Alice Akidi, a kindergarten teacher in Gulu city has been out of work since March, when schools were closed in a nationwide lockdown to tame the rate of spread of COVID-19 in Uganda.

“I have not received salary since March and I was forced to relocate because of rent. We registered for Emyooga, but we are not sure how it will come,” she told New Vision.

The resident of Laroo Forest Ward near Pece Stadium said the road network outside Gulu City is one other concern any candidate seeking public office in the district will address with haste.

In his first scientific campaign meeting with leaders of Acholi sub-region in Gulu City on Mpnday, President Yoweri Museveni, the National Resistance Movement (NRM) presidential candidate, said he had found the answer to the challenge of bad roads in Uganda.

“The question of bad murram roads during the rainy season; this can be cured. Sometime back, we launched Atiak sugar factory — I drove on a good murram road all the way to River Aswa,” he told delegates during his scientific campaign meeting with Acholi NRM leaders at Watoto Church grounds.

“I reported to Cabinet and demanded from our engineers the unit cost per kilometre of a graded, compacted murram road. The calculations will guide allocations to each district for roads,” Museveni explained.

The NRM leader revealed that while Parliament allocates sh168b for district roads, which would translate into at least sh1b for each district, a small amount of that gets there.

He promised that the matter would be investigated and an additional budget of sh146b provided to sort out the challenge of roads, with equipment distributed to districts engaged to do the job.

Health, poverty, education, roads and national security rank as the top five concerns that Ugandans want policy makers to tackle, according to a recent New Vision public opinion poll that was conducted in March this year.

Health

Museveni promised the people of the Acholi sub-region that the NRM would deal with the challenge of drug theft in public health facilities.

“Leaders should follow up. Fortunately, we have found a computer system that can ably trace the flow of drugs from the manufacturer, through the National Medical Stores to the health centre and the patient. The stealing will stop,” the President told delegates.

Drug shortages at health centres is the biggest health challenge faced by voters, according to a recent New Vision poll that involved interviews with 5,987 respondents across 45 districts.

Other top concerns include: corruption among health workers (sale of free drugs), long distance to health centres, inadequate health equipment and shortage of skilled and professional medics.

During the campaign meeting, Museveni promised to address the challenge of access to safe water, which ranks sixth of all the major concerns raised by voters in the New Vision poll.

Out of 70,000 villages countrywide, 48,000 have boreholes, he told delegates, with a promise that all the remaining villages will have boreholes and existing ones are regularly repaired.

Museveni vowed to take action against any Resident District Commissioner or Chief Administrative Officer if any borehole is found in a state of disrepair.

“People should report to Lt Col. Edith Nakalema (Head of the State House Anti-Corruption Unit) if the boreholes are not working,” the President said.

Boreholes as clean water sources, he said, reduce the burden on women who have to endure long distances and associated risks to fetch water from unsafe places, including rivers.

On the issue of education, the President tasked leaders in the region with exploring the viability of charging students fees, saying he was against it because it has thrown children out of school.

“It seems what we have now is subsidised education, not free education — that is why many children are out of school. We have 10.7 million children in primary school, but three million in secondary school. Where have the others gone? They are at home, yet we are allocating sh1.2 trillion for primary and sh800b for secondary,” he stated.

Museveni said the NRM party has succeeded in laying ground for the country’s transformation by focusing on the needs of the people, unlike the previous regimes.

By embracing every progressive person, irrespective of their ethnic background or religious or political persuasions, he said the NRM has cured the ‘bad history’ of Uganda and Africa.

He explained that the unity created by the ideology had allowed Uganda to attract private investors, who helped to solve the shortage of commodities, create jobs and raise revenue through taxes to support development.

In his poetic exposition of Museveni, the Deputy Speaker of Parliament and incoming NRM vice-chairperson for northern Uganda, Jacob Oulanyah, described the incumbent as a trusted leader beyond competition.

He appealed to young people of the Acholi sub-region to vote for Museveni because of his role in pacifying the region.

Acholi sub-region bore the brunt of a two-decade insurgency at the hands of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels led by its leader, Joseph Kony.

Oulanyah warned the youth against getting drawn into a new wave of unrest perpetuated by some politicians, insisting that the Acholi leaders will not tolerate it.

“Young people are being fed on propaganda. Some people in Kampala are calling for violence. Reject violence and destruction because we have had enough of it,” he stated.

Lamwo County MP and state minister for relief, disaster preparedness and refugees, Hillary Onek, warned Acholi leaders against the politics of division.

“We must shun the politics of intrigue within the NRM. We need to abandon it, shake hands and work as one team,” he told the group of delegates.

NRM supporters lit up Gulu city with posters, processions and music as they waited for Museveni to arrive. An afternoon downpour appeared to add flavour to celebrations.

A group of youth carrying an effigy of Museveni perched on a chair walked around Gulu city, chanting ‘No Change’.

Romeo Odong, the musician behind one of the most popular NRM campaign theme songs dubbed Yooleng (good road), led delegates into Acholi dance as they waited for their candidate.

Earlier, the Prime Minister, Dr Ruhakana Rugunda, an NRM historical and member of the party’s Central Executive Committee, rallied Acholi leaders to fight for Museveni’s vote.

“Acholi has a special stake in this election. Sixteen years ago, many of us went to Palabek when it was not easy and had a meeting with representatives of LRA. It was a difficult experience, but with politicians, religious and cultural leaders, we made a contribution to the restoration of peace to northern Uganda and the Acholi sub-region in particular,” Rugunda stated.

“It is like a dream when I see Gulu like this, exploding with happy people. The situation was different. The people of Acholi and Uganda must ensure that the peace and stability is consolidated and secured,” he insisted.

Rugunda downplayed Museveni’s competition from other presidential aspirants, insisting that the incumbent was much stronger than any of them.

“Some candidates are trying, marginally. I have not seen any candidate that could meaningfully challenge President Museveni. My very good friend Norbert Mao (Democratic Party president) is trying, but he has been abandoned. We have one viable candidate,” Rugunda told the delegates.

Museveni, who launched his scientific campaign in Kawumu, Luwero district on Monday last week, concluded his meetings with NRM leaders in Lango and West Nile regions last week.