UGANDA: MUSEVENI’S HIDDEN AGENDA AGAINST THE ACHOLI IS EXPOSED

demonstrators

Some of the protestors during the debate at the Gulu district council hall displaying placards.

“The Acholi people are so stupid like grasshoppers, that they bite and kill one another if put in a bottle” 

“Those who advance the view of Nilotic domination of Uganda have, at times, shown not only ignorance but also lack of seriousness and integrity in what they say. Some have written in reputable newspapers asserting that Uganda is ruled by the “Os” and that the “Os” are Lwos of Uganda”.

GULU-UGANDA:  On 16 November, 1968, Uganda’s founding Father of the Nation, Dr. Apollo Milton Obote, wrote a piece to a London Friend titled: “Myths and Realities”.

Two sentences in that letter reads: “Those who advance the view of Nilotic domination of Uganda have, at times, shown not only ignorance but also lack of seriousness and integrity in what they say. Some have written in reputable newspapers asserting that Uganda is ruled by the “Os” and that the “Os” are Lwos of Uganda”.

Most male names of Nilotic people of the Lwo ethnic group of Northern Uganda and South Sudan begin with the letter “O” while that of the female begins with the letter “A”.

On 6 February 1981, Uganda’s current dictator of 31 years of uninterrupted leadership, President Yoweri Museveni, attacked a military training camp in Central Uganda with twenty seven guns at the start of his National Resistance Army/Movement (NRA/M) five-year gorilla war after losing elections to Dr. Obote in the December 1980 general elections. His claim was that Obote rigged the election, yet his party, The Uganda Patriotic Movement (UPM) got only one seat in Parliament in that election.

Museveni began his movement to capture State power by force of arms from Buganda region where resentments against the people from the north who were dominating the armed forces was high.

Many Baganda also blame Obote for the 1966 revolution which ousted Sir Edward Mutesa from the presidency of Uganda and for abolishing Buganda Kingdom rule and that of other kingdoms. Museveni recruited many youths into the ranks and file of his rebel force while tactically putting the young recruits under the command of his kinsmen from Western Uganda.

On his first visit to Gulu, the headquarter of Northern Uganda shortly after swearing in, the new president, Museveni, is quoted to have said to the effect that “the Acholi people are so stupid like grasshoppers, that they bite and kill one another if put in a bottle.” 

On Tuesday, January 31, 2016, Uganda’s Daily Monitor independent newspaper published a declassified CIA dossier that said: “For instance, whereas the north-south divide exploded through the protracted Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) war, the victims of the insurgencies were huddled in Internally Displaced People’s (IDP) camps without a spillover of refugees into Kenya or Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) at the time key US allies as the CIA agents envisaged.

Voice of America of October 31, 2009 quotes Aid agencies as saying that as many as 100,000 people have died, and nearly 1,000 more die every week, mainly from conflict-related hunger and lack of medicine. Nearly two million people have been displaced at the hands of a shadowy militia with ties to Sudan’s Arab-led government. It sounds like western Sudan’s Darfur conflict, but it’s not. This is northern Uganda, where suffering from a 20-year insurgency has attracted little international media attention.

Since the foiled Juba Peace Talks (2004-2006) the war in northern Uganda was shifted to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Central African Republic (CAR) making it possible for the locals in northern Uganda to try to rebuild the lives without any meaningful government input. Many researchers note that what has taken twenty years to destroy, will take more than fifty years to rebuild.

Now there is a campaign to halt measures to regulate alcohol consumption, including by minors, in the northern part of Uganda. Government officials would prefer to promote, rather than control, alcoholism.

On Monday, January 30, 2017, Gulu District Local Government held its second session for a special deliberation on the proposal to halt the implementation of Gulu District Alcoholic Drinks Control Ordinance (2016). The Minister of Trade and Industry, Ms. Amelia Kyambadde had given directive to the Resident District Commissioner (RDC) here to make sure that the district doesn’t implement the new law.

Some liquor producers sell alcohol in small plastic packets called sachets, making them cheap, which promotes consumption amongst the youth.

This meeting attracted a fully packed council hall with protestors, some of whom, carried placards reading “Sachets Kill Growth and Productivity” or “Sachets Destroy Wealth Creation”.

The Ordinance was a result of a petition by over 10,000 stakeholders who identified alcohol and substance abuse as a new kind of war being engineered by others who don’t wish Acholi well by destroying our youths who should be the ones to utilize the abundant rich and fertile land.

The purpose of the Ordinance, among others, is to regulate the alcoholic drinks industry in a way that minimizes harm caused by alcohol abuse, including adverse effects on health, personal injury, property damage and violent or anti-social behavior.

According to the Commissioner of Trade, Mr. Richard Okot-Okello, his Ministry received a directive from President Museveni to come up with a national law to control the alcohol industry. He appealed to Gulu district to halt the implementation of the Ordinance for nine months to allow investors clear stocks and his ministry to harmonize with international treaties.

The Speaker of the district Council, Mr. John Okwonga revealed to a stunned house that he would be fifty million Uganda shillings ($14,000) richer today if he would guide the debate to halt the implementation of the anti-Alcoholic drinks law. This is because the industry wants unregulates sales to minors.

The question everybody is asking themselves is; why must one arm of government insist on destroying the youth in the northern part of Uganda by promoting the sale, consumption and promotion of alcohol which destroys manhood and production?

The retired bishop Macleod Baker Ocholla II says instead of insisting on alcohol consumption, Minister Kyambadde should come to the northern part of Uganda to discuss how best the ministry can help the people market their produce in world market instead of using middlemen.

The former Member of Parliament for Gulu Municipality, Mr. Norbert Mao says Acholi should see the drive to allow alcohol to remain unregulated means there is an agenda to destroy the Acholi to extinction. He offered an anology of how Native Americans were destroyed in America.

“Alcoholism destroys nation,” he said, noting that Native Americans “were given alcohol so that they can destroy themselves. The battle against alcoholism is a battle for our future.”

 

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