Africa-Press – Uganda. L ast Friday, we reported that a new Electoral Commission (EC) post-election report indicates that the number of leadership positions in the country has increased from 1, 314,428 in 2016 to 1,658,260 in 2021. (See Daily Monitor January 28, “Uganda has over 1.6m leaders – EC report”).
According to the story, the new report titled: “The Electoral Commission Report on the 2020/2021 General Elections”, shows that the number of elective positions for general elections has been on the rise since polls of 2001/2002 (711,611), 2005/2006 (768,445), 2010/2011 (948,834), 2015/2016 (1,299,348) and 2020/2021 (1.656, 260).
The EC spokesperson, Mr Paul Bukenya, attributed the increase to the creation of new administrative positions at various governance levels.
While all this is expected and legal because naturally, the population keeps growing, the question to ponder from all these numbers is whether the quantity of leaders and the quality of leadership they accord the people who elect them are harmonised.
We need to see actual results from this huge number of leaders otherwise it will all be a waste of taxpayers’ money organising elections to have them come into office, not to mention the administrative costs that come along with their placement and maintenance in those offices.
There is need to evaluate the quality of leadership being provided rather than simply counting numbers and continually having more because the population will keep growing and new districts, cities will keep being created.
Do we need 1.6 million leaders or a few good men and women who can deliver tangible, quality and timely service to the population? Are there principles such as integrity, strategic and critical thinking, creativity and open-mindedness, transparency, accountability, etc that are being instilled, followed and practiced religiously by these leaders to bring about change in the communities? Are they aware of the new and evolving needs of the people they lead and are they equipped enough to change with the tide to meet them or are they stuck in the past following an outdated leadership template that is irrelevant and inapplicable?
So many questions arise when it comes to leadership and management from the lowest cell to the highest national levels and apart from religiously organising elections to have positions filled and having new ones created, we must take stock of the quality of our leaders.
Let us not simply increase the number of leaders we have, let us ensure that they are effective and relevant.
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