The Problems of Amuru is testament to the failure of Acholi leadership
The Problems of Amuru is testament to the failure of Acholi leadership
When some of us point out from the sidelines, the afflictions that have for the most part been wilfully imposed on Acholi, we are dismissed as a lunatic fringe, more emotional than rational, and out of touch with the realities at home. We are the spoilers.
You would think that, given constant flogging and cynical and snide remarks against such voices, we might recoil into our inner selves and shy away from opening our mouths when it is least of our business to meddle. Unfortunately, we are still egragious animals; we seek and like community and we are not going to fold our hands and watch a community we still feel and think we are part of, consumed by fires whose sparks we should have put out and whose conflagration, should have been contained if not prevented.
Which brings me to the shame that is Amuru District; that enclave of greed, the symbol of the worse of the vesitiges of ancient regimes, where carts actually push horses rather than horses pulling carts; and where, you can actually choose not to go to work and get paid and be proud of it, not because you are snowed in and the bridges are washed out and there is word on the street that the sherrifs and their deputies are out and will shoot on sight and to kill, anybody and any vehicle other than the police, ambulances, snow ploughs and other emergency crafts and personnel, found abroad and obstructing emergencies operations and rescue efforts.
Of course there is no such emergency edict, and Amuru, in northern Uganda, has not been blasted and blistered by the fiercest blizzard and the heaviest snow storm ever recorded in human history, and never will. But what you might have fallen for, for some ingenius inventions for circumventing clogged roads and red eyes and road rage and pollution suffered and caused by commuting motorists to and from work, is infact not telecommuting as you and I in the real world know. It is in fact, civil servants in a tiny enclave of northern Uganda, by the might River Nile, foregoing the bother to travel to their offices 50 miles away, for trying to accomplish their tasks at bars, and such other places of leisure. They cannot commute, not because they are green minded about CO2 emissions from their vehicles; nor that the roads are clogged chokeful of traffic and they would rather not take the risks. But it is that, the roads are empty and light carbon footprints be damned, if these guys and gals could hop onto even the worse CO2 emitting vehicle to take them to their non-existent offices in the new Amuru District.
As the article from The Daily Monitor Monitor:
http://www.monitor.co.ug/artman/publish/news/Amuru_s_remote_controlled_civil_service_74999.shtml
made clear, all the civil servants for the new district reside in Gulu Town, the siamese twin of the young and doomed Amuru district from which it was curved out. The problem is that, the dictator of Uganda, General Yoweri Museveni, who rules by decree behind a veil of parliamentary formalities, woke up in a dream in the middle of the night and decreed that there shall be a new district curved out of Gulu District, to be called Amuru. And lo and behold, it was done. The problem is, there was no infrastructure to support the kind of activities, that have been proclaimed over the area-no housing, no transport, no administrative blocks, but just open country by the bank of the Nile, dotted with a few private homes here and there, but largely just humble wattle and thatched huts for humble victims of Dictators Museveni's 23 year pogrom against the Acholi people who are the inhabitants here.
Why on earth wasn't the capital of Amuru not located in Anaka-with all its ready infrastructures? What were the people who sit on these committees that planned and recommended for siting and facilities locations for the young district of Amuru thinking?
If these woes are as bad as they are told, then woe betides the man or woman who stands in the way of dissolving Amuru District so it reverts to the status quo ante when there was bigger, better, robust, and viable Gulu District and Acholi a lilttle more unified than divided as it is today.
If I were to offer any advice, I would say without hesitation: Liquidate Amuru. It is not viable. It is a detraction and a waste of scarce resources and a source of destructive, rather than constructive conflicts for Acholi.
For those Amuru elite who think of two or three administrative posts the district offers, and are more content with symbolism rather than real, tangible, and measurable development and positive impacts on the lives of our people, let us resolve to have them made chiefs of their clans. If every clan in Amuru already has chiefs as I am afraid they might, then there must be vacancies for court jesters at Rwakitura, a job they have been doing already. So a change in location does not matter, since the job description and functions remain the same.
