IGIHE

Category: Opinion

  • ICGLR Warns Of Indirect Rebel Support

    The International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) Program Officer in charge of democracy and good governance Silas Sinyigaya has warned of supporting rebel groups in DR Congo while buying illegal minerals.

    Sinyigaya was attaining a meeting to elect members of independent audit committee of ICGLR secretariat.

    “Whether one does it knowingly or unknowingly, in one way or another he ends up supporting those rebel groups in the jungles of DR Congo”

    “People who buy minerals should follow regulation put in place in accordance to the Lusaka declarations by heads of states, by following those regulations one can avoid buying minerals from negative forces,” Sinyigaya has said.

    Sinyigaya said that the 3rd part of the auditing system will enhance mineral certification and guarantee that mineral chains are conflict free.

    “All of these is being done to prevent negative forces access to minerals, illegal exploitation of minerals helps the groups finance their activities which destabilize the region,” Sinyigaya explained.

    He said that the rebel groups in DR Congo were benefiting from and striving to earn a living from these natural resources.

    Several countries among the 11 members of the ICGLR are working closely to eliminate the rebel forces to achieve regional security.

    The rebel groups hiding and carrying on several brutal attacks in DR Congo include Forces Democratiques de Liberation du Rwanda (FDLR) and Lord’s Resistance Army among others.

    In an effort to fight cross boarder smuggling of minerals, Rwanda’s minister of lands and mines Stanislas Kamanzi on Thursday handed over 80 tones of minerals to DR Congo government.

    Ends

  • Africa Now Profitable Investment Destination –Kagame

    President Paul Kagame has said Africa has become a profitable investment destination.

    Kagame who was addressing participants at commonwealth business forum in Perth, Australia said that Africa had in previous decades not considered for these kinds of ventures due to several turmoil.

    He told the forum that many African countries have economically developed tremendously and have attained political stability which would now give security to investments.

    “My country Rwanda managed to grow by 8% economically in the past ten years.” Kagame said.

    The economy of Rwanda has for the previous years, recovered from sharp downturn from 2.1% in 2000 and finance Minister John Rwangombwa has predicted to will continue its growth by 8.8% due to increased exports, expansion in the growth of services and construction sector.

    “In many times Africa has been taken as unstable continent to invest in but most cases including exaggerations because there is nowhere you can’t find these kinds of problems. Africa has now stood up to confront all these economic development challenges and seeking way forward to the sustainable development,” Kagame added.

    Giving an example of African countries that have been ranked in better positions in the world’s ease of doing business report, Kagame said Rwanda was ranked the 45th best country in ease of doing business among 183 countries across the world.

    He continued to say that Rwanda was ranked 143rd nation in doing business report by 2009 and then shifted to 58th position last year 2010.

    Kagame noted that this kind of development needed all African nations; there is a need for strong partnership between governments and private sectors.

    “Partnership between governments and private sector is the way forwards for sustainable development. It has been vividly realized that governments alone or private sector alone cannot develop with support from each other,” Kagame said.

    About 1000 global government & business leaders have participated in Perth, Australia meeting of guest speaker included President Paul Kagame while international business leaders invited included speakers expected to James Gatera, CEO & Managing Director, Bank of Kigali, Rwanda.

    Many of the dignitaries including Nigerian President Jonathan Ebele Goodluck hailed Kagame’s leadership also welcoming Rwanda into commonwealth heads of governments meeting (CHOGM) since it was her first time to attend the high profiled meeting.

    After this commonwealth business forum which is expected to end tomorrow, it will be followed by heads of government meeting on Friday.

  • Death Sentence Is a Violation Of Human Rights By States

    Just of recent, the world was on a campaign against death penality which really made sense to me or any other human rights activist in the world.

    It is absurd to hear that in 2010 almost 67 countries in the world used their legal systems to impose death sentence to their citizens.

    This may either be on persons guilty of committing capital offence or crimes of grave nature on the state or community.

    Death sentence in its self is a violation of the 1948 United Nations Declaration of Human Rights and therefore a crime against humanity.

    When one is killed, is not so actually affected by that particular punishment, it’s the family and dependants that feel the grave pain, for some little period that person may feels the same pain before the time of execution and may be the psychological torture that arises with this sentence.

