Dishonor to Parliament
The
many years of our tribulation as a nation should have taught us to indulge in
politics with integrity. Understandably, history has not taught us and we
illustrate utter contempt to learn from history. Clearly, events of 2012 that
are spilling over to 2013 need us to pay keen attention to our situations
especially in Parliament. I am in particular concerned with the performance of
the deputy speaker of Parliament, Hon. Jacob Oulanya and callous characters like Pius Bigirimana.
I have resisted the temptation to comment on the impunity engulfing the office of the Prime Minister, especially the objectionable position taken by the Permanent Secretary, Mr. Pius Bigirimana that he is a whistleblower. As the accounting officer in the ministry, the PS cannot be a whistleblower. The evidence available from the Auditor General’s report indicates that he personally approved several transactions worth billions of shillings.
Practically, the PS cannot be a whistleblower because he is part of the mechanism of the fraud that occurred in the OPM. Mr. Bigirimana should be treated as a suspect. It would be more understandable if a junior officer reported the alleged thefts and fraud to Bigirimana himself as the person in authority. You cannot authorize theft, preside over it for a long time and then become a whistleblower. That is called outright incompetence or negligence of duty and he should be punished or be dismissed with disgrace from public service.
The Bigirmana kind of impunity is widespread in the NRM government and it has been socially normalized through patronage. People in authority do not take full responsibility for their actions. This dishonesty is a cover up for incompetence or an act of showing outright contempt for the will of the voters. It only makes us appear of less intellect when all we do is to vehemently deny the obvious.
Hon. Oulanya, a relatively new comer in the yellow bus, has taken to act like the original twenty-seven rogues if his many transgressions were to be scrutinized. He is showing utter contempt for civilized parliamentary decorum and acting like parliament is part of Executive.
Hon. Oulanya always steps in to do all the dirty works of the NRM regime for which the speaker has seen no logic in pursuing. For instance, he worked tirelessly to pass the illicit supplementary budget 2012; he presided over the approval of Hon. Nantaba as state minister for land and his performance during the Oil Bill with its illogical clause 9 truly painted Hon. Oulanya in bad lights. What has inspired this article are twofold; one to ensure that Oulanya is reminded of the dishonest path he is pursuing, for instance in 2005, he chaired that parliamentary legal committee that recommended the removal of term limits from our constitution through bribery and; to put it before him, that he is bringing disrepute and ridicule to the office of the speaker of parliament and to the legislature, a significant branch of government that should act independently.
In recent interview with the CID boss, Hon. Oulanya is purported to have denied any knowledge of who hired the forensic pathologist, Dr Onzivua to investigate the cause of the death of Hon Cerina Nebanda. Evidences available show clearly that the office of the Speaker is fully aware of its relations with the pathologist. It was also reported in the media that Hon. Oulanya vowed not to preside over the emergency session should MPs fulfill the 125 signatures required for legal recall. This kind of attitude only illustrate that Hon. Oulanya is a man who has lost the most significant attributes of integrity and good conscience required for independently executing duties in the office of the Speaker of Parliament.
The political implication is that Hon. Oulanya is not for independence of Parliament but to lap dance to the tunes of the President. It is obvious that Hon. Oulanya is no longer serving the interest of his constituents or that of Parliament in its pursuit of just laws and policies in Uganda. Clearly Hon. Oulanya is more engrossed with the whispers of the President or NRM at the expense of the people of Omoro County and Ugandans. This is why questioning his priorities should serve to awaken his consciousness to the plight of taxpayers.
Ugandans are losing patience with dishonest leaders like Oulanya. This is not the Oulanya we emulated and looked up to for guidance a while ago. If the MPs cannot question the dishonorable acts of Hon. Oulanya, we the taxpayers will. The bigger question here is, can the MPs remove Hon. Oulanya as speaker for bringing hatred, ridicule, contempt and disrepute to the office of the speaker? This is an avenue that should be pursued seriously.
END
Quite true though puzzling for a right thinking human being. Public servants filled with greed and impunity trash honesty, integrity, humility and rule of law for selfish reasons to manipulate issues to befit what their fellow self centred bosses think. This is yet to continue unless the ruling regime accepts to walk the talk that are always beautifully put in black and white, but the contrary is done in times of program implementations.The CSO are trying to sensitize the poor populations that are always misinformed, but the coverage is still limited to the elite population that are the minority. Unless our public leaders and servants stand for just courses and work for the good of a common citizen, we are still going to face the worse in public service provision, and eventual poverty escalation; which is why we may not see the differences between the over 2.5 decade's rule from the current regime and famous Amin's state mismanagement or most criticized Obote's reign.
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