Factors Affecting Economic Growth And Development of Acoli Subregion.

 

Yesterday I noted some key issues that have been and still hindering economic development in the land, and I had promised to expound them.

Just to start with, Ignorance is a disease that has really affected economic growth and development in Acholi land. Majority still possess very rudimentary approach in agriculture and business, means that can not support our farmers cop up with current food standards. Some of our farmers complain of limited market of food stuff yet both their pre and post harvest management of food stuff is poor and at the end their harvest can not compete in the world market.

Perception(minset) problem remains a challenge not only in Acholi subregion, but the whole country, that is why there is a facilitated move by the government to traverse the country with packages of messages for mindset change. In Acholi subregion, majority wish to only grab office work. Somebody after finishing from the university or college can sit home for over five years waiting for jobs inline with his or her papers. Many look at farming as career of uneducated and unprivileged people, that is why the vast land is not being fully utilized to foster economic growth.

 

Leadership challenges can not be ignored when looking into serious issues in Acholi land. Leadership is not only a problem in Acholi subregion, but it seems the whole of north experiences this particular challenge. In Acholi subregion, it had become a culture for politicians to talk ill against the government in order to get support from the electorates. This culture gave birth to thousand leaders in the land who are experts in propaganda. This category of leaders will only speak to please people and even if voters are the ones to be blamed for certain things, all the blames are poured on the government and other factors making our people to continue living with false hope, instead of taking on the challenge to face their problems. These leaders have been promising people that as long as NRM government is gone, all Acholi questions will be answered because the sitting government is the problem, yet these leaders heavily benefit from the same government, and because if this as their wealth increase, their voters continue getting poor and poorer.

Historical factors also stands as one of the prime obstacles of economic growth and development in the land. History tells us that Acholi were very wealthy people with vast land and plenty livestock, and it was the food basket of Uganda and whole East Africa. Serious dilemma against the land started in 1971 when the autocracy of Idi Amin Dada subdued the country. The icons, the wise and wealth men of the land were forced early to their graves. War again ravaged the land in 1980s that saw sweeping away of Acholi livestock by Karamojong fighters and other fighters and this made the economy of Acholi land to collapse, till date the effects can not be ignored. The wars that hit the country in 1980s, for Acholi land outlived till 2000s and around 2005, gunshot begun to get silent, and finally years later, the LRA atrocities in Northern Uganda ended, but the negative impacts will live for decades and decades with trauma and other vivid memory that has changed the Acholi we used to know..

Alcohol more especially the men have embraced alcoholism like full time jobs. As early as 6:00am men will be stepping through the tiny path towards trading centres. Even in different villages, there are grass thatched houses turned into bars and these alcoholics gather there, doing nothing except drinking the killer waragi. Young men that the country should rely on to foster economic growth are getting lost in alcohol, bearing brown and swollen faces as a result of drinking, then how do you expect the land to develop economically?

Laziness is a vice that possesses danger to all sorts of progress. Other people think it's a myth to say that Acholi men have become lazy. In most cases farm and domestic works are left to women while men gather in bars, cinema halls, betting houses playing games of chance and doing other nonsensical things. The most painful bit of it is that, sometimes they sell the harvest of their women and parents in order to get money for their miserable lifestyles.

*In a nutshell, external factors contributed more in breaking down Acholi economy, but Acholi are the ones to be blamed for maintaining the status quo, because it is unrealistic to wait for the person who broke down your economy to come and build it, it's upon Acholi people to rise up and install back the economic towers of the land.*

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