{UAH} 30 DAYS OF TANZANIA'S MAGUFULI Vs 30 YEARS OF UGANDA'S MUSEVENI

30 DAYS OF TANZANIA'S MAGUFULI Vs 30 YEARS OF UGANDA'S MUSEVENI

Since being sworn in as President of Tanzania, John Pombe Magufuli has made far reaching reforms aimed at cutting down public expenditure, improving service delivery and tackle corruption and abuse of office.  He has genuinely demonstrated that he is committed to  working towards improvement of the lives of ordinary Tanzanians. He has made impromptu visits to government departments for an on spot assessment of the situation pertaing to service delivery and general performance. He has suspended and sacked some public servants for negligence, ordered for the arrest and prosecution of those suspected of corruption, he has dismissed Boards of Directors of some government agencies, he has banned MPs from being Board members of government agencies and parastatals and no more payment of allowances to them whenever they carry out oversight roles over those parastals.  He has restricted board meetings to only four times annuually. He has banned extension of subsidies to public bodies that will not pay returns to government before ordering them to be run profitably and generate more revenue to the state.  He has warned that government will not hesitate to close down such bodies that will not prove to be commercially viable and he has banned theHIRING of consultants.

He has evicted powerful individuals involved in landgrabbing and demolished structures constructed in public land.  He has banned unnecessary foreign travels by government officials and also banned 1st class air travels. At a recent meeting with members of the top business community, he told them that during presidential campaigns he had delibarately
not solisted and got any financial and material contributions from them thus they should not expect any favors from government.  In Uganda, leading businessman Mike Mukula has donated a chopper to Museveni's campaigns and is used by Gen. Tumukunde to harass the opposition.  Within the first 30 days in office, his actions hadSAVED/rescued a total of 997.4 billion shillings (about 1.5 trillion Ug. Shs) -  225M from the trimmed parliamentary inaguwration ceremony,  356.3b from foreign travels, 4b from cancelled independence day celebrations, 637.2b from tax evasion by 2431 containers of imported goods.  Some of this m
oney has already been channelled to critical areas like health.  However, experts have estimated the worth of 997.4b as being enough to build over 1000km of quality tarmac roads, or purchase of 3325 ambulances at 300M shs each, or construction of 1425 fully equipped dispensaries at 600 -700M shs each.  After trimming and merging some ministries, he has assembled a small cabinet team thus reducing on the cost.

In Uganda where Museveni has been in power for 30 years, corruption, nepotism and abuse of office is a means of ensuring loyalty to Museveni.  He is boosting of creating a middle class comprised of the corrupt, tax evaders and land grabbers as ordinary Ugandans swim in abject poverty.  Some semblance of fighting corruption  only surfaces around the time of elections in order to hoodwink Ugandans and when there is donor pressure.  Museveni has always demonised the opposition, civil society groups and the donor community in their efforts to highlight the vices by labeling them economic subtours and enemies of his government.  The situation pertaining to service delivery is so appalling that maggots crawl on the floor of dilapidated government hosipitals many of which lack basic drugs, equipment and Doctors.  It has now been made a criminal offence for the rival presidential aspirants to access such facilities.  Unfortunately, its too late because the video footages and photos of such rot have already gone viral. Museveni, without shame continues to take Ugandans for a ride by blaming Iddi Amin and Milton  Obote who ruled Uganda 36 years and 30 years respectively ago for the appalling state of service delivery yet scientifically the maggots that are crawling on the floors of government hospitals have a lifespan of less than 24 hours. 

On 12th this month when asked by NBS TV for a comment on Tanzania's Magufuli's measures to fight corruption and poor service delivery, Museveni had this to say: "That's good; that's his approach.  Tanzania has been stable for a long time; that's good; that's symbolism; even the other day you saw your oldman doing physical exercises. I wish him good work."  Of course Dr. Magufuli's steps and achievements are posing a big challenge to most leaders in the region and Africa in general.  Museveni in particular claims that he needs another five years on top of the 30 years he has been in power in order to buy hospital beds and bedsheets.  His argument is that he has been prioritizing infrastructure development (shoddy roads) and security.  Obviously his choice of priority is driven by the need to ease of movement of his troops for securing his hold on power.T The debate now should focus on how long does a head of state need in order to implement the development agenda for his people.  At that rate, how much will Dr. Magufuli have achieved for Tanzania at the end of his ten years tenure?

 INFORMATION IS POWER

Posted by Uganda - A Change of Guards! a

Viele GruBe

Robukui

--
Disclaimer:Everyone posting to this Forum bears the sole responsibility for any legal consequences of his or her postings, and hence statements and facts must be presented responsibly. Your continued membership signifies that you agree to this disclaimer and pledge to abide by our Rules and Guidelines.To unsubscribe from this group, send email to: ugandans-at-heart+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com