UNOWAS: Mahamat ANNADIF reaffirms the mobilization of the United Nations to support Guinea-Bissau in its efforts to consolidate democratic institutions (03.06.2021)

ECOWAS: Portant Adoption des Sanctions Personelles visant a Favoriser la Restauration de la Gouvernance Democratique et le Respect de l’Etat de droit en Republique de Guinee Bissau (04.02.2018)

Joint Statement of the African Union and the United Nations on Guinea-Bissau (03.02.2018)

Statement attributable to the Spokesman for the Secretary-General on Guinea-Bissau [EN/FR] (11.10.2016)

The Secretary-General welcomes the start of an inclusive dialogue among political leaders, civil society and religious communities of Guinea-Bissau today in Guinea. The dialogue is the crucial first step in implementing the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) roadmap to end the political crisis, which political leaders agreed to in Bissau on 10 September 2016.

The Secretary-General thanks the ECOWAS Mediator for Guinea-Bissau, H.E. Mr. Alpha Condé, President of the Republic of Guinea, for hosting the parties and leading the regional effort to swiftly implement the roadmap. He further encourages all parties to engage in constructive discussions and seize this opportunity for a favourable outcome in the interest of the people of Guinea-Bissau. He calls on all parties to jointly achieve decisive progress within the coming days, in order to break the political impasse that has prevailed in the country since August 2015.

The Secretary-General has requested his Special Representative in Guinea-Bissau and Head of the United Nations Integrated Peacebuilding Office in Guinea-Bissau (UNIOGBIS), Mr. Modibo I. Touré, to continue to work closely with all stakeholders in Guinea-Bissau. This he will do in close collaboration with ECOWAS, the African Union and other key partners, including the Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries and the European Union as they work towards political stability in Guinea-Bissau.

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Le Secrétaire général salue le début d’un dialogue inclusif entre les chefs politiques, la société civile et les communautés religieuses bissau-guinéens aujourd’hui en Guinée. Ce dialogue est une première étape décisive dans la mise en œuvre de la feuille de route de la Communauté économique des Etats de l’Afrique de l’Ouest (CEDEAO) pour mettre fin à la crise politique, qui a été adoptée par les dirigeants politiques à Bissau le 10 septembre 2016.

Le Secrétaire général remercie le médiateur de la CEDEAO pour la Guinée-Bissau, S.E. M. Alpha Condé, Président de la République de Guinée, d’accueillir les parties et de mener l’effort régional pour mettre en œuvre la feuille de route rapidement. Il encourage toutes les parties à s’engager dans des discussions constructives pour accomplir ensemble des progrès décisifs dans les prochains jours, afin de mettre fin à l’impasse politique qui prévaut dans le pays depuis août 2015.

Le Secrétaire général a demandé à son Représentant spécial et Chef du Bureau intégré des Nations Unies pour la consolidation de la paix en Guinée-Bissau (UNIOGBIS), M. Modibo I. Touré, de continuer à coopérer étroitement avec toutes les parties prenantes en Guinée-Bissau. Il le fera en collaboration étroite avec la CEDEAO, l’Union africaine, et les partenaires clés, y compris la Communauté des pays de langue portugaise et l’Union européenne, dans leurs efforts en faveur de la stabilité politique en Guinée-Bissau.

My letter to Jean-Claude Juncker on the proposed EU Army!

Dear Jean Claude Juncker, the President of European Union Commission and former Prime Minister Luxembourg; you had a moment of glory or you might thought so honourable Jean-Claude.

I am just a member of EFTA by default as a Norwegian citizens and since my country isn’t a Member State; I’m sure in your opinion my opinions doesn’t exists because the ones that matters are the citizens inside the Union. Still, I want to write to you as citizen of the world and worried about you Napoleon complex and hereditary idea of stronger federalism of Europe. This happens in the same week the underlings of you doesn’t’ want to be accountable in the European Parliament; this are the Member States who has Members of European Parliament (MEPs). So with this in mind are these the men and woman who should be responsible for deciding warfare in the name of the Europeans when we can’t know how much they spend on the taxpayer’s funds while representing their states in the Union?

Well, I know I am trading waters now and sound a bit strange, but the hesitation on the matter is the inaccurate faith you have in the EU and their institutions. The general European is not there with you as the disregard for the daily life of European feels estranged from the boulevards of Brussels where you are stationed unless you commute from Luxembourg. That is not for me to judge. What I will more judge is the idea of a European Army!

