UGANDA: MUSEVENI TO FACE HIS AFRICAN PEERS ON DEMOCRACY, ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL GOVERNANCE

By John Muto-Ono p'Lajur

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Consultations on African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) report in Gulu.

“I want to thank you the leaders of northern Uganda for the hospitality. This is the second review mission for Uganda by a committee of 18 experts who are in different parts of the country to find out if there is improvement in the situation in Uganda since the fist review was held so as to sustain dialogue”

“If all the laws were enforced, then Uganda would be a different country. It seems that all the good laws made in Uganda are implemented in neighboring Rwanda”,

GULU- UGANDA:  Uganda Dictator of 31 years, President Yoweri Museveni, will face his African Peers in January 2018 together with the presidents of Liberia and Sudan to assess and review their performances in democracy, economic and good political governance in their respective countries.

This was revealed by the leader of a ‘6-member committee of experts’, Mr. Dalmar Jama- a Somali national, on Monday, November 6, 2017 from Churchill Courts Hotel in Gulu during consultations to see if what is contained in the self assessment report prepared by the National Governing Council for member states of African Union on the situation on Uganda represent the views of Ugandans.

The African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) is mutually agreed instrument voluntarily acceded to by the member states of the African Union in 2003 as a self-monitoring instrument to assess, present progress, and provide lessons on how to enhance good governance.

There are only 36 out of the 56 countries in Africa who have agreed to be assessed under this protocol to establish and validate governance performance and highlight good practices and challenges in their respective countries.

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This is the second country review mission for Uganda since 2007 on four thematic areas of the Mechanism namely: Democracy and Political governance, Economic governance and management, Corporate Governance; and Broad-based socio-economic development. The first assessment report was presented on June 29, 2008 at the APRM participating heads of states Forum which was held in Sharm-el-Sheik, Egypt.

The process leading to the production of the report was guided by a comprehensive questionnaire provided by the Continental APRM Secretariat that all countries which have volunteered to participate in this process adhere to.

 “I want to thank you the leaders of northern Uganda for the hospitality. This is the second review mission for Uganda by a committee of 18 experts who are in different parts of the country to find out if there is improvement in the situation in Uganda since the fist review was held so as to sustain dialogue”, says Mr. Dalmar Jama.

Opening the consultation meeting, Gulu district chairman, Mr. Ojara Martin Mapenduzi, observed that authorities in Uganda lack ‘goodwill to implement and enforce the good laws’ in the country.

“This is good initiative because it will make government to know what others in Africa expect of us. This is ‘positive criticism’. Uganda has beautiful laws and policies but the question is whether we are making good use of these laws?” Adding: “if all the laws were enforced, then Uganda would be a different country. It seems that all the good laws made in Uganda are implemented in neighboring Rwanda”, says the district boss.

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What is contained in the report?

On entrenching constitutional democracy and rule of law, one of the recommendation states that ‘the constitutional review under the 10th Parliament considers reinstating the Presidential Term limits to the previous two terms of Five years. The consultation in Gulu also added that Article 102 (b) of the Constitution on presidential age limit should not be amended.

In order to sustain Uganda on the path of sound Public Financial Management (PFM), the assessment recommends that government ‘meets its commitment under the PFM Act 2015 as well as with Development Partners under the Partnership Policy to ensure prudent use of public resources, a zero tolerance to corruption and efficiency in use of public funds.

On promoting and accelerating broad-based sustainable socio-economic development the report recommends that although the country is focusing on large scale infrastructure projects, it is prudent that ‘critical investments are prioritized for social sectors’ for accelerating human development.

It also recommends that Uganda improves the political, legal and institutional environment in order to maintain and improve ability to ‘finance own development plans and programs’.

Uganda recorded total debt burden to the tune of 36.90% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2016, thereby making it unsustainable.

 

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