As things stand at the moment, Pathetic, is too mild to sum it up. And the blame for the failures in Amuru cannot be limited only to those now directly charged with working for a district that does not exist. The responsibility for this debacle extends far and wide. When I hear some of Acholi's most enlightened and gifted, are waiting to win party leaderships and become presidents before they can show leadership and concerns at home, I shudder for the hapless people who must perenially be used as blank canvass and solid but dead and unfeeling plinth to hoist or shore up every upstart and dubious politician's personal agenda. Even if they happen to be Acholi, let their record for the past 23 years speak for themselves on their positions and a ctions on the major issues critical to the welfare of the Acholi people. It is not enough to wrap oneself in an Acholi flag, on the 11th hour, of the last day of the 11th month, of the last 23 years, and think that Acholi must vote solely on kinship and primeval ties, when the most notorious gaolers and hangmen in the last 23 years have been kins and kith for whom, wealth amidst poverty and career advancement over dead kinsmen's and kinswomen's bodies were marks of patriotism and loyalty and diligent service.
The problems of the last 23 years does not need that a president must come from Acholi or northern Uganda before it can become legitimate national issue requiring firm and decisive state action to remedy. It is a moral, rights, leadership, national policy failure and civic citizenship expectations in its own rights; and as legitimate as any, regardless of who is in power and from which region the next Ugandan president comes. In the our view, and in the broader interest of Acholi, an Acholi identity for the next Ugandan president is not such a sure selling point than that he or she be one committed to justice, civic citizenship rights, obligations and expectations and that he or she is a true believer in constitutional democracy and the rights of people to demand better of their government. And that, its less fortunate members and those victimised by the state and its agents, will get their just desserts.
If the last 23 years in Acholi, the failures of meaningful Acholi-centred leadership on peace talks and settlement to the conflict, and shambles of public service and social infrastructurres symbolised by Amuru District is any indicators to go by, it is prudent to say that it is a great leap of faith, to think that there is an Acholi leader in local or national government now, capable and deserving of Acholi confidence in their leadership credentials and that of their party, for the Acholi to vote for him or her, and his or her party, as the next president and ruling party of Uganda. Or even as compromise candidate for the opposition.
Charity begins at home. What have you done for Acholi lately? As my brother and compatriot at
http://www.odiyatalks.9hz.com/
would say, talk is cheap. It has been 23 years. Where have you been buddy?
When some of us point out from the sidelines, the afflictions that have for the most part been wilfully imposed on Acholi, we are dismissed as a lunatic fringe, more emotional than rational, and out of touch with the realities at home. We are the spoilers.
You would think that, given constant flogging and cynical and snide remarks against such voices, we might recoil into our inner selves and shy away from opening our mouths when it is least of our business to meddle. Unfortunately, we are still egragious animals; we seek and like community and we are not going to fold our hands and watch a community we still feel and think we are part of, consumed by fires whose sparks we should have put out and whose conflagration, should have been contained if not prevented.
Which brings me to the shame that is Amuru District; that enclave of greed, the symbol of the worse of the vesitiges of ancient regimes, where carts actually push horses rather than horses pulling carts; and where, you can actually choose not to go to work and get paid and be proud of it, not because you are snowed in and the bridges are washed out and there is word on the street that the sherrifs and their deputies are out and will shoot on sight and to kill, anybody and any vehicle other than the police, ambulances, snow ploughs and other emergency crafts and personnel, found abroad and obstructing emergencies operations and rescue efforts.
Of course there is no such emergency edict, and Amuru, in northern Uganda, has not been blasted and blistered by the fiercest blizzard and the heaviest snow storm ever recorded in human history, and never will. But what you might have fallen for, for some ingenius inventions for circumventing clogged roads and red eyes and road rage and pollution suffered and caused by commuting motorists to and from work, is infact not telecommuting as you and I in the real world know. It is in fact, civil servants in a tiny enclave of northern Uganda, by the might River Nile, foregoing the bother to travel to their offices 50 miles away, for trying to accomplish their tasks at bars, and such other places of leisure. They cannot commute, not because they are green minded about CO2 emissions from their vehicles; nor that the roads are clogged chokeful of traffic and they would rather not take the risks. But it is that, the roads are empty and light carbon footprints be damned, if these guys and gals could hop onto even the worse CO2 emitting vehicle to take them to their non-existent offices in the new Amuru District.