European Army is setting the precedence that the 28 Member State’s will comply and accept to donate and keep the strengthen defence and military upkeep through the Union. That is also to connect the defence budgets and the military equipment production stronger in the EU. That must be put into the calculation. Not only keep a solidified borders as the Commissioners fear the Islamic Terrorism and the refugee crisis to the levels that Europe needs a bigger and wider army. That is controlled by the unaccountable MEPs and EU Head of States, the Consilium that will order this giant army.

A unknown giant army that will base by the 28 member states and put a prerogative of the federal state controlled by Brussels, as they already have issued currency, bills and now a Army. So the missing piece for you is the army and king. Honourable Jean-Claude you are acting with spite and fear if you enforcing the idea of an European Union Army and Defence. That is not the sign of peace or collaboration Europe needs. Especially with the ways that Cyprus and Greece economy has been liberated and sold to foreign investors while the taxations are slimming even more with the policies from the Central Institutions of the EU.

With those acts of spite and diligent betrayal of common sense in the banking industry of Greece and Cyprus; not even saving but bailing out with the whole-sale of nations. That coming with effect of the Brexit recently, you want the unaccountable MEPs to run an Army from Brussels. Do you know how insulting that is the European people and citizens, Jean-Claude?

Can’t you just take control of the Eurovision Song Contest or something; make sure the trade-laws and negotiations between Member States are following the guidelines of the Brussels accords. The Union you currently abide to is a currency-union, free-movements of people and goods and ‘universal’ policies that they have to follow no matter which country you live in. In that sense an army is needed, but that gives powers to Union and something Europe not seen before.

We have had the NATO that many of the current members of Union are obliged to serve and follow the codes of the agreement. As much as the European States has co-operated in military unifications it’s been training and peace-operations that many of the Member States has participated in.

If you think it is healthy to have a giant army directed from Brussels than the powers of the Union is more giant multi-national state, federalism and centralized in Belgium than people might express wishes for. Europeans want their states to have power and keen that their representatives have power and accountability within their domain; if the Brussels thinks it is good idea to take the guns and ammunitions from Madrid, Prague, Vienna and Copenhagen. Than they will have to ask what their own armies are supposed to do? How are the pecking orders of the EU General and Danish General? Are the orders from Brussels trumping the ones of Stockholm?

An European Army is the answer to fatigue and gesture of complex gravitas as the European Member States deserves their sovereign and rights to defend themselves within the military alliances and military benefits the nations. If the EU thinks it is wise to counter this and control it centrally than they can initially take over all powers and make a EU Police. Then all of the law’s and orders will controlled by the Brussels under the new federal jurisdiction of EU Commission and the Consilium. That in the end will be voted over by the unaccountable MEPs in EU Parliament. So they can decide if the army need to invade or guard Gibraltar or Guernsey from the Pirate Bay.

Let’s be clear Jean-Claude Juncker, the one man in Europe with clearly a Napoleon complex! It’s time to whine down and take a beer. It is time to render the times of not-so much peace in Europe and wonder what the EU has lost. What powers the EU has taken in times of Peace and less hostility. What kind of powers the centralized Brussels decrees are burdening the towns and villages of Europe that you never will put your foot in Mr. Jean-Claude.

The Army you propose to counter foreign invaders is absurd and worrying. The EU Army will only be beneficiary for a un-elected aristocrats who will use it to silence criticism and the citizens who disobey the command of Brussels. It will not be a defence organization that can be sustainable to keep greater powers out. This army will only cause frictions and be a power that can be used in Neo-Colonial affairs for the former European Empires to control their former colonies. This will not be an army for peace; it will create more bloodshed in the names of spoiled rich EU observers and their elites. Is that what you want Jean-Claude?

Your EU Army will not be a tool for peace, but for rivers of blood, for loss of lives and loved ones. For the concern of foreign dignitaries and their allies; this create a hatched hiccup of world order and the destination unknown as the EU Parliament who will obey the command of their leaders will send their citizens to wars for resources at one point or another as recessions and market-crash’s happen once in-while. It is just a matter of time before a legit war intervention becomes an excuse to export needed minerals to Europe. That is what the Army will be for right, Jean-Claude?

You should first implement the Federalism fully before pledging the idea and dream of multi-national army those bounds of future conquests and current problems as they want to have fortified walls and gates of Europe. If the EU Commissioners start to think of the EU as Rome Empire than he has also lost the plot as the twist and turns of the vague Union; if he wants the weak Union to grow stronger there needs more trust between Berlin, Prague and other capitals nota army to silence the ones who disobey. Does he want to be emperor… new royal lord of Europe instead of a possible statesmen; the greed of a man who forgot the principals and dynamic of Europe as he sits in the bureaucracies of Brussels. Peace.

