My appointment: God's timing is always the best
WARNING: This is a very personal article and if you are allergic to issues of a personal nature in a column, then you better not read beyond this. One of my favourite poets, T.S Elliot— of Murder in the Cathedral fame — said "the moment foreseen is [often] unexpected when it arrives."
Mary Karooro Okurut
WARNING: This is a very personal article and if you are allergic to issues of a personal nature in a column, then you better not read beyond this. One of my favourite poets, T.S Elliot— of Murder in the Cathedral fame — said "the moment foreseen is [often] unexpected when it arrives."
This is what yours truly felt when news filtered in that it had pleased His Excellency the President to appoint me Minister of Information and National Guidance.
I was never your quintessential politician; having been more of an academician lecturing at Makerere University, a writer and public servant. After a lull of a decade, (I had earlier unsuccessfully contested in the Constituent Assembly race) I re-entered the political race rather unexpectedly through a by-election in February 2004. It followed the very unfortunate death of Bernadette Bigirwa the then Woman Member of Parliament for Bushenyi District.
At the time I was serving as Press Secretary to the President. So I had to resign the comfort zone of a public service job (which I was enjoying immensely) and enter the rather unpredictable domain of competitive politics where nothing can ever be taken for granted. I dived in right at the deep end and man, did I swim!
Thanks to the generous support of the NRM and the goodwill of my people of Bushenyi, I was able to make it. But if at all I had ever thought life would be easy after that, I was mistaken. Problem was that I had become known as the custodian of information regarding the presidency and in many ways, the President’s voice.
That inevitably raised the expectations of many Ugandans probably far too high, because as far as they were concerned, that was a one-way ticket to a ministerial position now that I was a Member of Parliament. But with every new Cabinet or reshuffle thereof, my name was nowhere on the list.
For me it was never a disappointment in the sense that some may assume; for I am aware that ministers serve at the President’s pleasure, and choosing who to include in his cabinet is always a huge headache for any president. Thank God Mzee is not the kind of person who works under pressure; but rather makes decisions depending – not on what is populist – but on what is appropriate and right for the country at that time.
Equally of import is the fact that I am a very spiritual person; and a firm believer in the Good Book.
That means I believe in such a thing as the right timing – from God’s point of view. The Bible is full of evidence that the Lord will not be rushed into anything before His time for it has come.
The Lord, in His wisdom, chose this as the time for it; and God’s timing is the best.
So when I received news of my appointment as Minister of Information and National Guidance, naturally and understandably I felt honoured and humbled but also grateful that the President had showed confidence in me. But any temptations at over-excitement was tempered or assuaged by the knowledge of the heavy and sobering responsibility that this particular ministry carries with it.
Had I been the kind of person who views being in Cabinet as a great opportunity to celebrate and relax that I have ‘arrived’ this would have been precisely the wrong time for me to enter into the fray.
Reason is that the various goings-on globally and nationally at this time make the information docket vital at such a time as this.
The stability of a nation, inter alia, hinges on how well it manages its information. Government has a duty – through both public and private media and the established governance structures - to keep the citizens well informed on what it is doing. That enables and empowers the citizens to make decisions from an informed perspective.
But in turn, Government must position itself to monitor and receive information from the citizenry so as to make citizen-focused decisions in exercising state power and allocating national resources.
It is my hope and commitment that during my tenure, I shall uphold this important canon of governance. In addition I will steer clear of the temptation to take on a reactive, fire-fighting approach to the management of information; preferring a proactive, reach-out stance, over and above maintaining an open-door, phone-on policy towards the media and the general public.
To do my work well I will expect plenty of cooperation and understanding from my friends of the media fraternity and indeed the general public.
They should understand that the Ministry of Information is bigger than the minister and that it is comprised of various structures each of which has an important role to play in the collection, dissemination and management of information.
At this particular point in time the management of the information sector will contribute to the making or unmaking of our nation. That means we all have a duty to work together to use information in a way that builds the nation.