    As the world was advocating for abolition of this heinous practice on 11th October, Uganda was battling with cases of bribery and corruption against senior government officers like former VP- Prof Gilbert Bukenya who spent some days in Luzira prison over mismanagement of CHOGM funds.

    Other cases include Prime Minister- Hon. Amama Mbabazi, Minister of Foreign Affairs- Hon. Sam Kuteesa, and Minister of Internal Affairs- Hon. Eng Hillary Onek who are now being investigated over allegations of receiving bribe and kickbacks to facilitate and favor oil companies win Uganda’s oil extraction deals.

    These offences can lead to execution in countries like China and North Korea just like rape, defilement, murder, treason, and others.

    Corruption has failed most of our states and their functions in planning and to foster socio- economic and political development.

    Funds meant to develop and provide efficient facilities like medical care and drugs, education and transport facilities, subsidies to the agricultural and industrial sector are swindled and utilized by a clique of people irrespective of the general condition of the population.

    In most cases, states use various means to abuse the right to life of their people, they use extra judicial killings, torture, discrimination and inhuman treatment, waging of unnecessary conflicts and wars, and through denial of basic social and public services to part or its entire population.

    Governments come with a lot of enthusianism and promise to over-shadow and win support among the population over their previous regimes, but implementing this becomes a dream that can’t be achieved.

    In 1986, President Yoweri K Museveni promised all Ugandans of good governance, economic stability and development, security and protection from aggression and any form of human rights abuse including right to life.

    But today we see his right hand ministers being openly blamed for mismanagement and abuse of public funds meant to support the people, and he contrary comes out to defend them.

    If confirmed to be true, then it will be very shameful, because these people are supposed to be considered role models in our amidst as liberators and revolutionary leaders.

    When we talk of justice, it should be justice to everybody irrespective of contacts or relationships; it should be justice with respect to humanity and its notion of natural law as illustrated by faith.

    “God commands you to render back your trust to those to whom are due; and when you judge between man and man, that you judge with justice.” Holy Quran, Surat-ul An- Nisa 4:58.

    All laws that contradict this should be amended or removed from our national, regional and international laws to abolish this. This includes article 22 (1) of Uganda’s constitution.

    “No person shall be deprived of life intentionally except in execution of a sentence passed in fair trial by court of competent jurisdiction in respect of a criminal offence under the law of Uganda and the conviction and sentence have been confirmed by the highest appellate court.”

    Sometimes our judiciary (law) makes justice injustice to the poor or the disadvantaged; we have seen people convicted of crimes they never committed, and this comes to be known years after.

    What happens if this person is executed before the truth is uncovered? Is it possible to bring his/her life back? How do we then sort out the pain inflicted on his/her relatives? How about the psychological torture? Then, what happens to that “harmony or peace” achieved by the affected families? We all ought to answer these questions before castrating anybody.

    Mohammed Yusuf is a
    Pan Africanist and Researcher

    Email: yousum2001@yahoo.com

  • Choose Life, Reject Abortion

    Recently the public has been filled with debates on abortion following parliament’s amendments of the penal code that led to the reduction of sentences on abortion.

    Some argue that abortion should be legalized while others push for incriminating it.

    Abortion is evil because it gives a right to people to murder. I pray our country does not imitate what western countries are doing by legalizing something that is evil.

    We shouldn’t follow blindly just because it is alright somewhere else, it doesn’t make it alright here. In the last couple of days, I heard some people trying to defend abortion; I heard them give what I call lame reasons to why it should be legalized in this country.

    When senior government officials in many African countries including Rwanda are taking an oath before assuming their respective offices, they hold a Bible in their right hand because it’s the infallible word of God.

    Believers and non believers alike honor the Bible because it speaks the truth about God and about mankind.

    The Bible is more important and valuable than any country’s constitution or laws because it contains the wisdom of God.

    One of the reasons Rwanda is considered a Christian country is because more than half of her population is guided by the infallible word of God.

    The government of Rwanda has put in place many laws that conform to the Bible and this makes us a true God fearing country.

    For example, the Bible recommends one man to one wife and that’s exactly what marriage law in Rwanda stipulates.

    I have failed to understand why we have people pushing our lawmakers to legalize the premature termination of life causing the eradication of an entire generation.

    Is it fair that they lived long enough to have a voice and yet use that same voice to forever silence the voices of the innocent? What if their mothers had decided to get rid of them? Then where would their voice be? What if we were all considered as unwanted? Then where would the world be?

