Speaking to Uganda Radio Network in an interview, Olanya confirmed that the idea was government led adding that they were approached through office of the Prime Minister (OPM) to come up with their views about the sub-region.
Kilak South Member of Parliament
Gilbert Olanya has come out to clarify that the recent idea of cooperation
between the opposition legislators from the Acholi Sub-region and the
government didn’t originate from the legislators but rather was an idea of the government
itself.
Olanya's statements come amid growing speculation and criticism from a section of people from the sub-region
who questioned the motives behind the unexpected warming relations between the
opposition MPs and the government.
Speaking to Uganda Radio Network
in an interview, Olanya confirmed that the idea was government-led led adding that
they were approached through the office of the Prime Minister (OPM) to come up with
their views about the sub-region. The vocal opposition legislator noted that the
idea was also partly initiated by the Operation Wealth Creation (OWC) headed by
Gen Salim Saleh.
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Olanya noted that while they
welcomed the government’s idea and have since put up efforts to highlight their
demands, the initiative shouldn’t be taken as a political ploy to exploit the
opposition legislators from the sub-region.
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Olanya’s statement follows the
March 13 meeting held between the selected opposition legislators and President
Yoweri Museveni at the State House, Entebbe, which triggered debate over whether the
MPs were abandoning their watchdog roles in favour of political convenience. The
legislators, during the meeting with the President, agreed to work closely with
the government in uplifting the socio-economic status of the Acholi sub-region.
Okin PP Ojara, the Chua West MP who also doubles as the Chairperson of the Acholi Opposition bloc, however, refuted the claims that the idea was government-led led maintaining that it was
initiated by the legislators themselves.
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Okin told Uganda Radio Network in
an interview that there isn’t any problem with the opposition legislators in
cooperating with the government, especially on initiatives that aim to make the Acholi
Sub-region to become relevant in the country.
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Ten opposition MPs from the
subregion, two of whom have since crossed to the NRM, reportedly started
engaging with the government late last year to work closely despite
political differences in advancing socio-economic transformation for the sub-region.
Martin Ojara Mapenduzi, the
Bardege-Layibi Division legislator, during a consultative meeting on Monday, explained that the idea, which has since been documented and code-named Operation Harmony, was based on reflections of the MPs on the status of the
Acholi sub-region.
He noted that each of the
legislators who came up willingly generated ideas based on what the region
went through, is going through and how government interventions addressed or
failed to address them.
Mapenduzi noted that after
generating the ideas and resolving on about 10 issues for consideration, they
sought to have a dialogue with the government and made the first step to
present their concerns to Gen Salim Saleh, owing to his influence.
Luo Bite
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On Monday, the legislators launched
consultative initiatives seeking to get feedback from various groups of people
on their draft document code-named Operation Harmony that will be presented to
President Museveni in May this year.
The document outlines the key priority
needs to be addressed to propel the Acholi sub-region from its current status, characterised by high poverty, slow economic progress, rampant land conflicts,
poor health and education sectors, and high unemployment, among others.
