President Museveni has promised to work on key issues affecting Obongi in the West Nile sub region, including extending electricity to the district for the first time ever.
On Friday, the NRM chairman for Obongi, Abibu Buga Khemis Awadi, made a passionate plea to the president to consider extending electricity to the district for the first time ever.
“Obongi is the only district in the country without power in. We are requesting that at least the poles reach Obongi,” he asked Museveni during a rally at
He also asked that government constructs a bridge to connect Obongi to Adjumani since the ferry they have been using broke down.
The NRM LC5 chairman told Museveni that since over 80% of the population in the district lives in rural areas with poverty levels at 62%, double than the national level at 31%, majority of them are farmers.
He asked Museveni to help support them.
“I am requesting that you support the people of Obongi in form of machines, tractors for mechanization and seeds.”
The NRM chairman also reported to Museveni that the roads are in a very sorry state, making them impassable, especially during the rainy season.
The road from Obongi to Moyo disturbs. It is very bad and has painted a bad picture for your government. Also, the road from Adjumani to Obongi then to Arua. In fact, Obongi is a landlocked district when it rains heavily,” he said.
He also asked for compensation of Kony war victims.
Museveni Answers
When he stood up to speak, President Museveni admitted that Obongi district has been isolated for many years, even before he came to power.
“I was here in 1979/ 80 and it is when I started knowing the problems of Obongi. When I came into government, I was aware of the problem of isolation of Obongi. It was part of Moyo and Adjumani but isolated. Although population was small, these people are living in a small corner. We gave you a district deliberately because of geography and isolation,” Museveni told the gathering.
The president said the problem of electricity that had been raised is known to him but allayed their fears.
“Obongi is the only district in Uganda together with Buvuma that don’t have electricity. Money has been secured and I want to tell you we are going to bring electricity to Obongi. We are going to use a world bank loan to do this. This money is already secured and are now doing procurement. That debt is paid because the money is there and once it is here, there is nothing else,” Museveni said, attracting ululations from the crowd .
He told the gathering that unlike others, NRM does things systematically, noting that even before coming to power, he identified the mistakes committed by previously governments and committed to change the situation.
“We had bad politics at independence which failed and the country collapsed. It was wrong politics of sectarianism of tribes, religions and others. However, NRM stands for good politics. Some of us old people were members of old political parties but we left them to form NRM. This is the first reason we ask Ugandans to continue supporting NRM because we have brought peace and good politics,” he said.
He mentioned that because the NRM doesn’t discriminate while recruiting those to serve in the army, police and other government position, one of the sons of the land of Obongi, the late Brigadier Hussein Adda served in the UPDF for many years.
“I am reading from one of the briefs that one of our commanders, the late Brigadier Hussein Ada was from here but I dint know. He was commanding our general headquarters in Bombo. That shows we don’t discriminate while recruiting in army and police. That is how we have been able to build a strong army and Uganda is like an island of peace in this part of the world.”
He also said that out of the six sub counties of Obongi, one has health centre IV, three have health centre IIIs and only two sub counties don’t have any health facilities, in the next term of office, things are going to improve.
“We are going to solve this issue by building health centre IIIs and a district hospital,” Museveni said.
He said roads in the district are going to worked upon but urged district engineers to ensure that even those that are not tarmacked are in good shape and passable even during the rainy season.
Wealth creation
Museveni didn’t leave the podium without reminding the population of their cardinal role to create wealth for themselves.
He said while government has a duty to ensure development, it was an individual initiative for every household to engage in wealth creation.
“I was in Yumbe and the tarmac road has already reached there. I asked them whether at night they sleep on tarmac. Do you say there is development in my area and so I will sleep on the road? No, you sleep in the house. So, if you sleep in the house, when you go back at night, the poverty you left at home will be waiting. That’s why we always tell our people to make distinction between development which is for all of us and wealth is for you as an individual or family or company.”
Museveni said with the Parish Development Model, Ugandans can use the funds sent to them to invest in agriculture and other ventures to ensure they get involved in wealth creation.
He however reminded them of voting for him and all the NRM flag bearers.