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Ear to The Ground
By Charles Onyango-Obbo |
How much can you pay to be Uganda�s president or charge to leave the office?
Feb 4, 2004
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On the weekend I got a call from a good friend. Have you read today�s Guardian (of London)? �No�, I told him, �it will be delivered tomorrow with the rest of the foreign papers.� �There is a story there about [British Prime Minister Tony] Blair�s new plan to fight poverty in Africa,� he said. �It says that Blair is involved in a new effort to solve an old problem � African poverty. Apparently the idea is to get a commission to look into new ways of fighting poverty in Africa. �It says that [Microsoft�s founder and chairman] Bill Gates had been approached, but he wasn�t interested. Then [South Africa�s elder statesman] Nelson Mandela was considered. However, Blair thought the job needed someone who is an �active� politician, and has audience in western capitals. �Such a person according to the story�, he said, �should have a good track record dealing with issues that are causing poverty in Africa, particularly Aids�, he said. �No prominent African politician has friends in western capitals, and has been feted for his government�s achievement in fighting Aids and has also just been to London�, he asked. �Museveni�, I said. �Right. They are buying your man [Museveni] with a big international job, so that he doesn�t carry through with his plans to cling to power by amending the constitution and running for a third term�. The commission would report in 2005, and presumably the new organisation that will be created to implement its recommendations would come into line toward the end of 2005. Reports that Museveni was being offered a �fat� international job to persuade him to leave power in 2006 have been around for a while. The Americans, reportedly, cobbled together a few ideas, and were backing the creation of a global envoy for Aids, which position would be given to Museveni. When talk of �working out something for Museveni� got too loud, the President rubbished the idea, saying it was nonsense. That when he was done at State House, he had better things � like looking after his cattle in Rwakitura. However, the fact that Museveni has continued to press for a third (or more accurately fifth) term might have persuaded his western allies that he is probably holding out for a better prospect. The Blair project, if indeed Kaguta is the man they are looking at to do the job, might therefore be a sweetening of the deal. And it is �doable� because at this stage, a president would mostly just be the person around whose name the work is done. Uganda would certainly benefit if there was no rigged vote to create a president for life, and if Museveni stepped aside peacefully. Yet, Museveni�s unease with being bribed to leave office has merit. He might not like the idea because he wants to stay on, but there must be something wrong if a leader has to be paid to take his firm grip off his country�s throat. However, paying off a president to be democratic is something that foreign countries have always done. For most of the late 1960s to the end of the 1990s, foreign countries were buying the presidency for African politicians. Mostly, they put together resources and helped generals to take over power � in Ghana, Uganda, name it. Then they financed rebel groups. We shall not name the successful African politicians who became president, and whose armies were financed by the West. But the most costly investment that ended in failure must have been Jonas Savimbi�s UNITA in Angola. However, powerful foreign countries have not only bought or underwritten the presidency for African politicians, rebel leaders, and generals. They pay to keep them in power as �successful� leaders. First, they pay for good policy. As in Uganda, the donors bought liberal economic policies with increased aid. Donors also buy things like UPE. Leaders in Africa are bribed into holding elections with the promise of renewal of foreign loans and grants if the polls are fair. And their withdrawal if the polls are stolen. Buying out leaders who have overstayed in office, was only a natural next step. Today there are many schemes, including the famous initiative at Boston University where African rulers who relinquish power can go and be paid highly to do nothing, as long as they leave their long-suffering countries alone. On the face of it, it seems demeaning that a job as UN Aids envoy, or global poverty ambassador is what the West thinks an African presidency is worth. But when you think of it further, they have a point. The behaviour of the majority of African leaders encourages this goodies-for-political-retirement approach. Many of them take bribes to give tenders when they are in State House. They appoint relatives to head organisations where there are a lot of funds so that the First Family, First Clan or First Tribe can steal the resources. Schemes to bribe African strongmen out of office are becoming fashionable because most of them can �see� only after they have been shown the money. They have no sense that the presidency should be an honourable national service, that money can�t buy. e-mail : [EMAIL PROTECTED] |
� 2004 The Monitor Publications
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