President Yoweri Museveni has completed two strategic and very successful foreign visits to two countries at the opposite sides of the African continent.
The Ugandan leader, an unapologetic believer and defender of Pan Africanism, visited South Africa, a rainbow nation once dominated by white supremacists, and HE has just returned from Algeria, a North African Arab country.
Both visits have been highly publicized. And the benefits of them are for everyone to see.
However, on these visits one can see the President ended the debate on which diplomats are assets for the country.
On 13th February this year, I wrote an opinion article https://www.watchdoguganda.com/op-ed/politicsx/20230213/149485/diplomatic-fights-do-we-have-career-diplomats-in-uganda.html – asking to end the debate of career diplomats versus political appointees – which keeps returning to the media whenever there are controversies or contradictions in Uganda’s Foreign Service. I argued that the appointing authority, the President, knows best what he wants from the countries where he sends his envoys – and therefore it is his prerogative in the constitution. The President therefore sends whoever he believes can deliver results from the said country and it is up to the appointee to work or sleep on the job.
Some diplomats, career or political appointees, have been disappointing. But that has nothing to do with their appointing background. It has to do with their work ethic. Just as there have been outstanding diplomats who have thrown their heart, head and soul into promoting Uganda and defending their principal when under unfair attacks from enemies of Uganda. It is the hard work of diplomats in New York that the president received a great reception on his recent visit which put his critics and naysayers into a great silence!
I argued that the question of the performance of political appointees in the diplomatic service is one which can be judged by their fruits. Just as the career diplomats need to prove their worth by standing out when they have to show up for Uganda and their appointing authority.
Pretoria, Algiers State Visits speak volumes
Just four weeks down the road since I wrote that article, President Museveni has ended this debate by visiting two Missions headed by political appointees.
In South Africa, President Museveni was welcomed as a hero and had one of the best visits he has made to the country. President Cyril Ramaphosa gave his guest a befitting reception. The president engaged with business and investment communities including the Ugandan diaspora as well as South Africans who have consistently invested in Uganda. He also used the occasion to promote the Ankole Cattle and Ugandan milk to the global stage since South Africa enjoys the benefit of international media more than any other African country.
From South Africa, he had a short break including celebrations of Women’s Day where he spoke about the Ankole Cattle international image in South Africa, and immediately left for Algiers in Algeria – where he nailed it all.
For the Algeria visit, Gen Museveni made eleven (11) tweets. This is unusual because the President has been discreet in using his twitter space, usually making one to three tweets about an event of interest. And him being the most followed Ugandan on twitter with over 5 million followers, the President himself promoted his visit to the highest levels – and ensured his audience is not stretched.
Below were his tweets starting March 11 – all quite significant:
I have travelled to Algiers, Algeria for a 3-Day State Visit at the invitation of H.E Abdelmadjid Tebboune. I look forward to having fruitful discussions with him to enhance our bilateral relations for the prosperity and interests of our people.
It is good to be back in Algiers. I look forward to good deliberations with my brother H.E Abdelmadjid Tebboune on how we can strengthen the bilateral ties between our nations.
We are looking at Algeria investing in our refinery. We want to build an inland refinery. It is absolutely necessary because it will cut transport costs seeing that we are far away from the coast. I thank His Excellency for the fruitful deliberations we had.
In Algeria we have reliable partners : we are looking at powdered milk which is already coming here, coffee, tea and then products from Algeria of petroleum and petrochemicals.
I was welcomed by H.E Abdelmadjid Tebboune to the Presidential Palace. We discussed issues on growing the prosperity of Africa; agreed to work together in the areas of trade, energy, education, agriculture & counter-terrorism where they have experience in this, just like us.
I also visited the Central Museum of the Army where I received detailed information on the stages of the history of the Liberation War. I congratulate the heroic people of Algeria for waging the war that liberated Algeria & contributed to the freedom of other African countries.
