Opinion: Roads or paths in West Nile!
By Avini Jimmy
My elementary Mathematics in P.3 taught me that “A line is a set of jointed dots.” Regardless of whether the dots are broad or small, whether the dots are equi-sized or not, whether the dots are joined in a straight pattern or not, the resultant path as traced by these dots is the line.
This concept is an exact juxtaposition of the state of roads in West Nile. I am aware of the fact that the efficacy of the term “road” as used in this write-up is a grammatical abyss and hence, an admission of the writer’s grammatical inadequacy in ticking the descriptive box.
The West Nile roads are identically horrendous. The Nebbi– Paidha – Zeu – Arua road lost the nomenclature “road” before we could even think about it. The Koboko – Yumbe – Moyo road is even the exact cousin to the Nebbi one. Their half-brother Moyo – Laropi is even indescribable.
The Pakwach–Madi Okollo – Arua is a long forgotten path in talking about roads. Mentioning Moyo– Obongi – Adjumani practically requires a deep breath. Their overall matron is the Karuma– Olwiyo– Pakwach – Arua road. (The Karuma-Olwiyo-Pakwach-Nebbi road is undergoing rehabilitation-Editor)
“Dimly calling them roads, at the risk of not degenerating them to paths, they are indeed a set of clans of fierce potholes, gullies, valleys, that are already annoyed with the vehicles that continue disturbing their guilty peace.”
The drivers plighting these paths only ought to have a good knowledge of the following;
Firstly, you look for road on road, secondly, keeping one’s lane is for the drunkard, the sober driver drives all over the road width.
Thirdly, keeping left is inapplicable, keep the side that suits your visual judgement. Coming to West Nile, normal breathing stops at Karuma, after that all body valves must open.
Fourthly, speed guns are for showing off by our Ash-White beret wearing friends.
And fifthly, beware of animals on the valley-road. With the rains now, instead of the animals going to quench their thirst from the valleys, they come to the roads. The roads have become water dams for the animals; agriculture is thriving.
The Chinese proverbial saying that; “If you want to be wealthy, build roads” is quite alien to us from this region. Ironically, the only vehicles that drive on these roads at neck-break speed are the URA vehicles, especially when they are rushing to knock down a numberless motorcycle, or when they are dashing to carve up a suspected smuggler.
Would it then be that these knocked suspected smugglers are enough sacrificial lambs, hence these taxes don’t know our roads? The pinching point is that these are all national roads. In that respect therefore, they are under the direct management Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA).
The frantically audible whisper here is whether this region is part of the country! Is West Nile bearing the brand of being overly tolerant? Could it be that we are suffering mediocrity in representation? Or we are a rejected Ugandan species! Who has cursed this region? In the desperate search for answers to these questions, we then ashamedly remind ourselves that “we are expecting too much” in the government.
The heretic preaching at the political pulpit is that, in a bid to alleviate this biting poverty in the populace, the government has blindly rolled out the Parish Development Model (PDM). This is meant to be cash in the circulation to facilitate livelihood.
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My imagination informs me that this livelihood enhancement is only through the small scale businesses the people engage in. Appreciative to the school of thought that this is true, the people of West Nile can only thrive in agri-business when the roads are in good shape.
We cannot afford to lose sight of the fact that these agricultural products are largely perishable. The challenges facing the produce business in this country are only glittering to the blind, because they will be saved from seeing it. Our roads being what they are, how will these commodities move? How will the politically hyped PDM money be repaid? I see us going back to the graduated tax days.
God, remember West Nile from your throne.
Avini Jimmy is a Taxpayer in West Nile
+256(0)782720720
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