In Uganda, it is the jungle law at work! Survival for the fittest.
Looking at the way some people steal tax payer funds in Uganda, the advice is that they obtain eternal fire insurance as soon as possible.
In Uganda, massive poverty and obscene inequality are such terrible scourges at a time when the world boasts of progress in virtually every area!
POLITICAL PRESSURE HOLDING ME FROM REIGNING - ONEK
Minister Hilary Onek appears before the Rules Committee in Parliament last week. PHOTO BY GEOFFREY SSERUYANGE
By ISAAC IMAKA
Posted Wednesday, November 30 2011 at 00:00
In Summary
Oil bribe allegations. The minister says he resigned spiritually and blames his woes on top officials in the Energy Ministry.
Internal Affairs Minister Hilary Onek, who is accused of having taken close to five million Euros in oil bribes, yesterday revealed that he has not resigned because of political pressure and that he is holding on for the sake of the NRM party.
Responding to Dokolo Woman MP Cecilia Ogwal during his appearance before the parliamentary committee investigating the oil sector bribes, Minister Onek, said the issue of resignation was no longer a personal matter.
The minister, who had been asked why he has not adhered to the p committee’s request to step aside, also told the committee that he will not be in politics anymore after 2016.
“There are two sides of the coin; we have politics on one side and then Parliament,” he said. “Honestly I even told my boss that I want to resign. But if I move away from these things right now, I would not be fair to them,” he added, although not specifying whom he meant by them.
Mr Onek told the committee that he fully understands the importance of resignation and promised that if the committee gets any speck of truth in the allegations that were made against him in Parliament, he will immediately resign.
“On October 11, 2011, I had literally resigned. If you ask me, I would tell you I spiritually resigned. Inside me, I resigned. It is one thing to have a personal conscience and another to adhere to the politics. In politics, it’s not the individual any more, it is about responsibility. If the banks come up and say those transactions are true, I will step aside,” he said.
Mr Onek blamed his woes on “top officials” in the ministry of energy, whom he said always opposed him whenever he put across an honest opinion during his tenure as the minister of energy and that people conspire against him because he is honest.
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“The law against corruption is genuine, and that’s what I have been doing in all the ministries I have served. It doesn’t make sense that the one who has been chasing the thief is the one who is being chased,” he said.
“I am not a person who is deceitful in life. I cannot smile when I should be angry. When I was a young man, I missed many beautiful girls because I was honest. I have been doing my own business since 1980. Everything I have is a product of what I have done in business. You do not have to steal to achieve in life,” he said.
Defiant Mbabazi
Meanwhile, appearing before the same committee, Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi maintained his stand not to step aside, insisted he is innocent, and asked the MPs to summon the American ambassador whom Wikileaks claims made the allegations against him to testify before the committee.
“I am not likely to step aside because, as the Speaker said, the resolution didn’t target the Prime Minister. But I want to assure you colleagues that I will not interfere with your proceedings in any way,” Mr Mbabazi said.
“To tell you the truth, I do not even spend too much time following what happens in the committee.”
Ministers Onek and Mbabazi are the next prime witnesses to appear before the committee in the oil bribery allegations, after Minister Sam Kutesa.
iimaka@ug.nationmedia.com
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