Bishop Dr. D. Zac Niringiye, a theologian and pastor and a civic-political activist, has said that if corruption was stopped today, President Museveni’s government would collapse.
He was Tuesday morning discussing the question: “Can the Anti-Corruption walk yield anything?” alongside deputy Inspector General of Government [IGG] George Bamugemereire.
Host: Do you feel inspired to walk with the President to denounce corruption?
Niringiye: How did we get to the level of the President becoming an activist? We had the Black Monday where we were walking against corruption. We were arrested, beaten and teargassed.
He said the government has totally, reliably and completely failed to deal with corruption and that the biggest issue of corruption is greed.
According to Zac, the nature of corruption is the abuse of office or use of public office for private gain.
“When you do a demonstration, you have an audience to which you are demonstrating. You hope the duty bearer will recognise your efforts. Who does President Museveni hope will notice him because he is mobilising the entire government to do this?”
He said corruption today is the government. “Does the government need to amplify its voice? It is the citizens who need to do this.”
According to Zac, the President using his office to change the constitution, to remove the Age Limit and distribute money to stay in power is the ultimate corruption.
He said the general gain of Museveni is to stay in power for as long as he can and that the President knows who the corrupt individuals are.
“He has put them on the spot before. This is an exercise on the treadmill walking to nowhere. This part of the narrative is deceptive and that has been part of the NRM story. Take away corruption and this government will collapse.”
Zac said corruption is a political problem and it is everywhere.
“This walk is political. The corruption in this country isn’t because we lack process, institutions and laws. It is a political leadership problem.”
Bamugemereire, on the other hand, said this year, Ugandans are privileged that the President has come up with the idea of rallying the whole government to come together on one agenda item.
“We have also opened up the whole exercise to the public to join in solidarity with the government under the theme, “a corruption-free Uganda starts with me”.
He said every issue, however, sanitized gets politicized because this activity is non-political.
“What we are trying to do here is create public awareness. We are now entering a new phase where we all want to commit to ending corruption.” According to Bamugemereire, the Wednesday anti-corruption walk, which Museveni is leading, is just one of the many tools in the toolbox.
“It is the NRM government that came up with the fight against corruption in one of its 10 Point programs.”
He added: “We have laws, institutions and personnel. The next phase is to get citizens on board.edge
