The headline screamed “Former Speakers of Parliament get brand new Cars” hardly eighteen months after another one had been smacked in our face, “Shs 2.4 Billion for Speaker and Deputy’s cars is not expensive.”
This got me thinking deeply about the kind of cretins behind such decisions fully dressed up claiming to be human biologicals with sane minds.
Some dullard at the Parliament was quoted as saying, “the recent procurement of cars for the office of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker at the cost of Shs 2.4 billion will save the country money…We have benzes, we have these cars in parliament, but repairing them alone when they break down costs too much. You take the car to the garage and you spend Shs 40m hence cumulatively you would have spent more than one who has bought a new car. So that was also the basis of buying these cars.”
This led me to reflect on not only the statements from the Director of Communication at the Parliament of Uganda but also those aligned with his mindset that saw through this directive. How shameless can such individuals be? What is the purpose of a car for a public official? Transport from one location to another, period!!! Not a jacuzzi, mobile bar or a statement of arrival. You want extras, buy from your own money.
I am an avid watcher of the National Geographic Channel but I have found animals in the wild like Gorillas and Elephants to be much more considerate than these excuses of human beings.
You wonder how cars worth the construction of a serious Health Centre III in Butaleja district can be prioritized over the plight of the unwashed masses out there who have been subjected to existing and not living; the plight of children that cannot access basic study facilities in schools; the plight of hunger stricken Karamojong who only get a breather when men of God like Pastor Kayanja choose to mobilise the faithful to feed them; the plight of the elderly who have got no safety net for existence and are left to seek for an early appointment with God etc.
As we make an effort to recover from this, another shocker of buying cars for all Ex Speakers of Parliament complete with a government chauffeur, fuel supply, Car maintenance and replacement every five years is announced for all and sundry to see.
Do you bigots spoiling the name of public servants comprehend the asininity you are trying to drive this country into? Using any opportunity to unnecessarily create exorbitant expenses for the tax payer just because you deem it fit to have a few temporarily purple blooded individuals lead lives of luxury while leaving the rest wallowing in poverty?
The other day I drove through the constituency of the Speaker of Parliament but was very disappointed when I compared the opulence exhibited by her in comparison to the lives being led by her voters. The housing alone for the average homestead reminded me of the Butaleja of 1980. Rickety mud and wattle enclosures that can pass for goat sheds in many other places but when you see their Member of Parliament speaking like she is larger than life, you realise that some people have morphed through the Marslow’s hierarchy of needs in a topsy-turvy (kifuula nnenge) manner hence doing things in an inverted manner.
Today, it is an open secret that the economy is tight, very tight. Belt tightening is everywhere thanks to the global economic downturn and the dwindling of funds from countries that are not happy with our country’s stand on homosexuality.
I am one of those that are happy that we have this tightness coming up because most of the so called donor money was actually being siphoned away to fund opulent lifestyles of a favoured few and some Johnny come lately elites.
The taxation net is widening on a daily but the extravagant expenditures of public officials are not being checked. Revenue shortfalls are being announced and the Uganda Revenue Authority is being put to task to squeeze our gonads to ensure that there is money to spend on such flamboyance.
You may achieve your objectives in the short run but remember, a time comes when your baloney will hit a dead end and the masses you have taken for a ride for so long into thinking that they will be your spare tire every other day will simply sit back and refuse to kowtow in your pohoo (in Hon. Mbidde’s words).
The time is coming when sane and exposed brains shall find their way into those public offices and this country shall be spared the loose bowels you are exposing it to. We are keenly watching as you build new Parliamentary chambers, some day we shall have the kind exchanges therein that were common place in the Roman Empire’s senate hence restoring the sanctity of our August house that is slowly being turned into a Kwepicha House.
I sign off by quoting Harry Truman, “Public office is a privilege, not a right.”
James Wire
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The Wire Perspective 