The Lies About Museveni’s Foreign Trips

-- The President has been abroad for only 18% of the time this yearLATELY oppositionists, such as Uganda Peoples Congress’ (UPC’s) so called Presidential Policy Commission of James Rwanyarare, for lack of something serious to say, have been whimpering about President Yoweri Museveni’s “excessive” foreign trips.Notwithstanding the fact the President’s travels merit no defence because they are both an obligation and entitlement to him, it is important that the truth be told about them.One lame criticism the oppositionists cite against the President’s trips is that they are too expensive. Never mind that the travels are against a vote sanctioned by parliament and the President has not been found to be in breach.But even while conceding that we should always be wary of costs — the President does — the real question to ask is whether Museveni’s trips are as excessive as the critics would want us to believe?An analysis of the President’s trips since January 1, 2002 to date shows that talk of them being too many is bogus. For the record, by the close of six months of this year, June 30, the President will have been out of the country on only eight trips, lasting a total of 34 days.Surely, to call eight trips “excessive” for a President of a country that is among the only nine in Africa that can feed themselves, and has cut AIDS infection to a world record low, is to miss the point!Interestingly, the President will have covered 14 country’s (Sudan, Libya, Malawi, Britain, Australia, United States, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Egypt, South Africa, Italy and Kenya), in just eight trips.Apart from the United States where the President spent a record 10 days for good reason-he had 15 high profile and economically beneficial public engagements-he spent an average of only two days in each of the other countries.This was so because, as he has repeatedly said, Museveni does not go abroad for holidays, but for strategic and targeted work. When he wants a holiday (his euphemism for work outside Kampala), he goes to either Kisozi, Rwakitura, Mweya Safari Lodge, Bwindi or Karamoja.Indeed, a look at the President’s foreign engagements this year shows that his trips have been to big fora attended by other world leaders:l Sudan for the IGAD Summit (January 10-12)l Malawi for the SADC Summit (January 13-14)l Australia for the Commonwealth Summit (March 01-5)l Ethiopia for the COMESA Summit (May 22-25)l South Africa/Kenya for NEPAD (June 6-7/22)l Italy for the World Food Summit (June 9-13). Needless to say, any leader worth his name could not excuse himself from these kinds of meets without good reason. And let’s be fair, Museveni — an award-winning president — is not just any leader, and has been quite a toast at these conferences.Of course, like with the above trips, the President has not “gate-crashed” into the other countries. He has travelled on express and unsolicited invitations of his counterparts, namely George Bush (United States), Muamar Qadaffi (Libya), Hosni Mubarak (Egypt) and Ndugu Benjamin Mkapa (Tanzania).Museveni gets numerous invitations for two main reasons; one, he has lots of friends among other world leaders, and two, even those who do not like him, for reasons best known to them, acknowledge that he is a force to reckon with. Certain things, especially in the Great Lakes, just cannot move without him!And then lately, the President, determined to fulfill his vision of modernizing the country, through the creation of an independent, integrated and self-sustaining economy, has become Uganda’s — and by extension Africa’s — best salesman. His business sense makes sense, and many more in the world want to listen to him.Given the facts borne out by statistics, which show that since this year, for example, the President has been out of the country only 18 per cent of the time, the lies about his excessive travel is just a matter of perception. It may be an excusable perception because Museveni has become a larger than life figure, dwarfing the likes of Rwanyarare, who see him even where he is not.But what is not excusable is for them to allege that the President is preoccupied with foreign trips at the expense of local problems. Of course, they would not like to be reminded that some time in April, the President cancelled a high-profile trip to Senegal for a meeting of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) — one of his pet projects. He stayed home to diffuse the Kibaale leadership crisis.And just before that, he had spent Easter in the scorching heat and blinding dust of Morulinga in Moroto to supervise the disarmament of Karimojong. So much for foreign luxury! Ends