The NRM Central Executive Committee began a five-day retreat today at Chobe Safari Lodge in Nwoya District. This meeting will reflect on how the party can capitalize on the unity of NRM to ensure our wanainchi and the country achieve Vision 2040.
It is therefore important that the retreat looks at ways of ensuring that the 68% of our population still caught up in subsistence agriculture moves into the money economy. We must agree on this. It is our foremost challenge.
The NRM government is on track in provision of infrastructure like roads and electricity. We are also doing well in terms of service delivery. However, it is this population in the subsistence sector that we must urgently attend to.
Also, it is important for the political class to appreciate the importance of prioritization in budgeting for and implementation of national programs.
On their way to Chobe, CEC members travelled on smooth, tarmac roads. This is because of prioritization. In the neighboring Kiryandongo District, we are constructing Karuma Dam partly with use of our energy fund, created through prioritization.
The country cannot have enough resources to implement all programs at the same time. It is why we have spent more on infrastructure and energy while asking that less is spent on administration and items like travel of government officials.
I am glad that in Acholi sub-region, where this retreat is happening, the return of peace has seen tremendous growth in commercial agriculture, tourism and other sectors. We must keep the momentum going and get more people out of poverty.
About Chobe, it is important to note that this facility, just like Para and Mweya lodges, had been vandalized and collapsed by 1986. However, with peace and stability and later privatization by the NRM, they have all come back to life.
We had actually hoped to use this facility earlier but we could not because it was fully booked for Valentine’s Day and by other tourists. We must jealously guard all the gains made courtesy of peace and stability.
