The temperature is rising
Feb 28, 2009
ON his recent travels in Arua, (he has always been a very travelling president, and latterly the tempo has magnified), President Museveni gave a clear-cut warning on wrongdoers and how they were going to be brought to book. There was no mistaking the stee
By John Nagend
ON his recent travels in Arua, (he has always been a very travelling president, and latterly the tempo has magnified), President Museveni gave a clear-cut warning on wrongdoers and how they were going to be brought to book. There was no mistaking the steel behind his words.
By coincidence or design the temperature has started rising in no uncertain manner.
Only this Wednesday, the headlines of the two main papers were announcing the arrest, for fraud, of three “bosses†(Vision), “top officials (Monitor) at the Ministry of Lands. Everybody I talked to had more or less the same rejoinder: “Why stop at three?!â€
Lands officials seem to have overtaken usurious money lenders on the hated list positioning, although my friends the lawyers are never far away.
When sharks turn around instead of biting lawyers in half at Australia’s Bondi beach, spectators are sometimes heard to remark: “It’s only professional etiquette!†(The opposite of dog eating dog.) Anyhow, President Museveni uttered and the heat went up, although, to be fair, the beginning had been before that trip. Was he prophet or enforcer? Certainly, as is the way of the world, the job will take some while, the more so to land really big fish (sharks again!).
The Auditor General had already put the Fear of God into many a citizen by unfurling his auditing net to start looking into government ministries and departments. How far will it spread?
His reputation is that he takes as long as it takes to finish what he starts! But in such crusades that’s how it should be done, and every little helps. He must increase his staff, and he and they must do all the sniffing and digging themselves, rather than leave that to the somewhat somnambulant agencies and firms currently doing the job for Government.
In most cases those are well geared towards not raising a fuss, or causing a mess, towards the officials in situ! I can’t wait for the new “guard-dogs†to start putting their fangs into notorious areas where funds always seem to disappear without trace.
Last week I asked the question of how much is paid when, for example, the Cricket ground at Lugogo is rented out by the NCS? Subsequently my head spun and continues spinning at being informed that a colossal half a billion shillings was paid by MTN as rent for the concert of B-40. Is this just Kampala rumour mongering? It can very quickly be checked out. If true, where did it all go?
When I asked my friends, and relatives, at the Uganda Cricket Association, they laughed so hard they fell off their chairs, and I joined in. But it is not so funny, if money meant to improve Sport in this country remains in the hands of thieving officials. It is not just at Lugogo (and, at Lugogo, B-40 was not a one-off gig); it is at many different venues, soccer being in the lead, that rumours circulate of vast amounts being stolen.
The very least that can be done is to seriously carry out proper investigation. You might be surprised at the number out there willing to give valuable information. After we regained our chairs I was further told a sizeable property in Luwero was snapped up by somebody for about 120 million soon after B-40. My informants ended cryptically: “If only chickens could talk!†It was a line to rival those in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous fictional sleuth: Sherlock Holmes. For reasons of space, we give the promised further entries on the Life and Times of Mr Aligawesa a small rest, but will not disappoint you for long.
*********
This column’s far from discreet love affair with President Obama, (ours not to ask whether it was returned!) soured somewhat when he proved mute at the Killings of Gaza. There was so much he could have achieved by a minimum amount of words. We know how much he has to attend to in his own backyard and all that, but we remain convinced he erred.
But at least he has dispatched his noteworthy Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, to go on her well-named Global Listening Tour. Not only listening: you can’t refuse that lady her share of talking! And by gum she intends to give the Israelis an earful on their scandalous behaviour towards the Gazans who survived their murderous attacks.
US Envoy George Mitchell says “Israel is not making enough efforts to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza.†(This is by blocking key supplies, including food and medicines, reaching the besieged city.) Coming from America to what it always calls its key friend in the region, these words, and what Secretary Clinton will add next week, are a keen rebuke to Israel. Arguably the strongest ones since those used, and not just once, by Secretary James Baker, back in ’89 – ’92 during the time of the elder George H.W. Bush. Perhaps President Obama works in mysterious ways his work to perform!
So does President Museveni. In Mbale this week on his grand Tour he is said to have called kingdoms outdated, backward and parochial, and “to be responsible for the crisis of under-development in Africa throughout the colonial and post colonial era.â€
By an acute irony, a recent study of such matters clearly shows that “kings†and suchlike have never been “re-discovered†and enthroned in such numbers in the lifetimes of even very old people like me. They are positively coming out of our ears.
