President Yoweri Museveni’s decision to defer implementation of the government’s Shs1.1 trillion Peace, Recovery and Development Plan (PRDP) intended for northern Uganda recovery is regrettable.
For more than 20 years, Ugandans in the sub-regions of Acholi, Lango, West Nile and parts of far eastern Uganda have lived in terrible circumstances forced upon them by armed conflict, civil unrest and armed cattle rustling.
There has been little or no access to clean water. Thousands of children born in 1986 have grown into illiterate, malnourished, deprived and frustrated adults in this place. The physical infrastructure for delivery of life-supporting social services has, in some places, totally collapsed.
It was therefore hoped that the PRDP, financed in large part through donor assistance, would help return a semblance of normalcy to the north. Instead, now the programme has one more year before it officially gets off the ground.
This is a big blow to the hopes of women, men and children who struggled in the dreadful conditions that came to characterise the internally displaced persons camps in which they were barracked.
One hopes the President has weighty enough reasons for his actions so as to allay the suspicions of the local population, opinion and religious leaders who may now fear the worst.
More-so considering that for most of the 20 years during which the conflict ravaged northern Uganda, several claims; whether founded or without basis, were made about a diabolical secret government plan to either disenfranchise, under-develop, buttonhole or render northern Uganda a desolate wasteland.
Those who made those sensational claims could find new voice if the government does not give sound reasons for the deferment of the PRDP.
It is important to recognise that whereas the tragedy in northern Uganda is a national shame and catastrophe, those who have lived through these 20 dark years in the camps will always bear immediate painful personal testimony to the untold misery they persevered through. As such, their voice carries that extra weight in any lamentation or criticism of government plans for the devastated sub-region.
It is not our place to speculate as to whether security concerns following the resumption of hostilities between government and the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army rebels, or budgetary reasons, informed the President’s decision.
It is, however, our place to ask of this country’s leaders that answers be provided as quickly as possible to the questions being asked by the members of Parliament from Acholi.
http://www.monitor.co.ug/artman/publish/oped/Quickly_explain_plan_for_northern_Uganda_78017.shtml
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