It’s The Second Term We Need Worry About
May 15, 2003
A RADIO journalist Sunday night tried to pull a fast one on President Yoweri Museveni, when the president and his Burundian counterpart, Domitien Ndayizeye, addressed the press at State House.<br>
ONAPITO EKOMOLOIT to the point
A RADIO journalist Sunday night tried to pull a fast one on President Yoweri Museveni, when the president and his Burundian counterpart, Domitien Ndayizeye, addressed the press at State House.
Daniel Mugabi of Radio West alleged that the so called Third Term was paralysing production in Uganda because people in the countryside were doing nothing other than gossip about it — obviously a far-fetched observation.
Apparently the scribe expected the President to panic about the supposed cost to the economy and say much more than he has so far: He will state his position when the matter comes before cabinet because it is the right forum for him.
The President's answer, which was a real twist
to the tail for the press conference and brought it to an end with a hilarious burst of laughter from all the assembled, was straight and simple.
“Tell them to go to the garden and cultivate,â€
he said.
There could have been no better answer from a man marking the last night
of his second year of the second five-year term as head of state.
It was an apt reminder
to all Ugandans that the President — and the rest of the country — have a job to do.
Monday, May 12, marked the beginning of the third year of President Museveni's second five-year contract with the people of Uganda, which was sealed May 12, 2001 when he was sworn in.
The journalist’s question was, therefore, worrying in the sense that people are not pre-occupied with seeing how the existing contract is being executed, but are instead being “paralysed†by gossip about a hypothetical “Third Contract.†Indeed, the President was the next day busy with his equivalent of the garden. He spent the day in a series of investment promotion engagements. It is what he was elected to do but not to speculate and prophesise about Uganda’s magic year — 2006. The crisis in Africa is partly that people do not hold Government (much more than the President) to full account. Of course, the led must also do their part of the walking so as to accomplish the journey well with the leaders.
The point is, with President Museveni and a whole horde of other elected leaders having three (some more) years to accomplish their mandates, the population should be bothered about bringing pressure on them to deliver as per campaign promises.
Needless to say, President Museveni has thus far kept his part of the bargain vis avis the big picture of his key campaign theme: Peace, unity and development.
Notwithstanding the terrorist carnage by Joseph Kony's LRA in the north, and the anarchy of some Karimojong nomads, our country is no where near being a candidate for UN rescue. Ugandans are largely at peace with each other, despite the myriad of ethnic groups, and not even those agitating for federo and other tribal goodies are asking for a divorce. The poor shilling may be taking a battering from the mighty western currencies, but Uganda’s economy can in no way be categorised as a basket case. President Museveni still scores high for presiding over an economy that can feed the citizens, posses a working physical and social infrastructure and allows private people to make money.
Talking money, the sticking point, of course, remains the government's ability to put more money in the pockets of ordinary citizens. Call it eradicating poverty or whatever you like, it is only when this happens adequately that government
infrastructure, such as schools, health centres or even roads, stop being white elephants.
But for this to happen, voters must be asking all elected leaders — and even faceless bureaucrats — hard questions. For example, there is talk of rampant corruption at districts and sub-counties, which are pivotal points under decentralisation.
The wananchi should expend their energies on demanding for what is rightly theirs, rather be “paralysed†by the Third Term talk, as reported by the journalist. One erroneous assumption that one reads from the anti-Third Term gossip is that change of a leader per se will improve the lot of the people. The truth is even if we had presidents running for only one term of one year, the mere high turn over at State House would not transform the economy. What we need is for voters to press for accountability as per the elected leaders' campaign promises. In fact the voters should even push to cut a leader's term mid-way if such a leader is proved a no-hopper. As President Museveni starts his third year of the Second Term, it is democratic for Ugandans to demand to know about what he had promised to do by now. It has been argued that the President during the 2001 elections, among other things, indicated that this would be his last term. Fine, it may be there in the manifesto. But why demand that he spend his energy talking about a promise that he can only prove to have either fulfilled or not, come 2006? It is what the English call putting the cart before the horse. Ends
A RADIO journalist Sunday night tried to pull a fast one on President Yoweri Museveni, when the president and his Burundian counterpart, Domitien Ndayizeye, addressed the press at State House.
