CIVIL SOCIETY FIGHTS: A REVELATION OF GREED & GRAFT.
Civil society, for long has portrayed itself as a voice for the voiceless, the defender of civil liberties and human rights, netroots for public accountability and epitome of transparency. However, a scratch beneath the surface reveals a dreadful reality of a cocktail of indecorum, greed and outright graft. Ironically, these are the stated iniquities that every civil society organization sets out to fight from inception.
Overtime, a myriad of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) have been formed to address some of inequalities and excesses in society. More have done a tremendous job, others have fallen short of the glory of God, while others lost direction and eventually found themselves in the garbage skip of history. Others have survived through constant mutations to rhyme with the changing times. For instance, most CSOs that started by calling for provision of clean water, sanitation and public health, have had to widen their scope because these amenities have improved overtime. They found themselves irrelevant. This reality meant that new fronts for activism had to be opened, most of them shifted into fight for democratic space, civil liberties and rule of law, which are the latest trending rallying call.
The clamour for relevance has led to floundering CSOs to merge. This has led to people who had different visions, teaming up, but working at cross purpose. Some have had genuine concerns while others were looking for survival economically. This dichotomy has led to sharp divisions, with the resultant effect of spilling beans about the internal dynamics and operations. Many prominent CSO activists have been in different organisations throughout their activism life. And most times they leave after bitter disagreements about sharing the proceeds of donor funds. Till recently, CSOs would have multiple funding for the same project. This meant a lot of money at their disposal; this explains why the big names in CSO world are stinking rich.
During the northern Uganda insurgence, CSOs were the biggest economic activity for the educated from the region. There was a joke among the CSO fraternity that the Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) were more than the people they were supposed to serve. Almost every village had an NGO focusing on society demands, sometimes having different NGOs in the same locality addressing the same issue. The emergency of social media has ushered in a new mode of activism, unlike before, were performance was judged on performance on ground, the transformation that has made impact on ground, now performance is gauged by media visibility, follows, likes and shares. What this has led to, are actions that guarantee media attention rather than focusing on the vision. For instance, to demand for an accountable parliament, someone has to strip naked on the streets, block the roads, burn old tyres, confront police and wage a fight for the cameras to capture the golly reactions of the police trying to extricate itself from a marauding mob. In the new world order, this is what makes news and attracts funding from donors interested in civil liberties and good governance.
The recent public spat between Agatha Atuhaire and Antony Natif is a grim example of civil society fights, laced with love gone south. During those days when Agatha was weather-beaten, Natif came like a salvage squad, it is said that after selling off his booming pharmacy, Natif commanded a heavy purse that he forked out a substantial amount into the formation of Agora entity. One wonders what went wrong. The answer can be found in the realm of greed and graft. The public domain has been replete with murmurs about biting the hand that fed you, when you were in the doldrums. Human nature kicks in and emotions flare. Privileged information is now in public domain, the source of funding of the numerous Agora demonstrations and how it was used.
A critical analysis of civil society, reveals one glaring feature, the CSOs that have sprouted in the last10 years are splinter groups from original CSOs. For instance three outspoken civil activists have been morphing from one CSO to another since the late 90s. Two senior personalities, one renowned doctor and another a university lecturer, split bitterly, leaving a reputable organisation in tatters. The one who was kicked out, with severe accusations of impropriety formed another CSO with a regional name. These two are sworn enemies now. The other is a woman with a questionable PhD, “procured” recently, according to Prof, Baryamureeba. Her “governance” outfit is a creature of a bitter fight with a retired major. When accusations and counteraccusations of graft swirled, the retired major chose to play safe and bolted. These are the kind of games played in these circles.
This scenario plays out in the CSO fraternity, it explains why some NGOs have slowly died a natural death. Because of intrigue, the insiders reveal to funders the internal dynamics, accountability flaws, impact on the target beneficiaries, multiple funders and fidelity to the core values as stated. With adverse information, these NGOs find themselves without funding. The problem is that, the same faces are recycled into either existing or new formations.
