OFWONO OPNDO: Minister Lugoloobi; please man up, carry your own cross

Various media outlets this week carried State Minister for Finance in charge of Planning, Amos Lugoloobi’s foul cry that his colleagues, Matia Kasaija, and Henry Musasizi at the finance ministry, and others who reportedly also irregularly benefitted from the Karamoja iron-sheets bonanza in 2022 are not being prosecuted in the courts of law.

While Lugoloobi’s frustration, even bitterness is understandable, many think that he has been treated fairly, after all, he is still on the ministerial bench and payroll on a public purse that enables him to pay some of his legal costs.

Ugandans are now used to accused persons, their relatives and friends crying foul that they are being targeted in witch-hunt every time, would be accomplices go scot-free, as was the case in Global Fund and Gavi under the health ministry a decade ago, Chandi Jamwa in the NSSF scam, and Gilbert Bukenya, the former Vice President, now senior presidential advisor on Environment. Mary Goretti Kitutu and Agnes Nandutu, formerly of the Karamoja docket, may actually be envious or silently smattering in suppressed anger, that while they were shown the cabinet exit door and perks removed, you, Lugoloobi, has been to-date been retained on the frontbench.

And imagine what the civil servants serving under you are thinking because when they err, get caught, and charged in a court of law, interdiction is automatic and prompt. Well, two different laws, for elected MPs, and another for the civil servants, for the same offence, and which ought to be changed. So, Amos Lugoloobi, don’t cry loudly because there is always a black sheep in the flock, and as the old adage goes, “every dog has its own day”.

See, in parliament, recently, only the fivesome of Michael Maranga Mawanda, Cissy Namujju, Yusuf Mutembuli, Paul Akamba, and Ignatius Mudimi were caught in a web of alleged corruption in war compensation for the defunct Co-operative Unions. Others were in dubious dealings, and attempts to extort from the chairperson of the Human Rights Commission (UHRC) Marriam Wangadya, yet many MPs are rumoured to be in the habit of accosting government Accounting Officers for money.

And likewise, only Geoffrey Kazinda, Christopher Obey, Oloka Apila, Stephen Mukasa Nkusa, and then Permanent Secretary Jimmy Lwamafa were got in the 2010 in the Office of the Prime Minister, and Pension scams in the Public Service Ministry respectively. 88.2bn Nkusa, Obey, and Apila have been called by God while their colleagues are still enjoying things of the earthly world, and we have no means of knowing if the dead are unhappy that only they were treated unfairly. Obey died as Inmate NO.MBP 3705/18 on 2 July 2021 at Mulago hospital where Luzira prison authorities where he was serving a 24-year sentence had taken him.

Nkusa, Obey, and Apila have since been called by God while their colleagues are still enjoying things of the earthly world, and there is no means of knowing if the dead are unhappy that only they could have been treated unfairly. Recently too, only Mathias Mpuuga, the MP for Nyendo-Mukungwe and former Leader of Opposition Parliament (LoP) is paying the political price for the 500m service award by parliament, although all the five commissioners received the backhand payment. His party, the National Unity Platform has ejected him from its ranks and now in the wilderness, although he does not, as yet, see it that way.

Most current, Geraldine Ssali, the now disgraced former Permanent Secretary at the ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives was arrested, and is being prosecuted for the scam involving the some of the foursome MPs above. The former PS ministry of Agriculture, although caught, his case was handled quietly, got dismissed, and is now, through the Inspectorate of Government, been compelled to back the money he had stolen.

Authored by OFWONO OPNDO, the government spokesman