As the article from The Daily Monitor Monitor:
http://www.monitor.co.ug/artman/publish/news/Amuru_s_remote_controlled_civil_service_74999.shtml
made clear, all the civil servants for the new district reside in Gulu Town, the siamese twin of the young and doomed Amuru district from which it was curved out. The problem is that, the dictator of Uganda, General Yoweri Museveni, who rules by decree behind a veil of parliamentary formalities, woke up in a dream in the middle of the night and decreed that there shall be a new district curved out of Gulu District, to be called Amuru. And lo and behold, it was done. The problem is, there was no infrastructure to support the kind of activities, that have been proclaimed over the area-no housing, no transport, no administrative blocks, but just open country by the bank of the Nile, dotted with a few private homes here and there, but largely just humble wattle and thatched huts for humble victims of Dictators Museveni's 23 year pogrom against the Acholi people who are the inhabitants here.
Why on earth wasn't the capital of Amuru not located in Anaka-with all its ready infrastructures? What were the people who sit on these committees that planned and recommended for siting and facilities locations for the young district of Amuru thinking?
If these woes are as bad as they are told, then woe betides the man or woman who stands in the way of dissolving Amuru District so it reverts to the status quo ante when there was bigger, better, robust, and viable Gulu District and Acholi a lilttle more unified than divided as it is today.
If I were to offer any advice, I would say without hesitation: Liquidate Amuru. It is not viable. It is a detraction and a waste of scarce resources and a source of destructive, rather than constructive conflicts for Acholi.
For those Amuru elite who think of two or three administrative posts the district offers, and are more content with symbolism rather than real, tangible, and measurable development and positive impacts on the lives of our people, let us resolve to have them made chiefs of their clans. If every clan in Amuru already has chiefs as I am afraid they might, then there must be vacancies for court jesters at Rwakitura, a job they have been doing already. So a change in location does not matter, since the job description and functions remain the same.
As things stand at the moment, Pathetic, is too mild to sum it up. And the blame for the failures in Amuru cannot be limited only to those now directly charged with working for a district that does not exist. The responsibility for this debacle extends far and wide. When I hear some of Acholi's most enlightened and gifted, are waiting to win party leaderships and become presidents before they can show leadership and concerns at home, I shudder for the hapless people who must perenially be used as blank canvass and solid but dead and unfeeling plinth to hoist or shore up every upstart and dubious politician's personal agenda. Even if they happen to be Acholi, let their record for the past 23 years speak for themselves on their positions and a ctions on the major issues critical to the welfare of the Acholi people. It is not enough to wrap oneself in an Acholi flag, on the 11th hour, of the last day of the 11th month, of the last 23 years, and think that Acholi must vote solely on kinship and primeval ties, when the most notorious gaolers and hangmen in the last 23 years have been kins and kith for whom, wealth amidst poverty and career advancement over dead kinsmen's and kinswomen's bodies were marks of patriotism and loyalty and diligent service.
The problems of the last 23 years does not need that a president must come from Acholi or northern Uganda before it can become legitimate national issue requiring firm and decisive state action to remedy. It is a moral, rights, leadership, national policy failure and civic citizenship expectations in its own rights; and as legitimate as any, regardless of who is in power and from which region the next Ugandan president comes. In the our view, and in the broader interest of Acholi, an Acholi identity for the next Ugandan president is not such a sure selling point than that he or she be one committed to justice, civic citizenship rights, obligations and expectations and that he or she is a true believer in constitutional democracy and the rights of people to demand better of their government. And that, its less fortunate members and those victimised by the state and its agents, will get their just desserts.
If the last 23 years in Acholi, the failures of meaningful Acholi-centred leadership on peace talks and settlement to the conflict, and shambles of public service and social infrastructurres symbolised by Amuru District is any indicators to go by, it is prudent to say that it is a great leap of faith, to think that there is an Acholi leader in local or national government now, capable and deserving of Acholi confidence in their leadership credentials and that of their party, for the Acholi to vote for him or her, and his or her party, as the next president and ruling party of Uganda. Or even as compromise candidate for the opposition.
Charity begins at home. What have you done for Acholi lately? As my brother and compatriot at
http://www.odiyatalks.9hz.com/
would say, talk is cheap. It has been 23 years. Where have you been buddy?
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