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Mr Ejiku Robert Weighs in Over Disputes on Barifa Forest Ecotourism Project.

By Editor

All over the world any development that comes to bear displaces people. But it happens in a conflict free manner and seamlessly. Communities are self integrating and I will try draw a parallel here. When I first acquired a small piece of land in Kajjansi, Mr Kaggwa the original owner was the only one on it but as time went the family decided to sell most of the land and now there is a mini town board of sorts in Bulonde my village. 


What happened to the Kaggwas? The old man died and three of his children took integration one step further. One sold a piece of the remaining property and established a commercial property within and now he is a propertied man given the huge appreciation in the value of the land in the area. One earlier decided to acquire a big chunk of land in Mukono and another in Outskirts of Mpigi. Remember they were providing seamlessly for the pressures of development in Wakiso District. Today the Mukono guy is a big landlord in an area where a similar development may occur. If anyone thinks Arua City will take a different path, then they are not looking at the bigger picture. If there are sites within the City that Traditional leaders need to protect for cultural and conservation purposes, now is the time to legally bind these pieces of Land. The leaders we elect must now move to obtain a master plan for this city and quickly identify the purposes for use in every part of the City. Create commercial hubs, industrial parks, perhaps agricultural hubs if size of land can allow, gazette green spaces, entertainment spots, administrative centres, key infrastructure systems and hubs, cultural sites, conservation areas etc. In not so many years the Kulubyas of Arua City will emerge. Kulubya was a rich land owner in Buganda now deceased but generations still live, who sold out and leased most of their family fortune ( 000s of hectares to Mehta for Sugarcane growing and other developers in Kampala City) but also established  himself an empire in the city owning almost half of the commercial blocks in Bakuli and Old Kampala in the 80s...The family fortune spreads across descendants and relatives like the  Kyambaddes who still enjoy a vast amount of family wealth upto today. 


Now, that too will be our story of Arua City many years from now. The one acre peasant may be forced naturally to acquire land in Maracha, Madi Okollo, Arua District, Terego, Koboko or Yumbe even Congo if legally permissible as they sell off their now valuable land to developers but the landed people in Arua City (that are mainly  Ayivu) will also through carefully guided strategies become the true owners of the city. We can never run away from total outsiders coming to the city for a piece of the pie then. It maybe be Salim Saleh, Elongot, Habyarimana, Hu Yung, Tomashiko, Anur Prandeep, Echinedu Obaze, Emeka Ike Jr,  Walter Rogers Jr. These will be  Chinese, Arabs, Japanese,  Indians Nigerians, Americans etc who will take up pieces of Land as per master plan to bring up developments that will see Arua City become the dream we all have in our minds. 


Buganda Kingdom has sites that can never be taken away from them in Kampala but Kampala continues to grow. Toro Kingdom has sites in the Tourism city for the same including national parks now protected by government but Mukwano the biggest land owner in Toro after the kingdom is a settler. So tell me which wheel you want to invent by preventing a natural progression of the city's development??🤷🤷


I studied in a small city called Horsens in Denmark in 2009. It is the size of the Central division, Arua City. Their development model was for small land owners to sell their land to government in exchange for built property/ apartments in the urban hub...a policy of urbanization. The land so acquired from the peasants was sold to big firms and individuals interested in agricultural development and so all around this beautiful city are farms and factories processing all kinds of food products...animal, plant, plastic etc.


So the educated and uneducated 'peasants' who erstwhile had been resettled in the city now returned to work in the farms and factories that had been developed. Others decided to move to the bigger cities like Aarhus and Copenhagen having acquired city property of great value through this development architecture. Horsens is called the agricultural city of Denmark just like Aarhus the second largest city in Denmark. 


So Arua City must not allow itself to boomerang into an unplanned city...one without a development model. The ones where you first build a house and the road will find its way to your house. One where you pass infront of your neighbours house to get to yours, one where night parking spots are the order of the day simply bse you can't access your own yard. 


Our leaders of today must guide the development model and not engage in short 'termism'. 100 years from today when we bequeath Arua City to the next two generations, you will find it difficult to talk of this or that tribe. So the choice is ours to create a great and well planned city for our Children and grand grand children and forever, we shall be remembered. 


We can also choose the opposite path for our legacy to be that of the self seeking, egoistic, ethnocentric and corrupt leaders of Arua City who will quickly be placed in the dustbin of history soon after they have left power.


As Manchester United fans like myself watched the Champions league match against Atalanta last night, it was clear their pain had been created by a bevy of underperforming managers over the years but make no mistake..one name they remembered and cried for even his spirit to save the underperforming lads was that of the great Sir Alex Ferguson...so are you going to be Arua City's Sir Alex Ferguson or David Moyes?? Choose carefully🤷🤷


Developments are conflict free bse leaders invest in planning and planning takes alot of consultation before arriving at a consensus on the development model..👏👏


Good day and God bless you all on a bright day the lord has made for us👏👏🙏🙏


Long live Arua City, long live West Nile.💪💪


Ejiku Robert..21.10.2021

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