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| Abim woman MP Juliana Auma and First Lady Janet Museveni during a visit to Arid-land Development Program beneficiaries |
THIS is a letter. A notelet from home away from home. Boy, this is a one man’s outlook on the political and development questions back home. Thanks to Marshall McLuhan and his vision of the Global village several years ago.
In his book, The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man (1962) , McLuhan predicted media that would turn into “an extension of consciousness”. The fact that today we easily can link up and share information, good or bad with communities whom we are connected to through the World Wide Web and the internet is a live spectacle of McLuhan’s dream decades back.
Thank God this technology has moved fast and getting even faster. Apparently, my own people in Abim district are aboard this contemporary international flight! Through Abim Development Forum (ADF), we are now able to share and seek views from all concerned fellow human beings from all over the globe. Sometimes, -yes we bite each other a lot but most times, we do it for the better. Boy, let’s keep this up, -Nothing to fear, nothing to fury us.
The hottest topic in any land of human beings can be related to nothing more than politics. Abim is therefore not excluded. Electorates always have their own deeply held believes on various leaders. You will not discover enough if you go analog today. We enjoy more through ADF and boy; several observations ought to be validated. The question of how to validate people’s issues can only hang on the sky. However, we can give our views and hope that most people will buy and sell to those who are yet to come home. Home – to the global village. We anticipate and pray hard. We pray that those with no www connections will one day equally join us as china keeps inventing more pocket friendly equipments for everyone.
Back to the point! My people in Abim have blamed the dawdling development of the district on corruption. They are wrong. Some have decried the poor leadership of individuals. They are liars. Others argue that the central government is the problem. They are day dreaming. Could it be limited local resources? It can’t be. Not. No!
In my view, the real problem lies in the coordination, cooperation and trust for one another. I have always used the wheelbarrow theory to explain the development jumbles in Abim district. My consistent feeling is that all our leaders especially the elected ones have failed to uphold a string that should put them together in front of their electorates.
I thought our leaders should work in such a way that, when Hon. Michael hits a jackpot of development ideas and he is rolling it on a wheelbarrow to Thur soil, his colleague Hon Juliana smilingly supports him by pushing the wheelbarrow from the sides and vice-versa. Back home, Chairman Norman supported by his councilors and the district technical team would be pulling the wheelbarrow home by a rope. Sadly however, our leaders have not crossed this threshold. We are still far.
In Gulu, during the time of Norbert Mao as MP and Walter Ochora as LCV, you could see the true spirit of working together despite holding different political views. Ochora was NRM and Mao a DP die-hard and an ardent critic of president Museveni. However, when it comes to matters concerning their electorates, matters of the Acholi, issues of development, issues that pertains the national dividend for their own people, Walter and Mao would put their hands together and speak one language.
Similar disagreements on political ideas and complete agreement on community development strategies are also evident in most other parts of the Country. The problem with our leaders in Abim is -that burning personal egos. That high level of individualism. That spirit of ‘no one will manage me’. Unfortunately, it only puts our communities in tatters. It injures our share of the national cake since our representatives don’t work together to bring raided animals home. Well, the leaders get away with these mistakes; but, boy the grass suffers. The electorates suffer the consequences and it goes on retarding development of the district.
Look at these scenarios; at Morulinga where we would have expected a solid team to woo and challenge M7 on our issues like health; with the hospital falling asunder. The question of poor road connections. The facts about education bursary for our children etc. We seem to have not presented these critical agenda to the president as a team. We seem to have gone there to disagree with each other. The president can only afford to say; go back home and sort your internal glitches. When you are done, you may come back and compete with others for the national share. Even our in-house threats like issues of land; where neighbors have continued inching into our soil every day. Our leaders do not seem to cooperate to save us. One day we may wake up and realize we are living in someone’s land. Should we really keep this temperament?
The big question: How do we collect our leaders together to discuss and agree together on ways of working together to develop our district and Country together like the Americans do! Where is the answer dear brethrens? Home@ www.owiny.blogspot.com