Opinion: MEP’s arrogance over accountability for their expenses shows the lack of integrity from Brussels!

It comes this day and times when giant organizations, Multi-National Organization that are having the oversight of most of the European Nations under the Umbrella of European Union, where the elected men from each nation represent the values of each nation in the European Parliament. In this perspective the European Union and the European Parliament should be more open and more transparent. This they should think about, especially in a time where the Parties and People grow tired of the arrogance of Brussels and the bureaucracy made in the Belgian capital.

So when the news coming out that the Members of the European Parliament (MEP) doesn’t have the guts or heart to put it into paperwork to show the citizens through the media their benefits for representing the Member States. MEP is lucky to be there and represent the nations of the Union. They should be giddy for the accessibility for representing people and with the low turnout to the elections the marginal rate of the population caring about their seats. They should honour that minority even more. Instead they are showing arrogance. They are showing blistering ignorance for justice and accountability. Why should all the citizens pay taxes and show their income to the states. As they can be searched for online by all citizens, but the ones representing them in the European Parliament cannot show their salaries and benefits? Seriously are you that high on the pedestal that you cannot absorb the injustice by keeping that at bay?

You MEP are a public servant if you represent the Pirate Party, UKIP or any kind of Green Party who has seats in the Parliament. All of you represent the European citizens and their member states. You are there on behest of the European People and the Member State you come from. You are not of noble blood or royal family. You are elected by the people in rigid ballot election in your home country.

If the MEPs we serious about representing their citizens they would have no trouble disclosing this information as the citizens are the ones that in the end are paying their salaries through the taxes. MEPs are not above the citizens they are there on the behalf of them. Still, when they get defensive and take it court for something that should be natural for them to do!  

The MEPs has to respect the people as they are in the hands of the people. They are not there for the EU Commission or EU Parliament President; they are there for the German, Dutch, Spaniards, Portuguese, and Italian etc. The Citizens have the right to know their bills and their pay for representing them.

If the MEPs wants to be representing them than it is time to show them what they think their worth and how much the citizens of Europe has to raise to keep the upkeep of the European Parliament. The arrogance and ignorance of their duty has to stop. If they want to be taken serious and justify their role in Europe and decide to make changes in the best interest of the continent; not like now when it seem it is more a personal pride to get there and stay there than actually work for the greater good. If so can please the EU Commission just whine down the Parliament and only the Consilium or the European Council that has the Head of State from the Member States who could just make all decisions instead of the Representatives in the unaccountable and not trustworthy Parliament in Brussels; is that what the MEPs trying to do or want us to believe?

If so, good riddance we will not miss you and your accountability, as you cannot even open up about how much we facilitate for your time sitting in Belgium for all of Europe. Is that so much trouble are you so much compensated that you are worried about the backlash that you will look like a greedy Scrooge instead of a Public Servants as you are expected to be? Is the plane tickets and paid allowances together with the salaries too big to defend?

If so than you should fix that as you have the legal and opportunity to take back the high pay and allowances as you are the one behind the legal framework and representatives. That is if you have heart and not just greed to compensate with fortunes for working for the commons.

MEPs you are disgusting if you think you can eat taxpayer’s money without accountability. You are like dictators and authoritarian leaders who disrespect their commoners while you are the ruling regime on the hill and let everybody in slopes; the ones who gets the shade and rainwater has to pay for the MEPs for their luxury. MEPs are in service for the ones in slopes of the hill, even if they run everything from the top of it. They could not have the Parliament if it weren’t for citizens. MEPs should humbly beg for forgiveness and be accountable. With taking this to court you are officially a disgrace to democracy and to the people of Europe.

Members of European Parliament shouldn’t fear showing their expenses, they secretariat and whatever else they can bill on the taxpayer’s. MEPs show disrespect and doesn’t deserve the honour of being honourable when they cannot even show how much money the use. The Euros they use to facilitate their days in Brussels. MEPs shouldn’t act like Kings and Queens; they are ordinary men and woman elected to represent citizens not Lords and Royals of old!

Time to be accountable and transparent; you can’t be that than you shouldn’t represent anyone else than yourself. Peace.  

