I
heard on news in the electronic media that MPs accepted a bribe to agree that
there is no money that can be paid to teachers in th current financial
year. If this is not a rumour but gospel
truth, then the MPs who got the alleged shs 1,000,000 or so are a bunch of
idiots, and whoever raised this money to see it paid to them deserves no better
than being burnt alive the way thieves are treated by the locals these
days. Those who have education at all
have gone through the hands of teachers, it is sad that the plight of teachers
has been ignored by the NRM Government and instead the money that would go to see
them enjoy better pay has either been stolen or used to pay people in useless
administration positions and among other areas to see to the creation of an
exploitative middle class. It is sad,
but on the matter of teachers’ salaries, the NRM has proved a real
disappointment to Ugandans. I happen
to be a son of a father who through his active life was a teacher, but it is
basically the NRM administration where I have seen the pay of the teacher not
worth. If it had been one of those areas
NRM takes as priority, every Ministry budget would have had a cut to realize
their objective. What is most
unfortunate is that the NRM Government has never owned up to the increasing
depreciation of the currency, instead they are quick to tell those who can
believe them that the problems are world wide!
The
day when majority of the people of Uganda learn what the truth is in
life, may be the country will change for the better. The people continue to make decisions that
cannot help them, they should know the truth, and many times have been told the
truth about NRM leadership, given its deceit and how some of its cadres have
looted the country, these same people end up electing NRM in a variety of
positions and the country keeps sinking on and on. When a review is made of a number of
contracts made, when you see someone’s contract cancelled and he demands
billions that are later paid to him, you wonder why God cursed the would be
Pearl of Africa.
You
need to be a victim of the excesses of some of the people in NRM to appreciate
how rotten it is. In 1988, I made a
decision to join Nile Bank with the hope of moving to the top fast given that
we were so many graduates in Uganda Commercial Bank. Little did I know that I had made a life long
mistake! In 1990 about which time the
problems of power started, a gentleman and a businessman – Caeser Kakooza was
used by some people within Nile Bank with the possible knowledge of Richard
Kaijuka a former shareholder in the same bank and the then Minister of Energy
to open a Uganda Electricity Board account in the bank. One day, Kakooza presented a cheque solely
signed by himself, as the officer concerned with corporate accounts, I accessed
the account number and found all details correct, but had not been party to the
opening of the account up to the processing of the cheque book, and here I was
signing cheques on an account which some insiders knew was fake but had
authorized opening it. Shortly after
wards in the course of 1991 around Easter time, it was news to learn that Kakooza
had been caught opening a similar account in the then Cooperative bank; and
trust some people in Nile bank, the y panicked and saw the best was to send me
on an indefinite suspension, and I can tell you, I have never had opportunity
to tell court what happened but I lost my job and today from a banker I find
myself as an advocate of Good Governance.
My last blow was when the Late Abu Mayanja was Minister of Justice and
some closed cases were got back to courts of law. This case was one of those and some how I had
known about it and went to the Magistrates
Court at Mengo; little did I know that I was
wasting time. The case was got from the
court room it had been allocated and taken to another Magistrate, and when I
inquired, I was told that it had been postponed or what and I lost interest in
it. So, when some people say that in NRM
there are some mafia’s you just have to be a victim of these and accept.
I
am convinced that something could be done to alleviate the plight of the
teachers if only the Government had them at heart. Merely saying that increasing teachers pay
would lead to a circle of other civil servants demanding for pay is empty. If Government created the situation in which
the country is in to-date, it has to own up and do all in its mandate to better
the situation. As long as we have people
in Government who are after exploiting the others and hence taking away the
little that majority would share so that they enjoy lavish lives; a chain of
women and girl friends, we are doomed.
Common sense would dictate to our leaders that shs 200,000 paid to the
teachers now cannot even meet the requirements of one big vehicle of many of
the senior leaders in a few hours that vehicle runs on the road. If such a vehicle needs shs 100,000 in fuel
to travel to Kamuli from Kampala
what sense is in shs 200,000 when it is paid to a teacher who is paid full time
by Government? What is so absurd and I
will repeat it over and over is the insensitiveness of the NRM Government over
continued sponsoring of the so-called Government sponsored students. We are having a hello of problems with the
NRM simply because it has cadres who think they know and when you analyze what
they do it is empty. You now wonder
where a parent who serves Government in a dedicated way can get the money to
pay for tuition as Government lets the Government owned Universities charge
tuition and non-tuition fees as they wish to have the ends meet, where it has
failed to fund them as would be required, and instead Government continues with
a scheme that would long have been scrapped and replaced by an Educational loan
scheme.
As
for Uganda
we need to send a lot of prayers may be God will reconsider the country and
help us see change to take us a step further.
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