Fellow WestNilers, I am quite impressed with the posts members on the forum have posted in response to the exclusion of the region from the National Grid of the newly commissioned dam at Karuma, though the dam is not yet built. Whatever the reason(s) is (are) for the exclusion of the region from the National grid, we can all speculate. >From the responses most members seem to point to our MP's/Ministers to lobby the authorities in power/government for the region to be connected. While I do agree that our MP's/ministers can help in that front, I wonder why we are quick to point to our MP's/Ministers. Knowing the political division within our MP's due to party politics, and If power belongs to the people I think our politicians (MP's /Ministers) power can only be derived from the people who feel excluded from the government services despite that fact that they pay taxes to the government like people in other regions. If the West Nile Foundation was a well formed organization whose goal is among others, to advocate for and promote quality living standards of the people, this is the kind of advocacy the organization should be leading. We have failed to organize and form a strong civic organization that should be able to lead in tackling such problems, but we are quick to point to our MP's and Ministers and, talk about how they are not working together to look at the interests of West Nile region. I think before we should point fingers at the MP's /Ministers, we have reflect on what we have done to organize ourselves as a strong civic society organization. The strength of our MP's/Ministers can only be derived from the strength of the people they represent - we are the people they represent. Because we are disorganized and very individualistic and even manipulative within and amongst ourselves, we have failed to have a strong formidable organization that can speak with a strong united voice to address some of the injustices the government has done to the development of the region. For example Nyagak which took probably 10 years or so was supposed to produce I believe 3 or 3.5 MW, but what did we get, a paltry 1.8 MW or something like that. What was our reaction to this. Moreover the president clearly stated that we did not need too much power as most of our population live in grass thatched houses. What was our reaction to this kind of derogative statement by the head of state to his subjects in a region. We were excluded from the Fibre Optics Communication Network and yet energy and communications network are vital infrastructure for development. What was our reaction? It is my belief that planning for the development of our region should not be left to the government or our MP's/Ministers. We the people of the regions should take the responsibility of planning for development in the region and we should engage the government as a partner. Sometime back in 2009/2010 when the issue of the government giving Public University West Nile came up, I had a serious disagreement with some members on this forum about the government giving us University, because I thought and still think that if we were an organized community, we should be responsible for determining our regions development priorities, based on our immediate needs, not the government determining what is or not good for us. While we would like to develop our region, such a development will not be achieved without adequate energy, water and communications which are key initial ingredients for development of any region.If we are still struggling with energy and communications I do not think we have yet began to think of the water problems we are going to experience when and if we are going to have the energy resources we are struggling for to build factories or industries we envisage. I even wonder if the majority of the population in West Nile is aware of these issues we are discussing and what they think or say? If they are not, whose responsibility is it to inform, educate and empower the people who have no access to radio, TV and or internet, or newspapers???? I feel a strong civic organization like West Nile Foundation would have been the organization to lead in such advocacy in developmental issues and lobbying in concert with our MP's/Ministers. We need to reflect on why West Nile Foundation is in the state it is now and what we must do to make it a formidable people's organization to tackle such problems. It seems to me the exclusion of the region from the National Grid is a deliberate political gimmick since 2016 at the corner. It is a ploy intended to be used as a bargaining tool to twist and force the people of the region to kneel and beg to be connected, and in return pay by voting for the NRM. Was Barifa forestland occupation not used as a ploy to pay veterans' retirement allowances instead of using financial institutions? When actually Barifa was used as stage for distributing money brought in trailers to by votes in West Nile. Was the tarmacking of the Arua - Karuma road not used to solicit votes then? I am not sure if the West Nile region is in the development agenda of the government as a part of the country that needs development. Otherwise, what is the credible explanation for the region to be excluded from such vital infrastructure development - the burden is on us as sons and daughters of the region to take the responsibility to demand what is due to us if we are equal citizens of this country called Uganda - but first we have to organize and form a united front to demand what is due to us with integrity and pride.
Vasco On Tue, Aug 13, 2013 at 2:18 AM, George Afi Obitre-Gama <[email protected]>wrote: > > http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Museveni-commissions-Karuma/-/688334/1945700/-/2yba3gz/-/index.html > > Hello Members, see news link above. > > I had thought that our MPs had spearheaded the lobbying of connection of > West Nile region to the national grid to solve our energy problems!! From > the link above, I was wrong!! > > The elecrical energy from Karuma HPP shall be evacuated to Kawanda > Substation(260km from Karuma), Kamdini(13km from Karuma)and Lira( 85km from > Karuma). The Pakwach line through Nwoya/Amuru is not mentioned > anywhere(about 110 km from Karuma). > > I suggested before that our MPs in West Nile ought to have lobbied for the > connection to the National Grid which shall solve the outage problems in > West Nile. The Nyagak 1&2(isolated grid) can then be used as back-up power > after through syncronization with the National Grid. > > Hon Jachan Omach, Hon Aridru, Hon Atiku, Hon Onzima, Hon Bako etc, kindly > do the neeedful for our region. > > Hon Aridru, you need to take this up as a priority even if it means > getting additional funding!! > > Members, what do you think? > > George > > > > _______________________________________________ > WestNileNet mailing list > [email protected] > http://orion.kym.net/mailman/listinfo/westnilenet > > WestNileNet is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ > > 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. > _______________________________________________ > >
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