Mr Reagan Okumu, the Member of Parliament for Aswa County in Gulu district has told locals to start engaging in income generating activities instead of wishing for relief aid after the end of insurgency.
MP Okumu decried the level of dependency and drunkenness among the former displaced persons saying no one will come to their rescue unless they start to fend for themselves.
Addressing the residents of Teepwoyo village, Unyama Sub County in Gulu district recently, the legislator said, “People should move away from the mentality of waiting for outside support in favor of self help.”
The Aswa County lawmaker who also doubles as the Chairperson for the Acholi Parliamentary Group (APG) asked the youth to embrace a healthy lifestyle instead of engaging in drugs and alcoholism.
According to Okumu, if the resettling communities do not wake to the reality, they may fail to fight poverty and educate their children.
In 2013, Mr Jacob Oulanyah, the Deputy Speaker of Parliament who is also the area County MP for Omoro faulted his electorates for over dependency on handouts saying it portrays bad image of the Acholi people.
Oulanyah said, “It is very heartbreaking to see that some households in his constituency have failed to construct even a simple latrine for themselves after returning home from the internally displaced persons’ camps.”
“I was shocked to learn that the communities are still waiting for some assistance from some nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to sink pit latrines for them.” The deputy speaker said.
Oulanya adds that some parents prefer to buy waragi packed in sachets instead of paying school fees for their children in primary schools.
Mr John Bosco Kinyera, the area LC I Chairman for Wanglobo Village, Koro Sub County in Gulu district noted most former IDPs have become very addicted to handouts as a result of the life in the IDP camps adding that the NGO fever did not go away up to date making it very difficult for local leaders to call them for village meetings.
Kinyera says NGOs were providing payments such as perdiem, sitting day allowance and nonfood items for those attending meetings.
During the peak of the insurgency that displaced over two million families into the IDP, households were forced to depend on humanitarian agencies for survival.
