If I Were To Be President, I would Do This in The First 100 Days

Uganda Today Edition: If I Were President, in My First 100 Days I Would, Without Doubt Effect The Following.

By: Chris Kato

This is a fictitious situation i invisage for a serious Ugandan president.

According to the Oxford University dictionary, a president is the elected head of a republican, it also goes further to explain that the word can also be used to denote a head of a society, council, college or other organizations. In the Christian church, a celebrant of the Eucharist is also referred to as a president. For purposes of clarity for this article, If I were the president of the Republic of Uganda, I would, in the first 100 days of exercising my powers, put forward wide ranging strategies that would see the following changes take effect.

Using the current clout the president wields that include but not limited to being the fountain of honour, the appointing authority of the army commander, the commissioner of prisons, the inspector general of police, the chief justice, the ombudsman, the prime minister and his deputies, the vice president, cabinet ministers, executive directors of authorities and other government parastals, influence parliament just as the current president did to remove term limits, to seriously start debating term limits reinstatement, in the same way, I would influence parliament to recall the public management act because it conflicts with the Ugandan constitution that allows freedom of expression.

I would in no small measure, critically look at areas that give the president and all government officials a lee way to live under opulence with a view of stopping it. I would stop all medical treatments accorded to government official abroad at the expense of tax payer’s money. I would put an end to unnecessary celebrations like independence and liberation days, sell off the presidential jet so as to do way with temptations of surrendering it to my daughters and other kin’s men to go overseas and give birth or get treated.

For your information I have four daughters the eldest being 20 years, you can imagine how much I would save the tax payers on depriving each of them one chance to Germany for delivery. In this particular instance I would save the tax payer a total of a billion shillings and use it to give free medication to the populace.

I would insidiously deal with corruption starting with a decree to enforce public servants work to commence at exactly 8:00am and end at 5:00pm. It is a common phenomenon to see a government worker entering office at 10 am or 11 am and leave at will after sitting at the desk for a while. This is the root cause of poor service delivery leading to the culture of “ebintu bya gavumenti birwaawo okolebwaako ” It shouldn’t be a norm to delay government service delivery. This would be a starting point of inculcating accountability to all government workers.

I would let the judiciary work independently, try all suspects of graft and ensure that they serve a sentence and refund the ill gotten wealth to the government coffers. Like the Pope, I would do away with lavishness; reduce the presidential motorcade that consumes not less than 10 million shillings whenever the president leaves his home for the shortest journey you may imagine.

I would ensure that I put systems in place so that not every Kato, Wasswa, Babirye, Nakato (Tom Dick and Harry) would clamour to see the president so as to get service delivery. I would initiate steps to implement a federal system of governance and ensure that Ugandans are governed as per their wish. You recall the Odoki commission recommended a federal system of government which the head of state refused to implement.
I would see to it that I run a lean cabinet, reduce public administration costs expended to government officials like RDCs and presidential advisors, and reduce overseas travels by government officials and initiate measures to reduce the defence budget where colossal sums of money are spent at the expense of the crucial developmental ministries of agriculture, education and health.

I would start a campaign to rally Ugandans to love their country by instituting a forum through which one can report poor service delivery, corruption, abuse of office through not being in office etc. Different fora to achieve this would include but not limited to phones, emails, in box of a special face book page to which all informers shall receive recognition through replies and follow ups to village levels.

I would put in place an audit system at parish level specifically to follow and ascertain the truthfulness of allegations. This would equip my government with first hand information of the citizen’s needs and deal with them accordingly.

I would enforce a servant leadership system where government ministers and all public servants are looked at as servants to the people but not their bosses. This would help me establish a bottom- top planning system for citizens. Above all for the good of the country, in the first 100 days of my leadership, I would without doubt initiate plans to curtail the power and influence of the person of the president. The current unlimited powers render any occupier of the office susceptible to practicing nepotism and politics of patronage.

I would ensure that powers to appoint some of the aforementioned government officials are removed from the president. I would finally put in place a system where impunity of black mambas invading the temples of justice is never repeated. This would be my covenant to the citizens in the same way God made a convent never to have repeat floods of Noah’s ark.