In this regard I’ll end by borrowing from Martin Luther King Jr’s famous admonition to America in 1964: “We should learn to live together as brothers or perish together as foolsâ€.
marykarooro@parliament.go.ug
WARNING: This is a very personal article and if you are allergic to issues of a personal nature in a column, then you better not read beyond this. One of my favourite poets, T.S Elliot— of Murder in the Cathedral fame — said "the moment foreseen is [often] unexpected when it arrives."
This is what yours truly felt when news filtered in that it had pleased His Excellency the President to appoint me Minister of Information and National Guidance.
I was never your quintessential politician; having been more of an academician lecturing at Makerere University, a writer and public servant. After a lull of a decade, (I had earlier unsuccessfully contested in the Constituent Assembly race) I re-entered the political race rather unexpectedly through a by-election in February 2004. It followed the very unfortunate death of Bernadette Bigirwa the then Woman Member of Parliament for Bushenyi District.
At the time I was serving as Press Secretary to the President. So I had to resign the comfort zone of a public service job (which I was enjoying immensely) and enter the rather unpredictable domain of competitive politics where nothing can ever be taken for granted. I dived in right at the deep end and man, did I swim!
Thanks to the generous support of the NRM and the goodwill of my people of Bushenyi, I was able to make it. But if at all I had ever thought life would be easy after that, I was mistaken. Problem was that I had become known as the custodian of information regarding the presidency and in many ways, the President’s voice.
That inevitably raised the expectations of many Ugandans probably far too high, because as far as they were concerned, that was a one-way ticket to a ministerial position now that I was a Member of Parliament. But with every new Cabinet or reshuffle thereof, my name was nowhere on the list.
For me it was never a disappointment in the sense that some may assume; for I am aware that ministers serve at the President’s pleasure, and choosing who to include in his cabinet is always a huge headache for any president. Thank God Mzee is not the kind of person who works under pressure; but rather makes decisions depending – not on what is populist – but on what is appropriate and right for the country at that time.
Equally of import is the fact that I am a very spiritual person; and a firm believer in the Good Book.
That means I believe in such a thing as the right timing – from God’s point of view. The Bible is full of evidence that the Lord will not be rushed into anything before His time for it has come.
The Lord, in His wisdom, chose this as the time for it; and God’s timing is the best.
So when I received news of my appointment as Minister of Information and National Guidance, naturally and understandably I felt honoured and humbled but also grateful that the President had showed confidence in me. But any temptations at over-excitement was tempered or assuaged by the knowledge of the heavy and sobering responsibility that this particular ministry carries with it.
Had I been the kind of person who views being in Cabinet as a great opportunity to celebrate and relax that I have ‘arrived’ this would have been precisely the wrong time for me to enter into the fray.
Reason is that the various goings-on globally and nationally at this time make the information docket vital at such a time as this.
The stability of a nation, inter alia, hinges on how well it manages its information. Government has a duty – through both public and private media and the established governance structures - to keep the citizens well informed on what it is doing. That enables and empowers the citizens to make decisions from an informed perspective.
But in turn, Government must position itself to monitor and receive information from the citizenry so as to make citizen-focused decisions in exercising state power and allocating national resources.
It is my hope and commitment that during my tenure, I shall uphold this important canon of governance. In addition I will steer clear of the temptation to take on a reactive, fire-fighting approach to the management of information; preferring a proactive, reach-out stance, over and above maintaining an open-door, phone-on policy towards the media and the general public.
To do my work well I will expect plenty of cooperation and understanding from my friends of the media fraternity and indeed the general public.
They should understand that the Ministry of Information is bigger than the minister and that it is comprised of various structures each of which has an important role to play in the collection, dissemination and management of information.
At this particular point in time the management of the information sector will contribute to the making or unmaking of our nation. That means we all have a duty to work together to use information in a way that builds the nation.
In this regard I’ll end by borrowing from Martin Luther King Jr’s famous admonition to America in 1964: “We should learn to live together as brothers or perish together as foolsâ€.
marykarooro@parliament.go.ug