Opposition MPs in Acholi take stand on talks with Govt

Gulu, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | A section of opposition legislators from the Acholi Sub-region has opened up on the reasons behind their recent proposal to hold dialogue with the government. This comes amidst speculations that some of the opposition legislators were negotiating to join the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party.

Since September last year, 10 opposition legislators from the region have been holding meetings with top government officials, among them Gen Slim Saleh, the Chief Coordinator of Operation Wealth Creation (OWC). The latest meeting was held on Wednesday at Kacoke Madit Hotel in Gulu City with an eleven-man delegation of government officials led by Gen David Muhoozi, the Minister of State for Internal Affairs.

Okin Ojara, the Chua West Legislator and head of the delegation, however, said Friday that the purpose of their meetings was to present key proposals of a wide range of socio-economic issues that have put the region in perpetual decline. Okin said the perpetual decline cuts across all domains of human development and is manifested in the high levels of poverty, low education, incidence of mental health, high disease and HIV burden, and low agricultural output and industrialization.

According to Okin, they have presented their propositions to the government on areas that need to be addressed, which include compensation for lost livestock and property, fast-tracking of transitional justice law enactment, addressing land conflicts, and ensuring sustainable land management.

Other areas are transparency and inclusivity in the exploitation of minerals, oil and gas, monetizing the economy, agricultural transformation from subsistence to commercial, industrialization and education and skilling, among others.

Gilbert Olanya, the Kilak South member of parliament, noted that while the NRM legislators sit in the NRM Caucus where they discuss government matters, the opposition doesn’t have such access, which prompted them to come together and engage the government.

Olanya said the major issue that they are pushing for is around the rampant land conflicts in the sub-region and cattle compensation woes, which they want the government to intervene and address permanently.

Olanya noted that while they used radical approaches in the past to demand government’s interventions, they have devised a new approach of dialogue with the government in the best interest of development for the Acholi people.

Santa Okot, the Aruu North Legislator in Pader District, said their engagement with the government, despite being in an opposition political party, isn’t illegal because it’s being done transparently. She noted that through their engagement, they will come out with a working document that will help to guide the transformation of the Acholi society from its current state, which has been destroyed by years of armed violence.

Kilak North Legislator Anthony Akol, however, explained that the idea behind engaging with the government started in September last year after President Museveni publicly asked for forgiveness over mistakes made by his government on the people in the Acholi sub-region. Akol said the President’s remarks sparked ideas of reconciliation and plans of engaging the government on how other issues can be addressed.

AKol noted that ever since they started the engagement with the government, the process has been yielding fruits, adding that they expect their proposals to be embraced for the development of the Acholi Sub-region.

Akol, who won the Kilak North Parliamentary seat on the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party ticket in 2021, has since joined the NRM party.

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