Joy as Museveni commissions Obote road in Lira municipality

President Museveni addresses a rally during the commissioning of the newly constructed Obote Avenue in Lira District in northern Uganda on May 17, 2019. PPU PHOTO

What you need to know:

  • The President admitted that although government has registered big achievements in infrastructural developments such as roads and electricity, poverty is still a big challenge his government is faced with. He reiterated that it was because of poverty that he is currently traversing the country to encourage households to abandon subsistence farming and adopt commercial production.

LIRA. President Museveni has commissioned the newly constructed Obote Avenue which is one of the three roads constructed in the business center of Lira municipality in northern Uganda.
The others are Soroti and Kwania roads. The function to commission the three roads and coronation park was held on Obote Avenue in front of Lira main market.
The road was named Obote Avenue in recognition of the late President of Uganda, Dr Apollo Milton Obote, the founding President of Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) party who was also father of the current UPC President Jimmy Akena who doubles as Lira Municipality MP.

The President commissioned municipality roads measuring a total of 2.8kms constructed at a cost of Shs 21.4 billion including the beautification of the coronation park under the World Bank funded Uganda Support to Municipal Infrastructure Development (USMID) programme.
The work was awarded to Chinese company, Chongqing International Construction Corporation –CICO which completed the work in December 2018.

The Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development is implementing Uganda Support to Municipal Infrastructure Development (USMID) program, designed to enhance the institutional performance of 14 municipal councils so as to improve urban service delivery.
Speaking at the function to commission the roads and the coronation park, Mr Museveni said the NRM government having built the major roads was now committed to building the smaller roads in municipalities to ease access and improve service delivery.

“NRM believes in a one by one policy - prioritisation. We set up priorities because it is not possible to work on all issues at the same time. Now that we have done the big roads, we can start doing the small ones to ease access for our people,” he said.
Addressing a public rally earlier on Friday afternoon Mr Museveni disclosed that the long awaited Akii Bua memorial stadium will be constructed with funding from foreign partners.
Mr Museveni’s statement came as a result of several demands by leaders from Lango region who have been putting pressure on him to fulfill his pledges. The stadium was a pledge by the president in 2016 election campaigns. He had promised that it would be constructed and upgraded to a national standard in memory of Uganda’s first Olympic gold medalist, John Akii-Bua.

The latest reminder was done on Friday by the Vice Chairperson of National Woman Council, Ms Linda Auma during a public rally the President addressed at Abongorwot primary school in Agali sub-county Lira District. Ms Auma who is also the Resident District Commissioner (RDC) of Amuru took advantage of being the programme controller to tell the President that in the whole of Lango sub-region, there isn’t any stadium.

“The Langi are sports lovers as evident by the high number of football funs which normally grace the ongoing province FUFA drum. Your Excellency I am reminding you about the issue of Akii-Bua stadium. I am also requesting you to donate a vehicle to our football team because right now, they don’t have any means of transport to travel to various regions where they are supposed to play,” Ms Auma said.
In response the President said the government has a programme of constructing the stadium.

“We have got a programme of constructing Akii-Bua. We shall use one of our external partners like we did with Namboole,” he said.
The President admitted that although government has registered big achievements in infrastructural developments such as roads and electricity, poverty is still a big challenge his government is faced with. He reiterated that it was because of poverty that he is currently traversing the country to encourage households to abandon subsistence farming and adopt commercial production.
He said that part of the great north road from Tororo to Kamdini was constructed when South Sudan was still under the rule of the Arabs of Sudan and by then, there was low cargo trucks plying between Mombasa and Juba but now because of the high cargo, the government has embarked on reconstructing that section of the road afresh to accommodate heavy traffic.

“Even after completing this road which passes through Lira, you are not going to bring your mattress out at night and sleep on the road. You must work hard to fight poverty in your households”, the President said.
“You came here to this rally but you will go back to your homes and still find poverty waiting for you and you will be greeted by it,” Museveni added.
The president on Friday evening concluded his tour in Lango region by holding a press conference at Lira hotel.