The people of Acholi need leaders, not dealers

Robert Mugabe

What you need to know:

Dealers. We are lacking leaders who are genuinely interested in protecting, defending and advocating for land to be utilised for the benefit of the common man. What we have are dealers who are pursuing personal interests

On July 16, at Tangi village, Nwoya District, we buried Mzee Savio Ojok Awany, an old man who in life, as in death, stirs controversy. He was a typical African man who married several women and sired quite a number of children. Mzee Ojok Awany is the father of Lt Gen Charles Otema Awany and NRM deputy secretary general Richard Todwong, among others. His burial attracted people from all walks of life. Several dignitaries, including the prime minister, attended.
Several people spoke. This unnecessarily dragged the burial programme for a long time. As the speeches progressed, the mourners became impatient and noisy.
In the end, some of the most important speeches were drowned out. Awany’s body was eventually laid to rest at about 6pm. But one speech couldn’t go unnoticed. Gen Salim Saleh’s.
It seems he wasn’t very impressed with the way the local NRM leaders and military officers were handling Operation Wealth Creation.
It needs to be noted that there is a pervasive cancer that has eaten away any semblance of leadership in Uganda. This is true for both local and national levels. Little wonder, our leaders care less about the plight of the common man.
This reminds me of a meeting I attended on August 14, 2017, convened by Acholi Paramount Chief David Onen Acana II at his palace in Gulu Town. In attendance were Acholi Members of Parliament (MPs), religious and traditional leaders and a few other people from other sectors of society.
The meeting was convened to discuss Minister of Lands Betty Amongi’s pronouncement that Amuru land would be forcefully surveyed to give Madhvani access for sugarcane farming. Apparently, the President had invited Acholi MPs to discuss this matter. The invitation was occasioned by minister Amongi’s attempts to undertake the forceful survey.
The people of Amuru rejected her attempts by staging massive demonstrations that took the form of nude protests, citizen road blocks, etc.
The meeting was scheduled for August 15, 2017, at 12pm. Our leaders went to the meeting as a group that was uncoordinated, disjointed, selfish and lacking unity of purpose in so far as protecting the common interests of the Acholi people in land is concerned.
Eventually, the people of Lakang, Amuru, lost the land in a shady deal. The wananchi gained very little, if anything, from this deal.
This to me amounted to betrayal of the Acholi people. Days before meeting the President, the people of Amuru protested against the forceful survey of their land. What changed overnight for the leaders to state that the people had suddenly accepted the survey?
Secondly, land in Acholi is owned by clans under the customary land tenure system. That is how for generations our forbears kept for posterity the land that we are now hawking away. Who, therefore, has such large chunks of personal land that he/she can just give away like that? How did he/she/they acquire it?
To me all these occurrences point to one thing, a leadership malaise. We are lacking leaders who are genuinely interested in protecting, defending and advocating for land to be utilised for the benefit of the common man.
What we have are dealers who are pursuing personal interests rather than the common good of all. That is why they do not want to invest time and resources in educating, training, sensitising, empowering and organising the people to optimally use their land.
What the people of Acholi need is not necessarily investors, not least in the sugarcane industry. What the people of Acholi need are leaders, not dealers.
Leaders who are trustworthy, straightforward, visionary, selfless and organised with a burning desire to uplift their people from war doldrums to a new destination. Leaders who will protect and defend at all costs the interests of the Acholi people in land.