President Museveni has unveiled a basket of goodies that he said await the voters of Madi Okollo in the next term if they vote him for president for the next five years.
Museveni who is currently campaigning in West Nile sub region told a gathering at Ajai sports stadium on Monday afternoon that in the coming term, the district will get new roads, health facilities and schools.
“When I come to Madi Okollo and I see electric poles, I feel very happy. I can see most of you are holding phones in your pockets. It shows development has come to your area. We had to struggle on roads even when we didn’t have money to bring tarmac to West Nile. All the way from Kampala to Karuma and now Koboko,” Museveni said on Monday afternoon.
“We now have plans to work on other roads in this area. The Pakwach -Rhino Camp is among roads to be tarmacked but also the one from Nebbi to Zombo to Arua. We are currently working on the Atiak to Adjumani to Moyo through Yumbe to Koboko.”
Schools
Museveni told the crowd that ululated whenever he made a point that currently, there are 69 government primary schools and 26 private ones in Madi-Okollo while the district also has six government secondary schools and 10 private ones.
He noted that the district has 46 parishes with 32 hosting at least on government primary schools and with 12 sub counties, the six have at least one government school.
The NRM presidential candidate was however quick to take a swipe at planner for not evenly distributing the government schools in the district.
“Madi Okollo has got 46 parishes and 32 of them hosting at least one primary school. This is part of the problem of planning. The government primary schools are 69 and parishes are 46. If we were careful to put in each parish a primary school, each one of them would have. But it seems in planning you have a parish with no primary school yet others have more than two. This should be sorted out at local level,” he said.
Museveni added,” Although the schools are 69, there are 14 parishes without any . We are therefore constructing one seed secondary school. We are constructing a seed school in the six and remaining with only five .The plan is to have all sub counties with government secondary schools. When you support us, we shall build 8 primary schools in the 14 parishes without primary schools.”
He noted that government will construct secondary schools in the five sub-counties which don’t have.
Health facilities
According to data from the district, of the 12 sub-counties that Madi-Okollo has, there one health centre IV and nine health centre IIIs with only two sub-counties without any health centre.
However, Museveni said in the upcoming term, the area is going to eat big,
“In the coming government we are to upgrade Rhino camp health centre IV to a general hospital, upgrade the health centre II to III, construct a new health cente III in Anyiribu sub county, work towards total eradication of malaria, use ICT to track medicine and fight absenteeism of health workers and construct houses for health workers to ensure all health facilities are well equipped.”
Wealth creation
Museveni however told the gathering that despite the development achieved , there is need to focus on wealth creation.
He said since 1996, government has invested in several poverty eradication programs including Entandikwa, Bonna bagaggawale, NAADs, Operation Wealth Creation and the Parish Development Model.
He said these are aimed at ensuring every Uganda joins the money economy.
“The problem with development is that many people get confused. For instance, we constructed road from Karuma to Koboko some years ago and we have all these health centres and schools. But at night, you don’t sleep on the tarmac but to your own house and the poverty you left in the morning is waiting for you. Development is for all of us but wealth is for you as an individual. All those programs have been put in place to deal with the problem of poverty in your homes.”
He added, “We have so far sent shs14 billion for wealth creation as part of PDM and 13,000 households representing 36% have benefitted. With PDM, you can easily get out of poverty. I am appealing to you to use PDM money to get out of poverty. If you have money in your home you are supporting the country. Even the things you are talking about, the roads and schools , they need money and government gets it from taxes. Consumer taxes are got when you buy cement to build a house, there is some small tax on each bag, when you by sugar, alcohol, bicycle, motorcycle, there fuel on it and on fuel you use. When you don’t have income in your home and don’t buy from shops, you are paralysing us. We cant move. We do things but from few people as majority are not contributing.”
He asked the locals to listen to the NRM gospel and use money from the Parish Development Model program to get out of poverty.