In Summary
- African countries lack proper roads, proper education to train workers, a fragmented market, interference with the private sector and low democracy.
- The meeting preceded a conference of heads of state who are members of the AU’s Africa Peer Review Mechanism.
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 programmers 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 sustainable 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.