Risking being misunderstood by both members of the Ugandan opposition that usually see no positive achievement in Museveni’s government and the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) propagandists that would use his statements to claim that he has ‘eaten something,’ firebrand Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) spokesperson and Kira Municipality MP Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda has revealed one thing the elderly general from Rwakitura has done well.
Currently aged 78, Museveni has ruled Uganda for nearly four decades since 1986 after taking power following a five-year bush war that claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, largely in the Luweero Triangle.
Praised for restoring sanity, revamping the economy and some semblance of democracy, Museveni has been accused by his critics of perpetuating state capture, entrenching family rule, failure to deal with nepotism, tribalism, and corruption, human rights violations and of superintending over a democratic reversal that threatens to drive the country into dark days.
All these ills aside, MP Ssemujju Nganda, a former parliamentary reporter, polished and vocal lawmaker who normally backs his arguments with historical facts and figures, has revealed the one thing Museveni deserves credit for.
According to the Kira Municipality legislator, Museveni has over the four decades made sure that all civil servants get their salaries paid even when there are several unfunded priorities.
That instead of government employees failing to get their salaries, government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) would rather do with little budgets – meaning little work and less value for the salaries paid.
Ssemujju has gone on argue that while it has become normal for salaries to delay since the country is struggling to economically, the president always makes sure that civil servants are paid what is due to them as and when resources become available.
The legislator went on to observe that it was therefore not surprising that most of the strikes by civil servants were due to demands for salary increment and not unpaid salaries. (Read related Stories Here and There).
“The one area where you need to give Mr. Museveni credit is that he has never defaulted on paying people’s salaries. He can delay a bit but he will pay,” Ssemujju told Solomon Sserwanja’s AIIJ Hard Questions in a discussion on the next financial year’s budget.
“That is why all the protests in Uganda are not about payment. They are about increment. Whoever taught the President to deal with civil servants must be given credit.”
Ssemujju was one of MPs who opposed President Museveni’s State House budget which included an allocation of hundreds of millions to buy Museveni clothes and beddings, with the opposition wondering if the president had forgotten that he is a leader of a poor country and now thinks that he is a Hollywood film star. (See Details Here).
Ssemujju also previously threw the House in laughter after asking if Museveni and his wife Janet Museveni eat a whole cow everyday to justify their big State House budget. (See Details Here).
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