Kagame says he will not arrest Bashir (Youtube-Clip)

“Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame says his Sudanese counterpart Omar-el-Bashir is free to attend the Africa Union Summit scheduled for July in the Rwandan capital Kigali. Kagame made the remarks at the World Economic Forum just a day after President Museveni railed against the world court much to the disappointment of foreign diplomats” (NTV Uganda, 2016).

Dr Kach Ononuju interviewed on Tutsi general killed in Burundi attack (Youtube-Clip)

 

Opinion: Who is really the “Empty Suit”? Who might it be the Empty Suit in the Ministry of Health Care or KCCA? As the recent unfolded operations of maladministration in the public view… henceforth somebody who is just nodding to the Executive for the brown envelope.

McNULTY: “West Baltimore is dying and you empty suits are running around to pin some politician’s pelt to the wall. Thought you was real police, brother” (The Wire Season 2, Episode 13).

There is in this day and age lots of appointed government officials, they work supposed to be diligent and with honour of the codes of their work, not work directly for the ones that appointed them. That cannot always be easy as the station and the position would not been opened or given to the person if the appointee didn’t give that extended hand or blessing for the job. When you have that situation you need a strong state and strict regulatory regime that counter the possible backhand and kickbacks to the ones that appointed them.

Why do I discuss this at this point? Because it is a vital part of our government regimes and is a question that can be asked in nearly all parts of the globe. As all jobs in the branches of government does not automatically goes to the most educated, relied on or the one person who has the most integrity in the position. Instead the man or woman who gets appointed is an “empty suit”.

What some of them might do?

“What typically saves the empty suit is the tenuous relation between what he or she does and any actual business results. This may be a function of the job he’s in: a staff post, with lots of power to nix others’ initiatives but no responsibility to make or sell anything. Or a pocket of avoirdupois in a still-too-fat corporate bureaucracy, the kind of position that causes underlings to scratch their heads and wonder, ”Gee, do we really need all these vice presidents?” Or the empty suit may have come up through a system that rotates fast- trackers through a new job every 18 months, even though the effects of his tenure don’t become evident for two to three years. He hardly had time to get any grounding in the work his people do, and he may have royally screwed up the few decisions he was compelled to make, but when the chickens come home to roost, he has flown. If somebody has the bad taste to try to assign responsibility, the suit can easily fuzz the matter over by suggesting that the blame rests with his successor or former subordinates” (Kiechel, 1989).

There certainly similar like the ones described in our time in every department, every corporation and every single institution we know of. This might be the Electoral Commission of Uganda and the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission of Kenya. As much as the regulatory chairs of the banking industry of Kenya must feel like empty suits these days as the confidence at that is low-key as well. The Chase Bank, The Imperial Bank and National Bank of Kenya have fallen from grace. The most likely selling of the Barclays Bank African Group might also make the fragile banking sector into more disarray as the leading regulators seems like the extra board-members instead of people who uses their position and chair with care and uses the mandate to make a difference and even square.

The situations are different when the appointed is not hired for their knowledge of their field, but the loyalty of the regime or government that is running in the country. The likes of Ministry of Health in Uganda for the moment where the hospitals are creaking and the machines are criss-crossing between life and death. Electricity and other cases of depleted. As the missing extra blood for surgery, the copy-medication and the loss of necessary equipment; that shows the lack of management and reasons for empty suits. The highest empty suit for the moment must be State Minister for Health Hon. Dr. Chris Baryomunsi who seems to be more concern with catching checks then doing his job at this point. This point comes with the correlation of Minster of Health Hon. Elioda Tumwesige and the State Minister for Primary Health Hon. Sarah Opendi Ochieng. One of the three must generate a valued pay-check and makes sure that the NMS delivers the Global Funded projects and the other government funded health care, but either Chris, Elioda or Sarah, one of them or more must be a hired “empty suit” as the three of them are put into ministerial position working for initially the same thing.

It is just like the same mess with the KCCA where you have KCCA Executive Director of Jennifer Musisi. You have Frank Tumbewaze who is both Minister of the Presidency and Kampala Affairs. Then you have the third person who got a mandate the Presidential Advisor for Kampala affairs Mr. Singh Katongole what he does is surely only him and the Executive of Uganda who knows, since his appointment in December 2015 his silence must mean a envelope and letting Hon. Tumbewaze and Hon. Musisi does what they like. To make it more hectic you have the actual people’s elected through the ballot who supposed to run the Kampala Capital City Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago. So you have hon. Musisi, Hon. Tumbewazi, Hon. Katongole and Lord Mayor Lukwago. All of them are supposed to central people in the running of administration and regulate the divisions of Kampala politically and create policies that builds and secure the functions of KCCA. That must be hectic one of these men and woman must be a empty suit. Unless Hon. Katongole who I haven’t heard a word from since appointment is an ear-to-the ground and talking or addressing letters directly to the Executive or Head of State as his role has still not been served. As the accountability of the NRM-Regime is not strong they prefer keeping people in the dark.  Hon. Tumbewaze seems more to be the ones who was appointed to turn opposition Lord Mayor on his knees and therefore also gotten a permanent Executive Director in Musisi to shut down the elected person. But the end-game is that one of them must be an “Empty Suit” as the basic needs cannot be that big, and one of them is catching the brown envelopes without doing anything.