    By what measure is one man allowed to live and another condemned to die? Who has the right to condemn another human being to death and in the same breath rejoice that they were spared? Please stop and ask yourself these questions before you act.

    If you are not a parent put yourself in the shoes of one; how would you feel if your child was murdered?

    What do you think the author of life feels when his children are mercilessly murdered in the name of abortion?

    Before we even think about the unthinkable we should first consider the major repercussion of legalizing abortion.

    The very people pushing this country to evil now will keep pushing the government for more like legalizing prostitution
    .
    They come in the form of human rights activists and they will not stop until we have fallen so far down the moral ladders that there will not be a chance in hell to get back again.

    Should we condone evil and pile it up with even greater evil all the while masquerading it as human rights?

    There are people today that survived abortion and are currently change agents in the world. Barbara Wanjiru (Kenyan) is a girl I met a couple of years ago in Rwanda.

    Her dear mother attempted to abort her three times but failed and now Barbara is an outspoken pastor in Kenya.

    Do you ever stop to think what these children might become in future if given a chance at life, the very chance you were given? Just think what if this child grows up and finds the cure for cancer or grows up to be a powerful change agent in our world?

    If we do not wake up and stand for what is right we are depriving the world of an entire generation. Each day we stand by quietly and do nothing when evil is taking over we are piling heaven up with children who died too young because we never had the courage to act differently.

    Legalizing abortion mocks God
    Killing an unborn baby is the same as killing a 20 year old or a 50 year old human being because Life according to God begins at conception.

    Science also proves this truth. Science also declares that an unborn child is just as much an independent human being as you.

    The original human cell consists of 46 chromosomes, 23 from each parent. At no point during pregnancy does the mother contribute any new cells to the child.

    The original cell divides itself and multiplies to provide development and growth for the child. Scientifically speaking, the child is just as independent at six months before birth as he will be six months after birth.
    But what does the bible say about abortion? The following are some insights;

    1.Unborn Children: The bible talks about unborn children many times.

    This means, God values life even before birth. In Job 3:16, the bible says; “why was I not hidden away in the ground like a stillborn child, like an infant who never saw the light of day?”

    In Psalms 51: 5, the bible says; “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.” In all the bible references regarding unborn children they are considered true human beings.

    Therefore killing those infants is no different from killing adults.

    Surprisingly, God knows every unborn child by name and that is why God says in Jeremiah 1:5 says; “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

    2. Abortion is shedding innocent blood: Shedding innocent blood is one of the six things God hates with passion.

    Proverbs 6:16-19 explains this; “16 There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him: 17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, 18 a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, 19 a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.

    3. Abortion Shows a Lack of Natural Affection: In the book of 2 Timothy 3:2-4, the bible talks about end times and how so many people will be selfish. “

    People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,

    3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good,

    4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God” Legalizing abortion is being selfish and lack of natural or parental affection.

    Let’s work together to make Rwanda a safe place for our children and not a guillotine for innocent lives.

    With this note, I take the opportunity to thank the leaders of this great country for their stand against evil. I call upon you as a nation to pray and listen to God’s voice: choose life.

    With abortion the saddest truth is you can never go back. A life hangs in the balance and the choices made are irreversible Let’s stand firm against abortion because that’s what God requires from us.

    William Ngabo is a bible scholar

  • Electricity Tariffs Will Reduce- EWSA

    The operations officer of the national electricity utility agency (EWSA) Nathalie Muteteri has affirmed electricity tariffs will decrease as the ongoing extraction of methane gas in Lake Kivu contributes to the current energy in the country.

    Officials from Rwanda Energy, Water and Sanitation Authority (EWSA) are in awareness campaign explaining residents around Lake Kivu, issues related to the extraction of methane gas and its extraction.

    “By 2017, at least 300 megawatts will have been extracted and other study are being conducted to see how to increase energy in the country so definitely tariffs will have to drop down,” Muteteri said in Karongi.

    Muteteri also calmed residents on the fear that methane gas will explode or make Lake Kivu to overturn saying that water surface of the lake overweighs the gas to cause such incidents.

    The lake’s seeming lethal combination of methane and carbon dioxide has continuously made residents fear for their lives, however methane gas is also Rwanda’s vital and promising energy source.

