Chief Justice Alfonse Owiny-Dollo arrives at Sir Samuel Baker Secondary School in Gulu City on Wednesday for the Pan-Acholi Convocation.
By Brian Komakech
Gulu
Chief Justice Alfonse Owiny-Dollo Chigamoi has told the Acholi to stop lamenting and attributing the current extreme poverty to past armed conflicts.
Justice Owiny-Dollo said whereas it is evident the past wars had undesirable impacts in the Sub-region, it is inexcusable to always lament about it and attribute the challenges the people are facing to it.
Acholi Sub-region experienced a two-decade brutal rebellion waged by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels that left hundreds of people dead and forced about 1.5 million people into Internally Displaced People’s Camp.
But Owiny-Dollo noted that the Sub-region wasn’t the only place in the world that experienced wars.
“Wars haven’t only been fought in Acholi but also in other parts of the world. This war devastated the Acholi Sub-region, but why do we all the time lament about it?”
“I hear you boast of being the elephants, can’t an elephant rise and shake off a tree that fell on it so that it moves away?” Justice Owiny-Dollo questioned.
Justice Owiny-Dollo made the statement on Wednesday while addressing hundreds of members of the Acholi community during a Pan-Acholi convocation at Sir Samuel Baker Secondary School in Gulu City.
The convocation dubbed “Gure me Pongdwongo ” (meaning the Assembly at Pongdwongo), attracted several political, traditional, religious, and government officials from the Acholi Sub-region who sought to deliberate on ways of restoring the lost glory of the Acholi.
Owiny-Dollo attributes trend to alcoholism
Justice Owiny-Dollo noted that despite the war, heavy consumption of cheap but potent alcohol and laziness among able-bodied men and women are to blame for the extreme poverty situation in the sub-region.
He said many people have now abandoned agriculture, which remains a key source of wealth and resorted to drinking, leaving the region to feature among the poorest and famine-prone regions in the country.
“There is famine in Acholi because of these reasons and let me tell you, Alcohol has replaced households in Acholi. People here drink heavily including a ten-year-old child, a newly married woman, an 80-year-old woman during farming season,” Owiny-Dollo said.
According to Justice Owiny-Dollo, the current poverty, the decline in education standards, and the morals of the Acholi people were unheard of, adding that the purpose of the convocation is to seek answers to the challenges.
Owiny-Dollo, however, believes that to address the problems of famine and dismal education standards, clan leaders in the respective districts of Acholi need to pass bylaws for compulsory agriculture in households and the education of children.
Ambassador Dr. Olara Otunnu, the former Uganda People’s Congress Party President said the fundamental collapse of the Acholi Sub-region is worse than any other society globally and needs efforts of all willing persons for its revival.
“I have been to every corner of this world. I have witnessed every kind of problem, including bloodshed and wars that lasted over 60 years. I worked hard to lift them from the problems. But I have to be honest and tell you that I haven’t seen anywhere in the world where everything has collapsed and sunk under a muddy ditch,” said Otunnu.
Embrace the old tradition
Dr. Otunnu also reiterated that men in the sub-region have abandoned their responsibilities of taking care of their homes to women while they rely on drinking alcohol.
“We don’t have men now within the community in Acholi, if you go at 8 am, you find that they are either still resting or in a bar wasting away. During the rainy season, you will only find a woman heading to the garden, the men will be in the trading center wasting away,” he said.
He blamed the cultural degeneration on the challenges facing the region and noted that unless the Acholi Community started embracing their culture like other prosperous nations, there would not be any progress.
Gulu Archdiocese Archbishop Dr. John Baptist Odama commended both Justice Owiny-Dollo and Otunnu for their initiative to bring together the Acholi Community to restore their society.
“As Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative, we wish you to be God-fearing people, be united, be peaceful, be reconciled, and let the limit of your development be the sky. Take education and that of your grandchildren very seriously and make the morality aspect of this tribe strong and exemplary for other tribes,”
Works with government
Richard Todwong, the National Resistance Movement (NRM) party Secretary General, however, asked initiators of the convocation to work closely with the government on some of the resolutions that will be passed.
“I request that from the discussions that you will have, let’s first sit down and study the government’s policy for developing our area. Let’s investigate and see where we can back it with our ideas and where we want it adjusted based on our resolutions,” said Todwong.
The Pan-Acholi convocation, considered one of the biggest gatherings of the Acholi community, comes at a time when the Sub-region is grappling with challenges of cattle rustling and rampant land conflicts that have disrupted livestock rearing and farming.
A recent Uganda National Household Survey report of 2019/2020 conducted by the Uganda National Bureau of Statistics shows the poverty rate in Acholi stood at 68 percent, higher than the national estimate of 47 percent and ranking among the top poorest regions.