There are certainly more empty suits in the system as I started with the appointed men who is not educated for the position, but are there for the loyalty not because of the office is needed or there for a general purpose. That is the same as extra board-members in a corporation who is hired to vote for the general consensus in the board, but not to generate profits in some sense. They are there because the Corporation and LLC need useful idiots to be paid to follow the remarks of the stakeholders and shareholders, not the common-sense of their position.

We can all question the value of these leaders and honourable men-or-woman in a representative or appointed position by the President for instance. The level of credible men and woman and the need for expertise in the government organisations, into the department and the civic care from the road-development to the health care facilities need men and woman who knows the trade. As long the men does what is needed for the President or for the Stakeholders. The ones that lose are the ordinary person, employee or civil servants as they will either work under them or have to pay them tax-money to keep them. As they have to be paid an envelope to be the empty-dress. The person who is an empty dress doesn’t become that for free. Somebody has to be charge to keep him there. Most likely it is me or you. We can just ask ourselves. Who of the appointed leaders in government is an empty suit? Who in the corporate world are the extras?

Lastly, why does the Minister Without Portfolio. Hon. Abraham Byandala gets away and is not questioned by the opposition or anybody else. Why is this man the free-man the invisible creature in the parliament that does not have scruples? This since this position is the epitome of a Empty Suit. He is a MINISTER, but does not have an OFFICE, Department or a MINISTRY to run. Hon. Byandala can do as he pleases and still get paid. You cannot check his ministry or running government portfolio as it is non-existence from the get-go. The Government Official without any oversight and anything to initial control or say in other words the official Minister of Nothing (MoN). Hon. Byandala is running the Ministry of Nothing. The Minister of Hot-Air and the checking the chapattis’ in parliament is fresh enough for Hon. Oulanyah’s taste.

Well, what do you think? Are the somebody you feels are an Empty suit? Somebody you question or wonder if really have anything more than pay-check from the Tax-Payers money, but does not use it’s office or even delivers anything. Then that person might be an empty suit who just nods the head to the Executive and the general leadership without exercising power or determine the future of the government institution, department or ministry. Even if the person is really doing anything in the boardroom or a needed voter for the stakeholders; if it is only the needed majority to follow procedure then the scheme need a check or reform.

There will certainly be more stories and the existence of similar men and woman who can be described as “Empty Suits” and be stooges needed by any administration and corporations as they viciously need structure to control the citizens and the policies without questions from the inner-circle. Even if that means not procurement of needed medicines, fuel, transformers or building bridges to easier access the missing Okor Bridge in Kumi District: “This project was intended to connect Nyero and Mukongoro sub-counties in Kumi district” (MoFED, March 2015). A bridge that does not exist or is built by now so the sub-counties is not yet connect because of the altered situation and have to run long roads around the area than crossing straight over the river. So a project like this says there some empty suits as in 2009 as company was hired to build the river, by December 2012 the works by the river had stopped. Even if the departments to UNRA gave reports of progress of the project was last monitored in 2014 and by 2016 there not been done more to build the bridge since the monopoly of the Chinese Contractor have stifled the progression and in the end wasted government funds into a building a bridge who does not exist. Just like the Ministry of Nothing Hon. Byandala.

Think that is enough for today! Peace.

Reference:

Kiechel, Walter – ‘HOW TO SPOT AN EMPTY SUIT This breed of modern manager looks good and gets along splendidly with the brass. But is he contributing anything?’ (20.11.1989) link: http://archive.fortune.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1989/11/20/72761/index.htm

Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development – ‘NATIONAL BUDGET FRAMEWORK PAPER FY 2015/16’ (March 2015).

Lukwago on Museveni-Councilors meet (Youtube-Clip)

“Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago speaks out on Museveni-Kampala Councilors meet at state house” (NBS TV Uganda, 2016).