30 June 2016

Politicians should tame their greed



The craze for ministerial placements in this country seems to have gone to many people’s heads. Just as the nation was trying to get to terms with the unceasing lobbying or demand by different communities to influence President Museveni to appoint their sons or daughters as ministers, a development bordering on comedy crops up.






This paper yesterday carried a screaming headline; Man cons MPs over Cabinet jobs. The narrative goes that a cunning man went around meeting unsuspecting but credulous politicians, promising to help them scoop a ministerial position. For his ‘generous’ efforts, he would ask his excited ministerial hopefuls to part with between Shs1 million and Shs5 million. From the look of things, this could be just the tip of the iceberg.






But what explains the obsession with being included in Cabinet in this country? There could be many answers but greed, selfishness and laziness can’t be ruled out.






The tragedy bedeviling this country is that politics has generally been commercialised. Today, many people are in politics or consider joining it as the easiest and surest way of making quick money. Therefore, they will invest whatever resource, for instance, drain their bank accounts, sell their houses, land, vehicles or worse, borrow huge amount of loans from banks or money sharks for their political pursuits. Why would, for example, an election be turned into a matter of life and death affair?






Do we still wonder why following the recently concluded elections, courts have continued to kick out lawmakers from Parliament over lack of qualifications, ballot stuffing, vote rigging, forgery, etc?
The naming of a very large Cabinet consisting of a whopping 81 ministers some of whose credentials is loyalty or historical links to the system, has not helped the scramble for Cabinet placement. This shouldn’t be the direction to take. People should be appointed on the basis of their competence.






Still, the big question is, what happened to the patriotic principle of serving the country in whatever capacity – as a teacher, farmer, lawyer, and businessman/woman, among others? Greed.






Why should politicians push to reap where they did not sow in terms of working hard to earn money or status? Greed. None wants to hear former American president John F. Kennedy’s challenging remarks: “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”.






Our leaders should learn to tame their greed, or this country is headed for disaster.






The issue: Cabinet craze
Our view: Still the big question is, what happened to the patriotic principle of serving the country in whatever capacity – as a teacher, farmer, lawyer, and businessman/woman, among others? Greed.






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