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BY RICHARD DRASIMAKU
ARUA: FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2025
Tereza Tinia, a resident of Kati ward in Ayivu West Division was driven by fear created by lies that Bernard Atiku, the then Member of Parliament of Ayivu had sold the entire constituency to the government by allowing it to be upgraded into a City.
Tinia, whose family relies on subsistence farming for livelihood wondered where she would migrate to live with her family.
As a result, she withdrew her support and did not vote for Atiku who ultimately lost the parliamentary seat.
After four years of dilemma, Tinia opened up on Friday as she wondered aloud whether the city is still on the way coming to take her family land.
“If you can clarify and assure us that City is not coming to take our land. We will come back to you and vote for you,” she said.
She was not alone in searching for knowledge on whether urban life is better than rural life.
Patience Ayikoru, another resident of Kati ward asked Atiku why people who speak to them about the City do not sensitize the communities on the dangers of urbanization.
Such are valid concerns of the people that Atiku said in the previous election, opponents rode on people’s ignorance by feeding them with misinformation to meet selfish political ends.
He said because of that he has decided to use the campaign period for civic education and sensitization on the development agenda for Ayivu West.
“We are speaking to the real voters. There was a lot of misinformation about the City and we are using this opportunity to educate the masses about the city and how it operates,” he said.
Atiku who has devoted three days per Ward to interact with the people and answer their concerns said nothing will be left to chance in this election where the constituency’s development has regressed in his absence.
“We are preparing the people to vote for us because we need to get over 50 percent of the more than 60,000 votes in Ayivu West,” he said.
There are six candidates who are hunting for votes to represent Ayivu West constituency in the next parliament.
“I’m going to be building on what I had started. We are talking about empowering people with land security and utilization for wealth generation,” he asserted.
Atiku promised to bring back the initiative of Ayivu education promotion fund in which 121 students were sponsored in the previous term when he was in parliament.
He explained that this time they are taking the scholarship program to Wards where 10 students (five girls and five boys) will be sponsored each year from every ward.
Another priority program will be wealth creation through skills training for women and youths and promotion of cocoa to boost the local economy.
Enrolment of families that want to venture into cocoa farming is ongoing alongside the campaign and Atiku said they are registering 200 families in every cell (village) in all the 181 cells in Ayivu West.
“That would be 36,000 homesteads that will each receive 500 seedlings of cocoa. When you multiply 36,000 by 500 cocoa trees, you can imagine how green Ayivu West will be,” stated Hon Atiku.
To increase production through agriculture mechanization, Atiku said his office will provide three tractors – for Adumi, Pajulu and Ayivuni- to enable communities to farm efficiently.
Vegetable seeds for tomatoes, onions, cabbages among others will be given and local poultry production promoted by facilitating the veterinary officers to train the people on vaccination and proper feeding.
Atiku emphasized that elevation of Arua municipality to a City is big opportunity for trade and investment and what the leaders need to do is to sensitize the people to accrue the benefits.
Honorable thanks so much for being strong for us West Nile , we had seen and filled your services and we still need them more God bless you
Great news,
I have a concern with COCOA growing in the city coupled with urbanisation,
How will the locals who are poor, with little land for subsistence farming catch up with investing in cash crop yet investors from elsewhere will need to buy the same little land the locals are having for setting up bigger projects, I see it so challenging
Yiki Innocent thanks for sharing your thoughts about cocoa growing in Arua City amidst the challenge of rampant land sales and the impending inflow of investors. If you take time to understand the agronomic practices about cocoa you will come to appreciate that cocoa is actually the ideal enterprise that will help the common person to overcome the threat of investors to the land of the vulnerable in the city.