Patrick & all,
We should also note that world is moving away from Government being the provider of livelihood but it works with private sector commercial organisations, civil society and community based organisations. Creating unity among people is not a preserve of government but a collective responsibility, I see many Lugbaras in their nature not interested in being proactive, I know many who sit behind their PC's and chat away in very long emails and add little to the ground. Human beings by nature are sectarian, tribalistic, ethnistic etc. My argument here is if we have failed to stay as a single district let's do something in line with creating avenues for cultural understanding, if our dear government has not sensitized farmers we step in as West-Nile net has started, a combination of positive efforts from government, civil society, religious organisations, CBO's etc Lamenting about what is falling apart is the worst stand to adopt, a simple cultural gala in Arua for Madi's, Alurs'Lugbara's etc can change attitude effectively, Edutainment and upcoming musicians can help lots of things.... Let work in this direction otherwise NRM or other party will face the same human challenges Richard -- Asili Marketing & ICT - "Website & e-Solutions, Marketing Communications and Apprenticeship" Blog: http://asili4us.blogspot.com <http://asili4us.blogspot.com/> Tel +256 312 294857/1 and Mobile +256 772 725252 (Uganda) From: Patrick Ezaga [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: 06 August 2010 09:34 To: A Virtual Network for friends of West Nile Subject: Re: [WestNileNet] "Districtimania" My people, Let me ask; 1. Is it true that in the majority of cases the key reason for asking for a district is to "bring services closer to the people? 2. Doesn't no. 1 above therefore show that the lacking services and the locations where they lack are actually known? 3. If it is possible to marshal the necessary budgets to finance new districts in record time, would it not be wiser to first use these budgets to build/provide the lacking services in the lacking areas then maybe the district can follow? One only needs to visit some of these new districts in order to realise the gaps. I know of one where to this day, civil servants practically work for 2 or three days a week!!! Tuesday - Thursday morning. The rest of the time they retreat to their "parent districts" where they have investments and homes. It will take a while for some pf these places to actually get the services they need. Ez On Fri, Aug 6, 2010 at 8:28 AM, Aluma Adam <[email protected]> wrote: Dear All, It is not true at all in my considered view that the creation of a district does bring division among the local people, how???! This line of argument is devoid of technical and administrative sense and science, otherwise, the Parliament of Uganda would not approve such Districts. The original creation of Moyo, Nebbi and Arua in WestNile never caused division that most of us who see the archives have been able to reveal. It is bad politics, weak personalities and cheap leadership that are the real problem here and must be dealt with head on with the sobriety it deserves. A political 'mix' of issues but narrow objectivity would at best yield a cousin to anarchy...... Keep the thread running. Adam Aluma --- On Thu, 8/5/10, banduga ismail <[email protected]> wrote: From: banduga ismail <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [WestNileNet] "Districtimania" To: "A Virtual Network for friends of West Nile" <[email protected]> Date: Thursday, August 5, 2010, 12:46 PM My brother Drani, There was no other way to express this than you have done. For those who are not in Arua, they have not seen what you have seen. Thanks for having had the heart to let them know as an insider. Who does not know that you are one of the seasoned MCs in the greater Arua district with a strong command of the both the english language and the lugbara dialect? For those who believed that creation of districts at almost every sub county was a way of bringing services closure to the people, be assured that it is not the case. It is a hectic plan to disenfranchise the once united and strong people. What it simply means is that be occuppied with your local hatred so that you don't have the strength to fight any external war. Let us be careful and resist this cancer before it infiltrates other upcoming ventures like the public university. How we do that, I don't know. God save us, Ismail _____ From: Andua Drani <[email protected]> To: A Virtual Network for friends of West Nile <[email protected]> Sent: Thu, 5 August, 2010 18:11:27 Subject: Re: [WestNileNet] "Districtimania" Dear all, I have followed the debate on the District status of Maracha and the Presidents visit keenly The comments particularly by Vasco Oguzua and Patrick Aviku were to the point. For those who dont know me, I work in the District Local Government of Arua where I have served for the last 15 years. The experiences of division, sectarianism and hatred through which we are going now as a result of what I call districtmania is very disheartening and quite often frightening to me. It is in stark contrast with my experiencesof the years before we went into the frenzy of creating the Districts. Unity is breaking down like a pack of cards. Hatred has taken up the place of love and cooperation among, hitherto friends, schoolmates and classmates- all in the name of protecting interests of one's District/'people'. The situation is painful to some of us who chersihed the ideals of unity and friendship. The situation makes me feel ashaamed of what is goin on. Besides, what Patrick has stated ( two friends been separated), some of the worst scenarios have been played out in our local environment. Today, even among us who are the staff serving in these Districts, friendships have broken over creation of Districts. I can comfirm that I have personally lost some of my very good friends with whom I have worked closely over this matter of District creation who have are so excited over this issue. I am sure Ezaga was innocently lured into being an MC for the occasion. There are many things, I am sure if he knew them, he would have thought twice before accepting the 'offer of appoinment of MC'.However, as way of bringing us together, he was right to be there The situation is only fair for many of you members of the westnilenet who are not working in these Districts. Many cricicisms were levelled against Yumbe and Koboko due the practice of sectarianism when they were created. You all remember, for example, the recruitment debacle in Koboko. But I confirm wtih a greater amount of certainity that what I have witnessed in the last two years happening is no match to the case studies of Yumbe and Koboko. I recommend to you to just