By Frank Kamuntu
The Office of the National Chairman (ONC) headed by the Senior Presidential Advisor – Political Affairs Hajjat Hadijah Namyalo Uzeiye has stretched wings of the ongoing drive against poverty to bazzukulu in Iganga district where multitudes were empowered with start-start-up capital Items.
The above took place at Iganga Municipal Playground where members of the Greater Iganga Farmers Cooperative Union held their annual celebrations and launch of their office, an event that was graced by Mr. Kintu Moses – Ass. Communications Officer at ONC, on behalf of Hajjat Namyalo as the Chief Guest.
The Union brings together over 100 SACCOs from the districts of Bugiri, Bugweri, Iganga, Luuka, Mayuge and Namutumba.
Lt. Col Lubaale who is the Patron of the Union and also an Operation Wealth Creation Officer at the Ministry of Finance and Planning informed the gathering that they are mandated to form unions so that they can receive funding from the Government.
He noted that so far they have disbursed millions of funds at every parish under the Parish Development Model (PDM) program.
”Dear our Chief Guest [referring to Mr Kintu], I want to inform you that in my capacity as a Patron, I have already secured the market for all the Union produce since am a member of the Uganda Grain Council,” said Lt. Col Lubaale.
At this event, 80 National Unity Platform (NUP) members defected to the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) and were welcomed by Mr Kintu, the District Chairperson NRM and the RDC.
Iganga District Woman MP Hon Sauda Alibawo hailed the ONC manager for having Busoga at heart, citing that she has continued to empower several districts within the region to fight poverty.
”We as Basoga pledge to deepen our relations with ONC since it has expressed a good cause to fight poverty in our households,” said Alibawo before requesting the Chief Guest to inform the President that coffee and cocoa farmers are facing a collapse of their businesses since NAADs stopped purchasing seedlings from them. She said peasants can not afford the cost despite the high demand to practice coffee farming.
In his speech, Mr Kintu extended apologies for his boss’ failure to make it physically due to unavoidable circumstances but for her love for Iganga people, instructed him to execute the roles.
He appreciated the peasants for implementing the message of value addition as advocated by the National Chairman NRM HE Gen Yoweri Kaguta Museveni.
On his inquiry from the gathering, whether they received the PDM funds, 70% of them refuted to have benefited due to the intense corruption in the program by its officers. More than 10 people from different parishes testified to have been asked to pay more than Ugx50,000/- by the Parish Chiefs to include them in the program, which they couldn’t afford.
At the above point, the Chief Guest tasked the RDC to follow up on the matter and make sure that thieves pay back the money collected from the peasants. He asserted that ONC is to conduct a swift inquiry to have the culprits arrested, noting that this is the role President Museveni tasked them at ONC to play.
”These ruthless Government officials are the reason why the right programs of the NRM are frustrated and end up not achieving the intended goals. We as ONC can’t tolerate this and surely they will pay for their greed!,” vowed Kintu.
He expressed gratitude to all the bazzukulu who have taken the front line in fighting the war of poverty and promised that ONC would continue empowering them and others across the country.
Before distributing the capital items that included; welding machines, sewing machines, g-nuts machines, spray pumps, etc, he emphasized the need for quality produce to be able to tap into the wider market secured by the NRM chairman he repeatedly referred to as Jajja across Africa and globally.
Hundreds of groups from different parishes were empowered with the above-mentioned items and cautioned not to sell them to avoid arrests, as the ONC follows up on all that it distributes for monitoring and evaluation purposes.
He also pledged a contribution of Ugx1m from ONC head Hajjat Namyalo to the Union SACCO, something that thrilled all members, who vowed to work with Chief Muzzukulu to kick poverty out of Iganga and Busoga at large.
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