Wonder Not Whether Museveni’s Cabinet Will Perform – It is the Context, Surely!

Frederick Golooba-Mutebi

5 June 2011

editorial

Nairobi — After weeks of media speculation and punditry, during which ministers and aspiring ministers must have suffered acute anxiety over who was going, staying or coming in, President Yoweri Museveni finally named the people who hopefully will help him run the country.

The hopes expressed in the previous sentence stem from listening several times over the years to what has become something of a conventional wisdom among sections of Museveni watchers, local and non-local: He does a lot of what ministers are supposed to do for them, and mostly ignores his large army of advisors who, as a result, are technically unemployed much of the time.

Indeed, it is said that the reason Uganda has such a large number of ministers, one of the largest in the world, and dozens of presidential advisors, is not because they are all needed for their skills, capacity and experience.

Rather, it is because the appointment of some of them helps the president achieve peculiar political and social ends.

The political ends are manifest in appointing “representatives” of groups that must be rewarded for a whole range of reasons, including voting consistently for the president and the NRM, or deserting the opposition and starting to “vote wisely”.

The importance of these appointments can be read from three common phenomena: Group celebrations, ministerial appointments and reshuffles spark off across the country as communities fete their daughters’ or sons’ good fortunes; protests voiced by groups who feel they have not been “given” the portfolios they deserve; and representations to the president by groups who feel disgruntled because “our children are not appointed ministers yet they are ministerial material”.

It is the real stuff of what those with a knack for labelling things, christened “big-man politics”.

The social ends side of things is just as deeply embedded in the way Ugandan society lives and functions. Having many jobs to hand out allows the president to take care of different types of people.

First, there are those who at strategic moments attach themselves to him and make themselves useful in one way or another, and then wait to be rewarded.

Kampala’s former mayor, Al-Hajji Nasser Ntege Ssebaggala, who recently claimed the official mayoral residence as part of his retirement package, earned himself a nomination as minister without portfolio for his role as Museveni’s gofer during the last presidential campaigns.

Not too long ago, someone who should know told me a story about one chap who, having picked up a rumour that he would be removed from the position he occupied at the time, ran off in a panic to meet the president.

As soon as he was granted audience, he broke down and allowed his tears to flow freely. How would he and his family survive, and how would he send his children to school if his job was taken away? he sobbed. The narrator wanted to use the story to illustrate how generous Museveni could be. Apparently touched by the spectacle before him, he gave the man another job.

And, as in the past, Uganda is once again saddled with another huge number of ministers. It was inevitable. According to the national electoral commission’s figures, during the recent elections all regions united behind Museveni for the first time since he started running for office. So elated was he that during his swearing-in ceremony he spoke of the “political maturity” of Ugandans.

And so our maturity has given us a huge “cabinet of national unity”.

The more interesting thing is that alongside the reward brigade are really inspired choices. Some commentators have used them to conclude that this is Museveni’s best cabinet.

They look at the new Minister of Finance, Maria Kiwanuka, the deputy Minister for Higher Education, JC Muyingo, and the Minister of Health, Christine Ondoa, all real-life high achievers, and feel optimistic about the future.

It seems reasonable to say, “they are going to be real performers”. But lest we forget, Museveni has always appointed some really smart people to his cabinets.

Indeed, without naming names, the cabinet he has just replaced had many sharp minds in it who, before becoming ministers, had solid records of achievement behind them.

True, few have been roaring successes wherever he chose to throw them. They failed not because they were unqualified or incompetent. It was simply because of the context they happened to be working in and the nature and motivations of the government they were serving. As we debate who will perform and who won’t, let’s also ask whether those things will also change.

AllAfrica – All the Time