{UAH} Govt should pay Shs 20b to reinforce Ettoffaali

Govt should pay Shs 20b to reinforce Ettoffaali

Written by JOSEPH LUKYAMUZI

Last Updated: 01 June 2015

We are now two years into the administration of Charles Peter Mayiga as Buganda's katikkiro. This period has brought with it numerous changes, innovations, developments and challenges.

From the toning down of Buganda's hostility to central government to the Ettoffaali fundraising drive, one can say that the current katikkiro's legacy is already partly spelt out. In between is the new system of transparency in the way matters are run at the kingdom's capital Mengo and the emphasis on the use of Luganda as the official medium of communication within kingdom circles.

However, the real rollercoaster ride is the Ettoffaali fundraising drive which is the real flagship that describes the katikkiro's tenure so far. The Ettoffaali has rallied Baganda in a way unseen before, with subjects and well-wishers responding to the cause. The project is also a wake-up call that money can be found within us before we seek it externally from foreign creditors.

The Ettoffaali has been the subject of interest of various writers, from Timothy Kalyegira to Herbert Benon Oluka writing in the Mail and Guardian of South Africa on native African solutions.

However, this drive can't sustain the momentum in which the kingdom finds itself presently. The katikkiro, true to his word, announced the next course of action in a May 11 Lukiiko address. The next project is the development of the kabaka's lake in a move to upgrade its tourism potential and also save it from encroachment and silting.

The katikkiro didn't provide the costs of the project and thus tasked the Buganda Twezimbe committee, which is the fundraising working group, to come up with the costs and projections for the venture.

From my perspective, this is going to be a huge task and may be as demanding financially as the labour sweat that was required back then to excavate the biggest manmade, hand-dug lake on the continent. I was impressed with the idea of the aquarium on the lake and thus gave kudos to the choice of the next project.

However, some want a hospital to be built by the kingdom while others want a botanical garden to be planted in the Lubiri in which various flora, especially that indigenous to Uganda, can be found and thus protected from extinction.

Others propose the setting up of a zoo in the Lubiri in which all kinds of totems of the kingdom can be found. Who wouldn't cherish a facility where one can find fauna ranging from edible rats and pangolins to lions and elephants? 

Others want a mega museum structure to house various kingdom antiquities. They also want a fund to be set up to buy back some antiquities that are in private possession and also those that are in foreign lands like in British museums.

What all this shows is that there is going to be a strain on the available resources and it is most likely that the Ettoffaali fundraising won't be able to sustain the demand for resources. It is, therefore, necessary that another source of funding be found to supplement the Ettoffaali resources.

Whenever any entity finds itself in need of resources, the first source it is likely to look to is its debtors. Part of the reason the kingdom toned down on its hostility to government was to make government listen to its demands as a gesture of reciprocation.

It is, therefore, very timely that Buganda has never been in need of resources that central government owes it than today. The katikkiro ought to pressurize government to see that it clears the kingdom's debts and could thus use the over Shs 20bn owed to it to supplement the Ettoffaali drive.

So far, the katikkiro has endeavored to be as transparent as possible. This, probably, is reason why subjects and well-wishers have been able to trust him with their monies.

He, therefore, should now show the urgency for the need to clear the debts that are due to the kingdom. If those in the central government don't see the urgency, then the katikkiro should rally the masses to put government under pressure as we head into the election year. Politicians listen best during election time.

 

The author is head of the research desk in the Buganda youth council.

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