Politics is now relegated to the background in support of socio-economic development. The Speaker of the National Assembly presented the situation in Burundi to a Swiss delegation of the ’’Peace and Human Rights’’ Division on Tuesday, November 8, 2022. The Swiss Cooperation Office in Burundi accompanied this delegation, while the Speaker of the National Assembly was surrounded by some MPs who are members of the bureaus of the committees.
To illustrate this argument, the Rt Hon Gelase Daniel Ndabirabe took as an eloquent testimony the introduction of the program budget policy. This instrument will certainly raise the GDP, which will lead to the betterment of the population.
In addition, other concrete measures are sufficient proof that the country has already gained momentum in terms of development. These include the demolition of buildings that had been encroaching on the national roads. This decision, which did not affect many Burundians, was necessary in order to be in harmony with other countries of the East African Community. The country also plans to build administrative buildings in the political capital of Gitega.
Another illustrative case concerns the decongestion of the city by pushing motorcyclists and drivers of small taxis commonly called ’tukutuku’ to the urban periphery. Most of those drivers left the households from where they were attached as household servants. Their ignorance of traffic regulations led to traffic accidents. These cases of accidents have considerably decreased. Even the people concerned with those mentioned cases are aware of this. Only as an accompanying measure, we are now dealing with the rehabilitation of the road system.
While welcoming the contribution of the Swiss cooperation office in Burundi in strengthening the members of parliament on the program budget policy, the Speaker of the Lower House of the Burundian Parliament recalled that if it had not been for the pressing need, the integration process would have started instead.
He then moved on to the philosophical concept of control of government action. How can one see the inside from the outside when one is also aware of the separation of powers. The law is the essence of the Parliament but the regulation is the responsibility of the Executive, which implies the existence of barriers.
Another desire of the Speaker of the National Assembly is that Burundian and Swiss parliamentarians should be able to meet face-to-face and talk. In addition, the Speaker of the National Assembly pleaded for support for two operational cooperative societies at the National Assembly.
This issue, which is not the responsibility of the Executive, from which the Swiss cooperation office in Burundi starts, is going slowly, if not, the Office has already transmitted the complaint.
Furthermore, the guests took note of all the requests made by the Speaker of the National Assembly who received a gift from the delegation at the end.