Why citizens have good reasons to be fed up with their politicians and what needs to be done about it COMMENT |TAHIRU AZAAVIELE LIEDONG| A few months ago, a video in which a street boy blamed bad leadership for Nigeria’s socio-economic problems, went viral on social media in the country. …
Read More »COMMENT: China colonising Africa?
To call China a colonial power is to diminish the true horrors that were faced by the colonised COMMENT|HANNAH RYDER|A few months ago, a New York Times magazine cover was emblazoned with the question “Is China the World’s New Colonial Power?” The notion that China is a twenty-first-century coloniser is …
Read More »Colonial boundaries no solution to Tororo District split controversy
Kampala, Uganda | J OLOKA-ONYANGO | Recent newspaper reports about the issue of Tororo state that President Yoweri Museveni has directed that the matter be resolved using the “colonial boundaries” in order to determine where the municipality should be located in the event of a split of the district. Such …
Read More »COMMENT: Small business, big impact
Why raising micro, small and medium-sized enterprises might avert future backlashes by the poor on the rich COMMENT | Arancha Gonzalez| The fruits of economic growth are not being shared widely enough. In many advanced economies, the anaemic post-2008 recovery has benefited the relatively rich, while large numbers of households …
Read More »COMMENT: Dishonoring Uganda’s refugees
Enlisting Museveni’s help to solve the refugee crisis is like hiring an arsonist to lead a fire brigade COMMENT |Helen C. Epstein| When United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres traveled to Uganda in June, his stated mission – to raise billions of dollars for the country’s growing refugee crisis – seemed …
Read More »South Sudan’s independence: nothing to celebrate in 2017
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | BY MERESSA K DESSU | ISS TODAY| For a second time, South Sudan won’t be celebrating its 9 July anniversary of independence. The government announced the cancellation of festivities due to a lack of funding and the country’s ongoing conflict. Indeed, six years after liberation, South Sudan’s humanitarian …
Read More »Africa must invest heavily in youth, if we are to lead in innovation
Africa must invest heavily in youth, if we are to lead in innovation COMMENT | By Awel Uwihanganye | In an increasingly mobile global economy, it is important that African thought leaders consider the subject of innovations in the context of the millions of jobs that can be created, and the …
Read More »COMMENT: Exporting health workers
Foreign mass recruitment of Uganda’s public health workers is a threat to national security |James Zeere| While health workers have always migrated from Uganda to work in other countries, there is a worrying trend developing of mass recruitment of Ugandan public health workers by foreign entities. In 2015, civil society …
Read More »COMMENT: The real side of fake news
With advertising revenues declining, media organisations are increasingly desperate for clicks |Steven Rosenbaum| Today’s digital devices and social networks deliver so much information that even the savviest consumer cannot evaluate all of it. We seem to be living in a version of Aldous Huxley’s `Brave New World’, where truth is …
Read More »COMMENT: Museveni poses a threat
President’s self-Preservation tactics after 30 year in power are derailing development |Stephanie Nguyen| “I don’t know any other country more democratic than Uganda; our democratic structures are comprehensive, massive, and thorough.” This statement is representative of a few propaganda lines that filled television screens as President Yoweri Museveni gave his …
Read More »