By John V Sserwaniko
Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister has confessed being an average human being and one that isn’t as intelligent as people think. “I’m a very successful Minister because I have the ability to put things together and let people do their work in my ministry. It’s not because I’m very intelligent or I know everything. It’s not because I do a lot of work in that ministry. I’m actually a successful minister because I do nothing. I just sit there sign papers to my officers like the Attorney General, the Chief Justice and others. It’s them who do the work. When they fail I blame them and when they succeed I take the credit. The problem why we fail management as politicians is because we don’t listen. We talk too much. For me I’m different. I go & listen to my technical people who are mostly lawyers. They will give 8 legal opinion and say all of them are right and then they argue until I arbitrate. Management means capacity to listen to others and that’s what I do. After listening to my technocrats I go regurgitating their ideas after aggregating them. After listening to me people will say that man is very intelligent yet these are ideas of my technical people,” Otafiire said Thursday evening. This was part of his address as he closed a two day training for public administrators and managers who the Dr. James Nkata-led Uganda Management Institute (UMI) brought together under the auspices of the African Association for Public Administration & Management (AAPAM). Training participants came from Kenya, Ghana, Khartoum, Lesotho and Uganda which had the largest number. These were high profile public administrators and managers including Clerk to Parliament Jane Kibirige and Sergeant at Arms Ahmed Kagoye. Veteran journalist Peter Kibazo, who was the closing session’s MC, explained that Otafiire was invited (and not the Education Minister or that of Public Service) because of his renowned Pan-Africanist credentials. AAPAM under which the training was organized too prides itself in being a Pan Africanist organization whose Ugandan chapter, according to course manager Prof Gerald Karyeija, is housed at UMI. Karyeija said all the presentations that were made at the training aimed at emphasizing the role of public administrators and managers in achieving inclusive service delivery. He said this must be the yardstick guiding all interventions governments undertake in the area of service delivery.
OTAFIIRE’S MESSAGE;
So when he got the microphone, Otafiire didn’t disappoint. He shared his views on public management in a Pan-Africanist way. And his speech was characteristically laced with a lot of humor. “Africa’s problem is management and not scarcity,” he said in his opening statement. He then confirmed Dr. Nkata’s earlier revelations characterizing him as a UMI alumni. “It’s true I first joined UMI as a Foreign Service officer which means I’m a diplomat as well though I didn’t last there. I became a soldier because of the circumstances our country faced. So Dr. Nkata is right I was here. I have seen the development that has come to this place which I didn’t leave there and I commend Dr. Nkata for his leadership. There is transformation. This isn’t how this place used to look like. There has been incremental development and I have seen the difference. Development is about value addition and that is the leadership Dr. Nkata has manifested,” Otafiire said of the man who is doing his 2nd term as UMI Director General. He explained the importance of transformation and adjusting in one’s life; giving his own personal example. “When I was young I used to drink but I stopped drinking because nobody ever thanked me for drinking,” he said. Giving own example, Otafiire said management is about delegation of roles and it’s important for the superiors to delegate in any organization. He said how he scores highly as a minister through letting technical people do their work and when they succeed he takes credit as the political leader. Bashing African leaders for selfishness since independence, Otafiire said absence of “inclusiveness has been Africa’s biggest problem” whereby leaders care only about themselves without genuine concern for those they lead. “The affinity of African leaders to tell lies is incredible and they think politics is about telling lies. Politics should be about solving people’s problems or else you go to rear your goats,” he said adding that he has lately become unpopular in his constituency because of insisting on telling voters the bitter truths which they don’t want to hear. “People wanted me to lie them that I can have a river in a place where there is no water. They said you man go to hell and remain there. I can’t go telling these Ugandans that you are wonderful people. How can you do that to fellows who have jiggers and are always in church shouting from sunrise to sunset as if God is deaf? Just tell God that I want food for a whole year rather than just asking for daily bread for today. That’s wrong and African managers have a problem of living for everyday. We don’t plan.” He then plunged into politics questioning the need for opposition politics in a poor backward country like Uganda. “In a backward country like ours, what would one be in opposition to oppose? Let me tell you in Africa we don’t have political parties but factions. There is a lot of balkanization and you must help Africa overcome that. There was no Ghana, there was no Kenya and there was no Uganda. There was Africa. What if the western Uganda border was put in Accra what would you call yourself? Why should I be proud being referred to as Honorable Minister or His Excellence in a country where I lead 40m people who have no shoes? People who can’t eat three times a day. It’s shameful and that’s why we must think as one people and stop those things of opposition and political party colors and symbols.” He said in Europe parties are formed based on well-defined economic interests “but in Africa here which interests are there to be the basis of political parties when even people who call themselves professors are half working class and half peasant?” He urged the elites, like those he was addressing, to help Africa demystify the idea sovereignty for nation states which are based on colonial-created boundaries. “What we have in Africa is sovereignty in poverty which is nothing but sovereignty of poverty. Why should people from resource-rich Africa die in the sea trying to escape to resource-exhausted Europe?” Otafiire urged civil servants to stop making decisions based on idealism they learn in management schools because even when they should ideally be independent of politicians, they don’t operate in a vacuum but in a world of many contrasting realities. Speaking on behalf of all the course participants, to whom Otafiire presented certificates, Onesmus Tumwesigye thanked UMI for the initiative to bring them together to share experiences and learn from each other. Dr. Nkata, who boastfully said at UMI they practice the inclusiveness they preach, urged the participants to become change agents upon return to their respective countries and work stations. He said UMI was proud of its reputation as a leading management training institute in Uganda whereby more than 80% of the civil servants have had to go through its training at some point in their career. “UMI has the best brains in Uganda in the area of public administration. Our minimum always is that for any participant to get our certificate, their minimum attendance must be 75% and above or else you don’t get our certificate…I thank these participants because all of them scored more than 75% on that. When you return to your work places, people should be able to see the change in your management style and when they ask please tell them it’s because I was at UMI,” Nkata said as Otafiire waited for his turn to address the same audience. See more in pictures. For comments, call/text/whatsapp us on 0703164755.
