On one unfortunate occasion, the charmer played around with a huge cobra as we watched in stiff bemusement. As he turned at us to announce the last tricks, it swiftly dug its fangs into his hand.
We were wrong in our speculation; it had not been defanged. He acted as though the incident was part of the show, but quickly put it back in the box and left.
He could have survived that one, but we later learnt that he died of a snake bite. This story comes close to explaining the relationship between our government and corruption, and perhaps predicting how this will end.
In many ways, we can say that while the president constantly condemns and swears against corruption in speech, it is a pampered pet of this government. You never see any real commitment at rooting it out.
Instead, much of the focus is on keeping up appearances. That’s why we have a thick assemblage of anticorruption bodies that are too busy on pettiness and theatrics while carefully avoiding touching where it could hurt the mighty.
It is a hyena hunt where we invest in setting huge nets that only end up catching hedgehogs and bats. The chief hunter may only appear very serious about the hunt to a visitor who hasn’t seen what we’ve witnessed time and again.
Even when we volunteer to make alarm and catch a hyena, he keeps it by his side as a dear pet. He knows that the loyalty of followers with skeleton-filled cupboards is almost guaranteed.
The skeletons are his blackmail tool for keeping them from leaving the house. Or else, their corruption will become a serious matter.
That is how corruption convicts and censured fellas keep bouncing back into the fold and many others get away with scandals. Pinning them for their corruption is not as important as the political gains in not doing so.
This knowledge has emboldened the loyal corrupt. For as long you sing the boss’ name so well and lash at his opponents, loot as much as you can.
Alas, the master’s pet will not end at stealing milk from the house, it might eat the master too. They say that he who rides a tiger will fear to disembark. Yet, even if he doesn’t disembark, it may still eat him. We are at that point where corruption has infiltrated the bone marrow of our society to the extent that it won’t let anything work; even what the government might genuinely want to implement. Their pet is on rampage.
Ever since Covid-19 set in, many of the initiatives we have tried in fighting it have primarily failed to work because of corruption and the image it has earned government. The first thing that any government needs to achieve anything is PUBLIC TRUST.
Without it, expect no cooperation. When we were in deep panic because of the new disease, out of fear and desperation, we put much of our pessimism aside and gave government the benefit of doubt. It was an opportunity for government to clean up its image and prove doubters wrong.
Individuals and companies donated to government to help manage the crisis. The public was obviously eager for accountability. When the president insisted on 4×4 double-cabin trucks, many got suspicious, but still let it pass. Around the same time, huge budgets and loans were passed to the same effect.
As Dr Kizza Besigye noted recently, perhaps we were so stupid to expect that government was going to become accountable overnight. The opportunity to prove different was characteristically scandalously squandered by government. A few months later, we are hit by story after story of Covid-19 funds and donations that can’t be reasonably accounted for.
The effect of this is not only in losing resources and what they could help with. More importantly, the danger is that people have become so suspicious of government, always fearing that there is a selfish motive behind its initiatives. Many would no longer believe that Covid was real, until the second wave came in more disastrously.
At a time when government’s directives are critically important, people are looking for ways of maneuvering around them. We have got to an absurd point where if government tells us that those are feaces, we won’t believe until we touch.
When vaccines came in, some people were hesitant to go for them. Among other fears was whether government would care to do due diligence to establish if the vaccine wasn’t harmful. When the minister for Health took the jab, many could not believe that she did. Why?
When the president eventually took it too, some said that he had taken a different one. Why? Gradually, and with increasing fear of the disease, many rushed in for the jab. What do we hear next? A couple of doses had been stolen and were being administered at a fee!
Where quarantine is turned into a money minting exercise, Covid-19 funds disappear, airport tests get abused, vaccines are stolen, and curfew turns into a mass extortion measure; where do you expect to garner trust to be listened to?
We have allowed corruption to turn into a way of life in the country, but the depth of damage it is causing is more enormous than the benefits we think we are reaping from it. Ultimately, no one is safe. The poor might be the first victims, but when this pet-turned-monster is done eating them, it is appetite for bigger meat will be insatiable.
The author is a teacher of philosophy.