Daniel Mugabi of Radio West alleged that the so called Third Term was paralysing production in Uganda because people in the countryside were doing nothing other than gossip about it — obviously a far-fetched observation.
Apparently the scribe expected the President to panic about the supposed cost to the economy and say much more than he has so far: He will state his position when the matter comes before cabinet because it is the right forum for him.
The President's answer, which was a real twist
to the tail for the press conference and brought it to an end with a hilarious burst of laughter from all the assembled, was straight and simple.
“Tell them to go to the garden and cultivate,â€
he said.
There could have been no better answer from a man marking the last night
of his second year of the second five-year term as head of state.
It was an apt reminder
to all Ugandans that the President — and the rest of the country — have a job to do.
Monday, May 12, marked the beginning of the third year of President Museveni's second five-year contract with the people of Uganda, which was sealed May 12, 2001 when he was sworn in.
The journalist’s question was, therefore, worrying in the sense that people are not pre-occupied with seeing how the existing contract is being executed, but are instead being “paralysed†by gossip about a hypothetical “Third Contract.†Indeed, the President was the next day busy with his equivalent of the garden. He spent the day in a series of investment promotion engagements. It is what he was elected to do but not to speculate and prophesise about Uganda’s magic year — 2006. The crisis in Africa is partly that people do not hold Government (much more than the President) to full account. Of course, the led must also do their part of the walking so as to accomplish the journey well with the leaders.
The point is, with President Museveni and a whole horde of other elected leaders having three (some more) years to accomplish their mandates, the population should be bothered about bringing pressure on them to deliver as per campaign promises.
Needless to say, President Museveni has thus far kept his part of the bargain vis avis the big picture of his key campaign theme: Peace, unity and development.
Notwithstanding the terrorist carnage by Joseph Kony's LRA in the north, and the anarchy of some Karimojong nomads, our country is no where near being a candidate for UN rescue. Ugandans are largely at peace with each other, despite the myriad of ethnic groups, and not even those agitating for federo and other tribal goodies are asking for a divorce. The poor shilling may be taking a battering from the mighty western currencies, but Uganda’s economy can in no way be categorised as a basket case. President Museveni still scores high for presiding over an economy that can feed the citizens, posses a working physical and social infrastructure and allows private people to make money.
Talking money, the sticking point, of course, remains the government's ability to put more money in the pockets of ordinary citizens. Call it eradicating poverty or whatever you like, it is only when this happens adequately that government
infrastructure, such as schools, health centres or even roads, stop being white elephants.
But for this to happen, voters must be asking all elected leaders — and even faceless bureaucrats — hard questions. For example, there is talk of rampant corruption at districts and sub-counties, which are pivotal points under decentralisation.
The wananchi should expend their energies on demanding for what is rightly theirs, rather be “paralysed†by the Third Term talk, as reported by the journalist. One erroneous assumption that one reads from the anti-Third Term gossip is that change of a leader per se will improve the lot of the people. The truth is even if we had presidents running for only one term of one year, the mere high turn over at State House would not transform the economy. What we need is for voters to press for accountability as per the elected leaders' campaign promises. In fact the voters should even push to cut a leader's term mid-way if such a leader is proved a no-hopper. As President Museveni starts his third year of the Second Term, it is democratic for Ugandans to demand to know about what he had promised to do by now. It has been argued that the President during the 2001 elections, among other things, indicated that this would be his last term. Fine, it may be there in the manifesto. But why demand that he spend his energy talking about a promise that he can only prove to have either fulfilled or not, come 2006? It is what the English call putting the cart before the horse. Ends