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Uganda: In Cairo Museveni is Brought to Account, But to Whom?
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The Monitor (Kampala)
COLUMN
29 June 2008
Posted to the web 30 June 2008
Angelo Izama
When telephone billionaire Mo Ibrahim offered $5m (Shs8.7b) to African presidents who set a good example and retire from office - Yoweri Museveni responded that money is not an incentive for him to leave office.
Now Mr Museveni is in Egypt where he is expected to be pricked and prodded by his peers about among other things, presidential succession. How will the Museveni dismissive of peer influence in the past respond? Can the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) persuade any leader to change or is it just another talking shop?
The APRM is not about just regime change but the spotlight shone on Mr Museveni and others as the "new generation" of African leaders has since been abandoned mainly over their unchanging record on democratic governance.
When Mr Museveni presents his country's self-assessment report to his peers today at Sharm-el-Sheikh in Egypt, he will be joined by the new Nigerian President Umaru Yar Adua, and Blaise Compaore, the President of Burkina Faso.
The three presidents will all present their country reports for evaluation. Skeptical voices about the APRM process however, point out that little can be expected when leaders with questionable records are asked to give each other encouragement to perform better.
Mr Yar Adua's presidency almost did not happen if his predecessor Mr Olusegun Obasanjo did not fail to secure a "third term in office".
The elections that brought Mr Yar Adua to State House in Nigeria were slammed by local and international observers as the most flawed while corruption in Nigeria, one of the worlds leading exporters of oil, is so acute Nigerians all over the world are tainted with the image of being fraudsters.
Mr Yar Adua's personal record is admirable - he was the first governor (Katsina State) to declare his personal assets, a feat he repeated as President but back home his accidental presidency, he is tied to Obasanjo's failed attempt to orchestrate the removal of presidential term limits so he could remain in office.
Mr Yar Adua has been nick-named "Baba go-slow" because of his lack of effectiveness in part, observers say, due to his inability to shake things up.
Under his rule, Nigeria is yet to stabilise oil production after disruptions in supply continued in the Niger Delta. Besides corruption, Nigeria is the poster child of the phrase the "oil curse" in Africa - a disturbing prospect, considering that Uganda now shares with Nigeria not just a reputation for unbridled corruption but a large population and since 2005, oil as well.
Mr Compaore and Mr Museveni share a lot more. Mr Compaore has been President since 1987 while Museveni shot his way to power in 1986 following a five-year bush war.
President Compoare, a former captain in the national army, is accused of killing his predecessor Thomas Sankara whom he overthrew in a bloody coup. Since he assumed power, he has taken advantage of a weak national opposition to remain in office.
He was re-elected in 2005 after lawmakers said a two-term presidential term limit did not apply to him since the constitutional amendment that instituted the limits in 2000 found him at State House.
Burkina Faso, the country he has led for two decades has been described as "poor even by West African standards" with the United Nations rating it as the " third poorest" country in the world. How much influence the African Union and the APRM process may have on Mr Compaore, is as ironic as the name of his country- Burkina Faso, which means "land of honest men".
In 2005, despite local and international heckling about his plans to remain in office, Mr Museveni oversaw the lifting of presidential term limits and was re-elected to office. During the campaign, his main opponent was jailed on bogus rape charges, his supporters harassed and a general atmosphere of state violence dramatised by the assault by armed commandos on the High Court.
Just three years to the next election, supporters of Mr Museveni are mobilising for him to run again while his party remains in a flux about succession to his rule.
Recently, the President skipped the reading of the national budget - which showed a robust Uganda economy, to attend the graduation of his son from an officer's college in America, once again, causing loud speculation about who he expected to succeed him.
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Now as they wait to hear what their peers think about their progress, one can only imagine if it will bother him. The summit is, after all, hosted in Egypt where 80-year-old President Hosni Mubarak has been in State House for 27 years, with his son Gamal, rumoured to be waiting to succeed him.
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