    Reports have suggested that Lake Kivu is one of the world’s three exploding lakes at serious risk of overturning, a process where huge amounts of carbon dioxide are released from the lake’s under surface, suffocating almost everyone residing around the lake.

    Experts have pointed out that there should not be any reason of panic, because the surface area of the lake is far larger than that of methane gas into the water and that extraction work is done by experts and so calling for no panic.

    It is not the first time residents residing around Lake Kivu get panic. Early this year, the State Minister for Energy and Water, Eng. Colette Ruhamya had to respond to them dispelling concerns that the extraction of methane gas and other fossil fuels from Lake Kivu would not harm biodiversity in the area.

    She said that several feasibility studies were carried out on how the extraction will be carried out without causing any harm and how effectively the waters can be separated from methane gas, which contains other fossil fuels.

    Ruhamya added that a Lake Kivu monitoring team was set up to keep a close eye on the activities in the lake.

    According to her, methane gas, carbon dioxide, petroleum, fertilizers, electricity and hydrogen sulphide are some of the fossils fuel that were discovered in Lake Kivu “but due to capacity constraints, Rwanda had to prioritized methane gas and electricity.

    Lake Kivu is said to be containing 65 billion cubic metres of methane (50 million tonnes of petrol) lying 250 metres under the water.

    The available electricity generation capacity in Rwanda in July 2009 is 69MW and is largely produced from hydro power and thermal sources.

    Overall power production has stabilized after severe power shortages in 2004 that caused massive load shedding all over the country, prompted the government to hire emergency power solutions and invest in increasing generation capacity.

    Generation capacity will be expanded to at least 130MW by 2012 mainly through investment in hydropower and methane gas to power projects.

  • Rwanda Plans Insolvent Law Awareness Campaign

    Despite major reforms in ease of doing business, Trade and Industry Minister Francios Kanimba has said that discussions are underway to kick-off awareness campaign on insolvency law.

    Resolving insolvency is one of the indices where Rwanda performed poorly in the ease of doing business report 2012 released yesterday by World Bank/International Finance Corporation (IFC).

    Minister Kanimba was commenting on the Doing Business report 2012 where Rwanda emerged 3rd in Sub-Saharan Africa and 45th among 183 countries across the globe.

    “There are some indicators where I am convinced that we have to do something to significantly improve, if I take indicator related to insolvency proceedings we are among the countries realy who are not performing well worldwide,” Kanimba said in an interview with igihe.com

    “You know we have enacted insolvency law but the reality is the public awareness campaign for people to know about the new law to start its enforcement has not really started, and we are now discussing on an action plan to see what we can do to move quickly on this indicator from where we are around 165 perhaps to come to a double digits rank instead of triple digits where we are now,” Kanimba added.

    Other indicators where Rwanda needs to improve include delaying contracts(39th) where it has not changed at all, protecting investors dropping from 28 last to 29th this year, while registering property falling by 20 positions from 41st last year to 61st this year and falling by 3 points in dealing with construction permits from 81st position last year to 84th position this year.

    However among 10 indices measured, only three of them Rwanda performed very poorly in t5he ranking of Sub-Saharan African countries including dealing with construction permits (13th ), trading across borders (31st ), 36th out of 38 countries in resolving insolvency while the rest of indices performing below 10 indices.

    Kanimba said that he is convinced that in two years to come, Rwanda will have gained significant improvements in the fallen indicators.

    “There are some indicators that made some countries that were below outdo Rwanda. This does not mean we did not reform but even other countries are reforming too and they are working very hard joining this competition to see what can be made for their doing business to improve,” He said.

    Kanimba called upon Rwandans not become complacent in this year’s score saying that there is a big room for improvement.

  • REPORT: Sub-Saharan Africa Improves Doing Business

    A new report from IFC and the World Bank finds that a record number of economies in Sub-Saharan Africa improved business regulations for local entrepreneurs in the past year.

    Released today, Doing Business 2012: Doing Business in a More Transparent World assesses regulations affecting domestic firms in 183 economies and ranks the economies in 10 areas of business regulation, such as starting a business, resolving insolvency, and trading across borders.

    This year, the rankings on ease of doing business have expanded to include indicators on getting electricity.

    The pace of regulatory improvements has picked up across Sub-Saharan Africa. Six years ago, a third of Sub-Saharan African economies made improvements to the regulatory climate for domestic firms.