What to do? Be Happy!
ON his recent travels in Arua, (he has always been a very travelling president, and latterly the tempo has magnified), President Museveni gave a clear-cut warning on wrongdoers and how they were going to be brought to book. There was no mistaking the steel behind his words.
By coincidence or design the temperature has started rising in no uncertain manner.
Only this Wednesday, the headlines of the two main papers were announcing the arrest, for fraud, of three “bosses†(Vision), “top officials (Monitor) at the Ministry of Lands. Everybody I talked to had more or less the same rejoinder: “Why stop at three?!â€
Lands officials seem to have overtaken usurious money lenders on the hated list positioning, although my friends the lawyers are never far away.
When sharks turn around instead of biting lawyers in half at Australia’s Bondi beach, spectators are sometimes heard to remark: “It’s only professional etiquette!†(The opposite of dog eating dog.) Anyhow, President Museveni uttered and the heat went up, although, to be fair, the beginning had been before that trip. Was he prophet or enforcer? Certainly, as is the way of the world, the job will take some while, the more so to land really big fish (sharks again!).
The Auditor General had already put the Fear of God into many a citizen by unfurling his auditing net to start looking into government ministries and departments. How far will it spread?
His reputation is that he takes as long as it takes to finish what he starts! But in such crusades that’s how it should be done, and every little helps. He must increase his staff, and he and they must do all the sniffing and digging themselves, rather than leave that to the somewhat somnambulant agencies and firms currently doing the job for Government.
In most cases those are well geared towards not raising a fuss, or causing a mess, towards the officials in situ! I can’t wait for the new “guard-dogs†to start putting their fangs into notorious areas where funds always seem to disappear without trace.
Last week I asked the question of how much is paid when, for example, the Cricket ground at Lugogo is rented out by the NCS? Subsequently my head spun and continues spinning at being informed that a colossal half a billion shillings was paid by MTN as rent for the concert of B-40. Is this just Kampala rumour mongering? It can very quickly be checked out. If true, where did it all go?
When I asked my friends, and relatives, at the Uganda Cricket Association, they laughed so hard they fell off their chairs, and I joined in. But it is not so funny, if money meant to improve Sport in this country remains in the hands of thieving officials. It is not just at Lugogo (and, at Lugogo, B-40 was not a one-off gig); it is at many different venues, soccer being in the lead, that rumours circulate of vast amounts being stolen.
The very least that can be done is to seriously carry out proper investigation. You might be surprised at the number out there willing to give valuable information. After we regained our chairs I was further told a sizeable property in Luwero was snapped up by somebody for about 120 million soon after B-40. My informants ended cryptically: “If only chickens could talk!†It was a line to rival those in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous fictional sleuth: Sherlock Holmes. For reasons of space, we give the promised further entries on the Life and Times of Mr Aligawesa a small rest, but will not disappoint you for long.
*********
This column’s far from discreet love affair with President Obama, (ours not to ask whether it was returned!) soured somewhat when he proved mute at the Killings of Gaza. There was so much he could have achieved by a minimum amount of words. We know how much he has to attend to in his own backyard and all that, but we remain convinced he erred.
But at least he has dispatched his noteworthy Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, to go on her well-named Global Listening Tour. Not only listening: you can’t refuse that lady her share of talking! And by gum she intends to give the Israelis an earful on their scandalous behaviour towards the Gazans who survived their murderous attacks.
US Envoy George Mitchell says “Israel is not making enough efforts to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza.†(This is by blocking key supplies, including food and medicines, reaching the besieged city.) Coming from America to what it always calls its key friend in the region, these words, and what Secretary Clinton will add next week, are a keen rebuke to Israel. Arguably the strongest ones since those used, and not just once, by Secretary James Baker, back in ’89 – ’92 during the time of the elder George H.W. Bush. Perhaps President Obama works in mysterious ways his work to perform!
So does President Museveni. In Mbale this week on his grand Tour he is said to have called kingdoms outdated, backward and parochial, and “to be responsible for the crisis of under-development in Africa throughout the colonial and post colonial era.â€
By an acute irony, a recent study of such matters clearly shows that “kings†and suchlike have never been “re-discovered†and enthroned in such numbers in the lifetimes of even very old people like me. They are positively coming out of our ears.
What to do? Be Happy!