check the staff list of our last District created ( Maracha )and you will come to terms with challenge of our efforts at unity. I am quite sure if one of the counties got elevated to District status, the situation would only worsen.As many of you are talking about unity of the west nile region, we at the District levels are in love with division. It is now almost impossible for an "outsider" to work in such Districts. Very sadly, these differences have even penetrated some of our churches. As a way of trying to adress these growing divisions, Fr. Ceasar Dralega of Arua Diocese, upon his return from US after 12 years got so concerned and is making some efforts with the Lugbara Agofe to design some programme like Lugbara week- to cultivate a sense of oneness among the Lugbara and Kakwa. The exprerience is that the most affected people in this division has been the former Arua- exclude Moyo, Adjumani and Nebbi. As soon as Maracha- Terego was created, there emerged strong sentiments that those hailing from there should be denied opportunites in the mother District. There were some secret meetings some leaders and our fellow civil servants were organising, sometimes under cover of darkness to discuss how to position themselves more strategically against those from Maracha- Terego. This led to a grouping known as VAM ( Vurra, Ayivu, Madi) so as to defend their 'interests'. Very highly placed leaders are involved in these machinations. All in all, my view is that we face a real problem of unity through the creation of Districts in many parts of West Nile. I have heard some people argue that the creation of Districts help to bring services closer to the people- but how come our grades in PLE, UCE, UACE are going down, low health care etc are going down. I also see that the leaders of alsmost all our Districts have their children studying in Kampala and Wakiso. So for who are the services brought nearer if as soon as a District is created, the leaders take their children and family to access education and health care services very far way. Over to you Andua Martin Drani I greet you all my fellow West Nilers, I would like to thank my brother Oguzu Vasco for his comment on the Presidents offer to Maracha. One thing I would like us to know as people from West Nile is that the president is very happy for finally dividing the two brothers who were giving him hard time. He is jubilating for having separated two brothers who looked inseparable. I wish we West Nilers only understood that simple fact, then we would not be excited of hat has taken place. My plea to all of us is that we should never hate each other for what has happened, but instead show to the whole of Uganda that we can never be divided over stupid and cheap favors to separate us. Let us speak in one voice as we used to do before if we want to achieve great things in West Nile. Good luck as we struggle to develop our place even without much support from the Government. --- On Fri, 7/30/10, Vasco Oguzua <[email protected]> wrote: From: Vasco Oguzua <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [WestNileNet] President's Visit to West Nile To: "A Virtual Network for friends of West Nile" <[email protected]> Date: Friday, July 30, 2010, 4:16 PM Erima Robert, I am not sure what you mean by contribution to a remarkable success of Maracha district. I wonder if there were really any contributions of awarding a district to Maracha other than the usual empty politics and divide and rule philosophy of the president. There is nothing to be proud about Maracha district and I do not think there is anything Maracha district will do better than Terego County even if Terego was not awrded district status. If Luwero region which helped the president achieve his current status has never benefitted from the suffering and inconveiences they experienced during all the dark days of the liberation, why do you think Maracha is a success story compared to all these other counties to which a district has been given. The best examples are not far from Maracha county. Look at Koboko and Yumbe, how have they become better than Maracha county when they were awarded district status some years ago. How have the people in these districts become better than Terego or Ayivu or Vurra counties who have not been awarded districts. I think there is nothing other than the president and the unprincipalled politicians who are not addressing the real problems of people, but rather manipulate the people for votes, especially at this time of elections approcahing at the pretext of awarding Districts. I do not think Terego has anything to loose by not being made a district and I applaud the politicians in Terego for standing firm. There were more developments in West Nile district when it consisted of 10 counties than West Nile now with all its numerous districts. No need to play in the hands of political manipulation of thge president by dividing and causing antagonism with our brothers and sisters in Terego. I think you are educated enough to know that there is nothing Maracha will gain by being a district. The president in coming there to confuse the people for his campaign nothing to gain other than intimidating people with his security people. Vasco Oguzua On Fri, Jul 30, 2010 at 8:41 AM, ERIMA ROBERT <[email protected]> wrote: Members Thanks to all those who contributed to this remarkable success.We welcome the President to our new district.What about our brothers and sisters in Terego.What can we do for them in order to make them happy also.Politicians,civil society and all those stake holders lets also join hands and make our neighbours happy so that development comes to our region. Erima Robert On 7/29/10, oguzu lee <[email protected]> wrote: Dear Members, President Museveni will be visiting West Nile this saturday to lauch Maracha District. Don't we have salient issues as a region to bring to his attention? I see this would be such a unique opporunity to petition him for a number of issues we've complained about instead of only celebrating a district status. Looking forward to hearing from you. Denis Lee Oguzu _______________________________________________ WestNileNet mailing list [email protected] http://orion.kym.net/mailman/listinfo/westnilenet WestNileNet is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ All Archives can be found at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. _______________________________________________ _______________________________________________ WestNileNet mailing list [email protected] http://orion.kym.net/mailman/listinfo/westnilenet WestNileNet is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ All Archives can be found at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). 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