Uganda's Yoweri Museveni roots for good governance at Ticad forum

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on Friday challenged policymakers and civil society to consider good governance as a necessity beyond peaceful elections.

At an event supporting democracies in Africa, the Ugandan leader argued that most of the policies meant to grow democracies in Africa have been skewed to focus only on politics, while excluding other important sectors.

“If you are talking about good governance, please don’t just talk about elections … good governance must be comprehensive,” he told an audience at a side event to the Sixth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) taking place in Nairobi.

President Museveni, speaking as the chief guest, tore into economic policies he alleged were imposed on Africa in the 1960s that have been focusing on independent issues instead of tackling the problem as a whole.

He listed programmes such as the rural development initiatives of the 1960s, women empowerment and sustainable development, saying “no one has given me the ingredients of what it means.”

“I think, according to my experience of 50 years now, the correct way is to handle these topics comprehensively. To find out a minimum package that will create impact,” he said.

PRIORITIES

The simplistic focus, he argued, has made many economies in Africa to remain stunted, despite launching impressive policies.

“They cannot say you are sustainably a child. Many of the African economies have been sustainably LDCS (Least Developed Countries). How can you remain a child in year one, year two, year three. That means there is something wrong with your physiology.

“The question is, why is Africa not having a predominant middle class and a skilled working class?" he said.

The continent suffers from “ten bottlenecks”, he argued, but listed only five.

The countries lack proper roads, proper education to train workers, a fragmented market, interference with the private sector and low democracy.

“How would you sustain the African economy if you do not have a big enough market to buy what is produced. Because Africa was fragmented into small markets by the colonialists.

“If Africa does not have a big enough market, how will you attract investors? How does China compare? And yet we are democrats, we are Christians, Muslims…everything liberal," he said.

Mr Museveni has been a proponent of regional integration as seen in his support for the East African Community and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa blocs.

But he argued countries in these groups still routinely introduce barriers to trade.

“Good governance must lead to social transformation of the African society. In order to do that, we must identify correctly the bottlenecks that are blocking this transformation," he said.

The event, titled “TICAD support for democratic governance in Africa”, was meant to discuss the African Union’s Agenda 2063, a document launched last year to improve stability and the quality of life in Africa by 2050.

The meeting preceded a conference of heads of state who are members of the African Union’s Africa Peer Review Mechanism, a grouping of 35 African countries that voluntarily report to the AU about progress in ensuring political and economic stability.