ONC boss explains Iran scholarship saga

The government has clarified on the Iran scholarship saga following claims by a group of youth who accused some National Resistance Movement (NRM) officials in the office of the National Chairman (ONC) of extorting money from them for the 2023 Iran Scholarship programme.

While addressing journalists at her office in Kyambogo in Kampala on June 25,   the head of the ONC, Ms Hadijah Namyalo said that the office of NRM chairman was not involved in any extortion, saying that some people want to tarnish her name.

“Whoever is trying to fight me to leave office because is going to use this Iran issue as a trigger I can laugh at you. You rather go to H.E (His Excellency) and ask him to give you the office in peace not to implicate me in non-issues,” Ms Namyalo said.
She added; “I am not corrupt and I will never be corrupt and I beg this issue to go to court so that we handle this thing legally.”

The Iranian Ahlul-Bayt International University scholarships 2023 were negotiated by ONC under the stewardship of Ms Namyalo and a team of 69 students was sent to Iran on the same scholarship.
 Ms Namyalo explained that, unlike other scholarships, the Iran embassy in Uganda said that the applicants would pay for both visas and tickets, and the money was supposed to be paid at the embassy, not her office as some people claim.
She said that she never involved herself in the process but rather delegated a team from her office to work closely with the Embassy.

“I told them (Iran Embassy) that my duty will be to advertise and to let the public know about the scholarship programme but I will not be in a position to handle it. I gave them a team from my office to help in advertising and creating awareness about the scholarships,” Ms Namyalo said.

Ms Namyalo said that after flagging off a team of successful applicants in November last year, she was not in the know that some people paid and were left out because she was never informed since she was not directly involved in the process.
She said that she was surprised to learn about extortion accusations from social media that some people paid and never got the scholarships.
She said that when inquired from the Iran Embassy in Uganda she was informed that those who didn’t go, their admissions never returned.

However, Ms Namyalo said that if there is any person who could have been involved in extortion should be held accountable.
This comes at a time after President Museveni declared war on corruption saying that he means business in his renewed effort against graft.
Five MPs of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) are currently on remand over corruption-related charges.