Ethiopia
Ethiopia has just become the seventh African nation to join the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), a self monitoring instrument of the African Union designed to ensure good governance and accountability in participating countries. The Ethiopian APRM committee is expected to prepare a report on where it stands in democracy as well as in the economic and social sectors. As the 2007 Countries at the Crossroads report points out, Ethiopia’s level of democratic governance remains very poor. The Ethiopian ruling EPRDF party’s recent clean sweep of local council and parliamentary seats following an opposition boycott is evidence that Ethiopia continues to struggle with the sorts of serious issues of manipulation and intimidation that haunted the 2005 elections. The most recent election was marred by what Human Rights Watch described as threats, intimidation, and arrests of thousands of candidates and prospective voters.
Uganda
As in many poorly institutionalized African states, checking aggressive executive power has been one of Uganda’s most serious governance problems in the past. Now, however, Uganda’s constitutional court has annulled a law that required organizers of public meetings or protests of more than twenty five people to seek the written consent of the police, potentially giving another tool to campaigners for accountability. Commenting on the ruling, Justice Constance Byamugisha stated “there is no doubt the power given to the inspector general of police is prohibitive rather than regulatory.” Lifting this law may have a real impact on Ugandan democracy, as in 2004 and 2005 the government frequently used the law requiring police consent for public meetings or protests selectively in order to harass opposition politicians and movements.
Rwanda
Citing concerns that external pressure on the Rwandan judiciary would be prohibitive in providing a free and fair trial, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Tanzania blocked the transfer of Yussuf Munyakazi’s genocide case to Rwandan courts. The 2007 Countries at the Crossroads report concluded that the Rwandan judiciary is indeed subject to influence by the executive and by members of the political, military, and economic elite, a situation exemplified by the 2006 cases of former president Pasteur Bizimungu and former public works minister Charles Ntakirutinka. Rwandan officials protested that conditions do exist for a free and fair trial in Rwanda, but said they accepted the Tribunal’s decision. According to the World Bank’s Worldwide Governance Indicators for Rwanda, generally the rule of law has improved greatly from 1998 to 2006, but the starting point was extremely low and there is still much work to be done.
Nigeria
In the 2006 Countries at the Crossroads report, Freedom House pointed to the drafting of a Freedom of Information Act as exemplary of the nascent voice of civil society in legislation and recommended that civil society groups be given the government access and oversight that are expected in a free society. Unfortunately, this week the Nigerian House of Representatives again refused to debate the proposed Freedom of Information Act. Journalists covering the House condemned the refusal and the principal sponsor of the bill, Hon. Abike Dabiri, described her colleagues as acting “out of fear of the media.” The FOI Act was drafted in 1999 but has still not been enacted. In better news, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has inaugurated the media chapter of the National Anti- Corruption Volunteers Corps (NAVC), dubbed the Media Network against Corruption. The National Coordinator of NAVC emphasized how crucial the active involvement of journalists is in the war against corruption. Of course, the journalists could play their crucial role much more effectively if the FOI Act were passed into law, but the incremental construction of an anticorruption civil society movement will help increase the pressure on the government in the future.