    Between June 2010 and May 2011, 36 of 46 governments in the region implemented reforms in at least one of the 10 areas measured by the report.

    With three reforms, Rwanda has jumped a further 5 places, landing this year at position 45. Rwanda is third best performer in Sub-Saharan Africa, only behind Mauritius and South Africa.

    Rwanda made starting a business easier by reducing the business registration fees. And it eased firms’ administrative burden of paying taxes by reducing the frequency of value added tax filings from monthly to quarterly.

    Rwanda’s credit information system improved, as its private credit bureau started to collect and distribute information from utility companies and also started to distribute more than 2 years of historical information. Rwanda made transferring property more expensive, however, by enforcing the checking of the capital gains tax.

    “Entrepreneurship is constrained when regulation is too complex or onerous,” said Augusto Lopez-Claros, Director, Global Indicators and Analysis, World Bank Group. “With their impressive improvements this year, the governments of Sub-Saharan Africa are improving prospects for local businesses.”

    For the fourth year in a row, Mauritius was the easiest place in Sub-Saharan Africa for an entrepreneur to do business, with a global rank of 23.

    By implementing reforms in areas such as paying taxes, getting credit, starting a business, dealing with construction permits, registering property, and resolving insolvency, São Tomé and Príncipe, Cape Verde, Sierra Leone and Burundi are among the region’s most-improved economies for entrepreneurs.

    “Post-conflict economies such as Burundi, Liberia, and Sierra Leone are among those that have implemented broad regulatory reforms,” said Sylvia Solf, lead author of the report. “They demonstrate that despite challenges, economies can move forward to encourage entrepreneurship.”

    New data show that improving access to information on business regulations can aid entrepreneurs.

    In many Sub-Saharan African economies, getting essential information often requires meeting with an official, demonstrating that improving access to information remains one of the region’s areas for improvement.

    Over the past six years, 43 economies in Sub-Saharan Africa have made their regulatory environment more business-friendly.

    Recently, steps have also been taken to improve business regulation through regional coordination to overhaul a body of harmonized commercial laws—a legal reform requiring consensus from the 16 member states of the Organization for the Harmonization of Business Law in Africa (OHADA).

  • Kalibata Woos Indian Investors

    Rwanda’s Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources Dr. Agnes Matilda Kalibata has wooed Indian investors to invest in infrastructure, agriculture, energy, mining, IT and tourism sectors, igihe.com has learnt.

    Information from New Delphi, India indicate that Minister Kalibata who is currently attending the 2nd Rwanda Investment Road show in India, told Indian investors that they were welcome to participate in the economic development of Rwanda.

    “Rwanda, located at the crossroads of the commercial heartland of East and Central Africa, can provide India huge opportunities to invest in a market of over 200 million people in East and Central Africa and a combined GDP of over US $100 bn,” Kalibata has said.

    Kalibata told Indian investors to come explore the opportunities in Rwanda, which has a population of 10 million and boasts an increasing middle class.

    Rwanda Development Board (RDB) Chief Operating Officer Claire Akamanzi in the same investment Road show, said Rwanda is trying to attract foreign investment in infrastructure, especially roads, airports and real estate.

    “The country’s farm sector, which accounts for 34 percent of the country’s GDP and sustains 78 per cent of its population, is open to foreign participation in development of the tea, coffee, horticulture and irrigation sectors, Akamanzi added.

    Stressing on the largely untapped natural resources of the country, she said Rwanda plans to use them to extend power grid coverage to 67 percent of the population by 2012 through a US $ 311 million capital expenditure programme.

    “We have around 50-55 billion cubic metres of methane gas deposits in the lake Kivu area, which can be harnessed to produce electricity and also have identified 333 potential sites for micro-hydro power projects,” Akamanzi noted.

    “The tourism sector booming, still has significant opportunities for growth,” she said adding that there are also major investment opportunities available in the mining, information and communication and financial services space.

    Minister was quick to say that Africa will experience rapid growth in the next two decades and it will be an honour to have India as a part of that experience.

    Indian companies like mobile services Airtel, tea producers Jayshree and Mcleod Russel have already invested in Rwanda.

    Rwanda the land of a thousand hills, has registered a GDP growth rate of 7.1 per cent since 2004 and has been dubbed the fastest reformer of business regulations globally by the World Bank.

