UGANDA: GULU CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANISATION DEMAND FOR POLITICAL ACCOUNTABILITY AND REFORM THROUGH POLITICAL JOIN COMPAIGN DEBATE.

We demand political joint campaigns in the fourth 2021 Presidential polls, in order to avoid excessive misuses of money and corrupting voters by individual candidates giving cheap waragi.

GULU-UGANDA: Executive Director of Gulu NGO Forum call for search of a Transformative and Accountable Leadership for Development and Prosperity introduction, as Uganda soon going for the presidential election in 2021.

The Executive Director for Gulu NGO Forum Geoffrey Okello on Monday January, 6, 2020 says let stop looking at the situation, but strategically cause millions Ugandans are disillusion, dis-empowered, they are very vulnerable. Why they are disillusion we must know how this country is run, Okello alluded.

“You know that this Country was in limbo, after election in 2016 the economy was sleeping for 6 months  because the government was bank craft after election economy stopped functioning, civil services stop  functioning the intimidation was in government, all hospitals were none functioning schools become useless and we are still starting the year 2020 and the question.” Okello warns.

Adding that in Uganda we have broken family, the teachers are not there, the first strategy should have been on economy is not there, the family are no longer protected society, Okello notes.

The Executive Director says as we are going to general election, civic education has collap in Uganda comparing with the family hierarchy, te child know that the ground father is the final person who has a say in the family even if the mother and the father are there.

Okello  in a strongly words says the environmental issues top on the northern Uganda forest degradation in justice, there are merchants’ who invested heavily in northern Uganda unrest. Today they are the same people destroying forest in  Acholi Sub Region, tree cover,, as they now see other part of the country, he reasoned.

“We are loosing 12 millions tree worlds wide, but in Uganda we are  loosing 1 million trees covering per year, and Acholi Sub Region is the most affected area. When people talk, they talk freely, but they didn’t want to mention the name of the perpetrators, we have draft strategy to stop charcoal burning and tree cutting, the draft document is on  table before us that we want to present before Acholi District Councilors.” Okello commented.

He insists that they are no longer have local government, but we are back to District Administration, what that this means, what is there is Administrate power not financial resources that used to be under central government, he warns.

Adding that our people are full of emotion that they are pro active, but they should work with ideas, they should follow leaders that have ideas that can lead to transformation.

Okello says that in every election, voters are worry about the outcome of election because the corruption has become part of our system. The electoral reform recommended by the Supreme Court has not been work by Uganda Parliament, because of it interference of the power that be to manage the civil act.

Babu the Chairman of NGO Forum says over the years Uganda has progressed economically, this progress is not on the ground, it has not been used well to answer the GDP in the country, Koramoja Sub Region is performing poorer with poverty index 60 percents, Acholi Sub Region poverty index 17% Lango Sub Region 7% while South-Western poverty index is about 5 %.

What we recommend is that the very rich should be tax heavily so that the profit goes to the poorer, in the USA is taking place. But, not here in Uganda, the tragedy we have corruption the problem is with the government .

“We have these challenges in the leadership and in the way the current regions is rang in the country.” Babu mooted.

This verbatim from Chairman Gulu NGO Forum

Fellow citizens, we will celebrate the 58^th anniversary of our Nation’s Independence. We will celebrate 25 years since the 1995 Constitution was promulgated by the Uganda Constitution Assembly.

The Constitution promised a new dawn of democracy and rule of law, it has always been our collective commitment to search to common ground in building a nation based on values of respect for human dignity, equality before the law and equal opportunity.

In our year message for 2019, we highlighted a number of structural problems that make it impossible for us to make qualitative progress for both our country and ourselves of the 1995 Constitution.

They included; failure to establish political common ground given the egoistic nature of our leaders; the fusion of the state with ruling elites and partisan parliament defined by a transactional culture

We pointed out the increasing limitation on the rights to freedom of speech and expression, the blatant denial of justice to Ugandans because of the dyfunctionality of our judicial system and investigative services leadership and society.

Our constrain-our duty in 2020.

Fellow citizens, we have entered 2020 with a mixture of uncertainty and insecurity, but also hope, which calls for all of us to undertake our national duty. The uncertainity before us is compounded by the following challenges.

Firstly, consistent economic growth without positive impact at household level; our economy is consistently posting positive economic growth figures but this does not reflect in the pockets of individual Ugandans and on out kitchen tables.

Secondly, our environmental and natural resource which is the backborn of our national and household economy is at risk in spite of the many years of commendable policy and legislative actions. The government has not demonstrated the will, the commitment and the discipline to ensure effective implemtation of agreed environmental policy measures .in Acholi the natural environment is at more risks than human.

Thirdly, land grabbing and land evictions both in urban and rural areas please the majority at risk of landlessness and a potential of missives conflicts, moreover, despite the rollout of the land sector from ordinary citizens. sadly, local government administrative boundaries are becoming our new fault lines for ethic conflict across the country.

Fourthly, the absences of meaningful electoral reforms continues to make citizens participation in elections meaningless, we are entering the last year of the ruling party’s 5 year terms of office. The constitutional and electoral reforms necessary to secure a concive democratic environment for citizens have not yet been enacted; we are likely to see a mixture of rushed legislative actions, executive posturing and blame-games on who is responsible for legislative mess.

Lastly, the challenge of keeping law and order in a national context of human rights abuse with impunity; in his 2020 New Year address, the president highlighted the progress of fighting crime based on his “12point action plan”. However, the underlying causes of crime (petty and violent) are not addressed at the political and policy level. When we fail to address the political and social dimensions of crime, it sounds logical and gratifying to celebrate the catching and prosecution of criminals.  But, these are after-the-fact actions since lives and or property will have already been lost.