I visited the Martyrs’ Memorial monument to pay my respects to all the revolutionaries who sacrificed themselves in the struggle for Algeria’s independence.
The Algerian Senate President, H.E Salah Goudjil, President of the National Assembly, H.E Brahim Boughali & Prime Minister, Rt. Hon. Aymen Benabderrahmane called on me. We had good discussions on a number of issues. I thank them for the courtesy call.
Uganda already has a nuclear energy unit and we shall collaborate with the Nuclear Research Centre here to agree on specific areas of cooperation.
I visited the Nuclear Research Center of Algiers this morning. I congratulate our Algerian brothers & sisters on taking the right steps in the area of Nuclear physics & energy. Nuclear energy helps in the areas of medicine, agriculture, energy & propulsion, etc.
If you do not create prosperity through the sale of goods and services,how else will you create prosperity? Can you create prosperity &sustainably,for the Peoples of Africa through begging? Read my full statement on the state visit to Algeria in the link: bit.ly/401kDy5
I congratulate the President upon these very successful diplomatic offensives. The fruits of these visits are embedded in the statements PPU shared with the media over the last two weeks. In Algeria alone, PPU reported signing of several bilateral agreements including the building of an oil refinery, milk and coffee exports worth billions of shillings, nuclear energy research and development, and in the areas of Tourism, Trade, Education and Scientific Research, energy, agriculture and animal health.
The next question is: If these countries have organized successful visits, where deals worth trillions of shillings are signed, who are heading missions there?
Let us start with South Africa.
39-year-old Paul Amoru is among the recent political appointments in the diplomatic service. The High Commissioner for Uganda in Pretoria South Africa is one of the youngest diplomats heading Missions and this in itself is a vote of confidence in the youth of Uganda from HE Yoweri Museveni. A journalist by training from Uganda Christian University and former editor at Daily Monitor, Mr Amoru was member of Parliament for Dokolo North County (2016-2021) and spokesman of the NRM Caucus. The team he leads in Pretoria did a fantastic job in giving the Ugandan Head of State an outstanding reception in South Africa as well as business engagements which set the visit apart in commercial diplomacy.
Now the President has been Algeria. The Profile that has accompanied the Algeria visit has not been seen before in North Africa since the departure of Muammar Gaddafi from Libya’s politics. H.E Abdelmadjid Tebboune gave a great reception to the Ugandan leader and their meetings showed a great work put into the organization of the visit.
The deals in oil, energy, coffee, milk, education etc signed – alongside the high powered delegation which accompanied the President to Algiers is a reminder that our diplomacy has matured – as it has gone beyond pleasantries to actually doing business with our diplomatic allies.
Behind the Algerian work, is Alintuma Nsambu who was in 2016 sent to Algiers, a traditional Mission for Uganda after a tour of duty in Canada. Algeria was a little known diplomatic station and possibly few diplomats looked forward to being posted there. Today, Algeria has become one of Uganda’s leading political, security and trade allies. Algeria has also increased a number of scholarships it offers Ugandan students, many of whom met their President on his Algiers visit, among other mutual benefits.
Nsambu, a graduate of Political Science and International relations from Germany, was MP for Bukoto East and the first state minister for Information and Communication Technology. He is more known in Uganda for popularization of computer learning in schools.
Since he arrived in Algiers, Ugandan sportsmen have already benefited from his presence with him connecting some to Algerian football teams and sports academies. He has lobbied for hundreds of scholarships for Ugandan students every year. And now – business people in coffee, milk, energy, oil, etc are tapping into Algeria’s resources thanks to the team in Algiers.
One might ask, So what?
Diplomats should stop useless debates when it comes to serving our country. They should instead focus on delivering the goods as expected from their appointing authority. The South Africa and Algeria visits by President Museveni are a highlight of what those in diplomatic service ought to focus on – expanding a net for Uganda and Ugandans to catch more fish.
As we welcome President Museveni from these two long visits in a space of few days, he has served as a reminder of the nature of diplomacy he wants out of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
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