerned ministry continues to pay for fuel and service fees for the asset?

Somewhat like the current ongoing census, the President must order a complete accounting of all government property, so that Ugandans can finally figure out where the largest haemorrhage of public funds is happening. Who is spending public money on non-productive and inconsequential endeavours? Where are all the public funds going?

Looking into and doing something about the bloated service awards that is giving billions of free public monies to a few is a start, but it does not get to the heart of what is happening to the country. Without an accounting review, Uganda will continue to drift like a directionless vessel, buffeted by the winds of inflation, bitten by the mosquitoes of poverty and, yes, abandoned like chaff on a garbage heap.

Opiyo.oloya@gmail.com Twitter: @Opiyooloya Dr Opiyo Oloya is the Inaugural Associate Vice-President, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) at Western University, London, Ontario, Canada