  • Blackberry Users To Be Compensated

    Blackberry Users To Be Compensated

    Blackberry users in Rwanda are yet to be compensated for the loss they incurred during the previous three days disconnection.

    Canada’s largest technology campany Research In Motion Ltd (RIM) officials announced today that BlackBerry services had been restored around the world after the worst service outage in the history.

    RIM co-chief executives Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis(Below) said the company had solved the underlying issues which caused a BlackBerry blackout and that they were taking measures to ensure the problem doesn’t reoccur.

    rim.jpg

    According to Yvonne Manzi Makolo the Chief Marketing Officer of MTN Rwanda the telecom company that provided them network, the company is looking into terms of compensating their esteemed clients.

    “Blackberry users are back on service and things should be running normally as usual. We are currently monitoring the traffic usage on our systems but otherwise things are back to normal.” Manzi Makolo has said by her cell phone.

    Manzi Makolo also said that only 3000 blackberry subscribers were affected in Rwanda but have been fully reconnected to the normal service line network.

    Blackberry users in the whole world faced the problem resulting from its system failure at Research In Motion (RIM) Company in Canada.

    This comes minutes after a statement from the blackberry website read “The back-up system did not operate in the way we would expect however, services have improved significantly”

    Robin Bienfait, chief information officer of RIM, the Canada-based owner of Blackberry, issued an apology for the ongoing issues.

    “You’ve depended on us for reliable, real-time communications, and right now we’re letting you down. We are taking this very seriously and have people around the world working around the clock to address this situation,” Bienfait said.

    “We believe we understand why this happened and we are working to restore normal service levels in all markets as quickly as we can.”

  • States,Citizens Should Protect Human Rights,Justice

    Subject to the provisions of the 1995 Uganda constitution, Article 24 states that, “No person shall be subjected to any form of torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”.

    As a member of the United Nations and a signatory to international human rights conventions, Uganda provides a framework within which fundamental and other human rights can be protected and promoted in the country.

    Human Rights are fundamental freedoms, liberties and privileges given by God to all human beings by virtue of being human.

    They are not given by states or any authority of the state; states only facilitate and enhance the smooth flow of promotion and protection of these rights to its citizens or residents irrespective of their sex, age, ethnicity, social and economic status, religious and political affiliation, etc.

    In most African states, the population is always misled that human rights are state given because of ignorance and inadequate civic education.

    Politicians are always afraid of informed masses, and therefore try to limit and hijack this cause to achieve or suit their interests. They press or deny their opponents citizenship rights as well as social and economic rights to hinder their progress.

    They always pretend to embrace democracy- the fountain of good governance but in real sense, curtail it by denying the population the most fundamental rights and freedoms to achieve it.

    If freedom of speech, freedom of movement, freedom of association, freedom to assemble, demonstrate and petition peacefully for the right cause are blocked and left in the hands of the state authority, then what democracy are we talking about?

    The UN Charter of Human Rights recognizes these rights, but unfortunately leaves their observation and protection to member states.

    What is happening in the Middle East and northern Africa is an expression of desperateness. People are tied of tyranny and despotic rule; the rule of people by one man and his/her tribesman or cliques, which has intensified the level of poverty, unemployment and worst of all, insanity among the population.

    Promotion and protection of ethnicity, nepotism and encouragement of corruption are among the concerns of the people, and these must be tackled very fast.

    What happened in Rwanda, Bosnia and Albania should never be repeated anywhere on planet earth. Change of political and governance strategies by leaders to suit the interests of their population is the solution to what happened in Tunisia, Egypt and now Libya, Bahrain, Syria, Yemen, etc.

    It is also true under democracy that, all powers and authority of government and it’s organs are derived from the people who must consent to be governed in accordance to their will.

    However, no person shall be allowed to prejudice the fundamental rights and freedoms of others while enjoying his/ her rights.

    This is a universally accepted liberitarian principle that guides and helps to control freedoms and liberty of individuals in relation to others.

    It is supposed to foster and ensure justice, peaceful co-existence and harmony among the population. That’s why the state and other institutions come in to help highlight and protect the rights of the marginalized, vulnerable and disadvantaged people in their amidst.

    The Author is a Pan Africanist and Researcher

    Email: yousum2001@yahoo.com