Bichaci, there is power in being modest

By Judith Nabakooba

I want to take off some time to counter some of the guidance provided by Odoobo Bichachi in his regular column in the Daily Monitor regarding the regular Presidential addresses and specifically the President's monthly donation of sh1.4m towards the COVID-19 response.

For the record, the President earns a gross of about sh3.6m and recently joined other givers by donating 50% of his salary after-tax deductions to the National Task Force.

In his guidance to one of the readers on May 1, 2020, Bichachi falls short on a number of areas that I would like to challenge. By trying to compare the President's salary to the rest of his emoluments, Bichachi is trying to imply that the President should have given more towards the national cause.

Secondly, going ahead to evaluate how many testing kits can sh1.4m buy is an attempt to trivialise the President's donation and misses the actual context that has enabled Uganda to succeed where many countries are struggling.

First, let us remind ourselves about a few basic facts, the President's salary is a fixed amount that he actually takes away every month, emoluments are benefits that given to facilitate the office of His Excellency the President.

Our President is a very honest and modest person and the pursuit of personal riches using public resources has never been his calling in life. For more than five years from 1989 up to 1996 he was earning a mere sh150,000. Against his wishes, in 1997, he was given a salary raise of up to sh3.6m a rate that he has maintained up to today.

His argument then which hasn't changed up to today was that scientists needed to be considered first when it comes to salary increments. This, however, should not be taken to mean that historians or even sociologists and others are of no use to the country; I will come back to this issue on another day.

Last year, on July 30, the Daily Monitor covered the story when His Excellency requested for a five months' salary advance of about sh19m for personal reasons, of course, everyone is entitled to use their salary as they wish.

Now today many people who do not understand our President are usually quick to think that being President gives you unrestricted access to state coffers. I don't think a President with unrestricted access would take off time to ask for a salary advance. The moral in this is that modesty is priceless, a virtue that all leaders should strive to emulate at all times.

The President always reminds us of this service above self and how it always inspires him every day in his leadership. It is this modesty that enabled the NRM/NRA government to win the support of the communities during the liberation wars in Luwero and other fronts.

Many times when the editor gets the context wrong, it is almost impossible to guide the rest of the team towards the desired quality that is expected of a newspaper or even a given story. The current success with the COVID-19 response draws inspiration from the virtues that informed the liberation struggles in the past; masses rising up to the call of liberation, donating whatever was in their means towards the struggle.

At the start of the current struggle against COVID-19, His Excellency the President called upon everyone to play their part in ensuring that the country wins. We have seen people donating bars of soap, others millions of shillings, vehicles at so on. It would be morally wrong for anyone to evaluate individual donations on a public scale in an effort to establish who gave more or less.

COVID-19 presents special circumstances and publishers all over the world are challenged to aspire to higher values in order to ensure that the spirit of giving and for our case "obuntu bulaamu" is not lost. The President's donation, therefore, needs to be understood and referenced against the larger movement of givers, frontline heroes, and heroines in health, security etc, who are doing whatever they can to ensure that we all win.

On this day as we celebrate World Press Freedom Day, allow me to thank the media fraternity for the outstanding job in informing and educating the masses about the COVID-19 national response. A lot of journalists sacrifice every day to ensure that people have the right information on how to stay healthy and prevent any possible transmission of COVID-19.  

The government of Uganda led by His Excellency the President has been outstanding in providing a conducive environment for the media industry to strive. I want to challenge all of us in the media never to forget what makes us strong and unique as a nation. There is strength in being modest and humble, let us not trivialise modesty. This is the lesson that I believe His Excellency would like us to reflect about.

The writer is the Minister for ICT and National Guidance