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BY RICHARD DRASIMAKU
ARUA: FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2025
Lillian Ayakaka, a resident of Pajulu is one of the beneficiaries of the Ayivu education Promotion Funds, a program that was run by Bernard Atiku when he was the Member of Parliament.
Ayakaka who is now a professional surveyor says she is driven by the desire to see other disadvantaged girls in Ayivu West constituency to get educational opportunities that she has decided to openly canvass for votes for Atiku.
Together with a plethora of other beneficiaries of the education sponsorship program, they on Thursday headed to Ombaci ward in Adumi to neutralize sectarian sentiments in an area where Atiku and his supporters have been allegedly targeted with stones and violent attack by an opponent’s supporters.
Ayakaka said Atiku is the only candidate out of the six contestants who has plans to bring back the scholarship program that Ayivu has missed for five years.
The other candidates are Fiona Onzima of the National Resistance Movement, incumbent John Lematia, Christopher Bayo of the Democratic Party, Constant Adriko, an independent and Bernard Jibua of the National Unity Platform.
Atiku welcomed the volunteers into his campaign team and promised that he will reinstate the Ayivu Education Trust Fund and base the implementation at the Ward level.
He said every ward will be allocated ten scholarships (five for girls and five for boys) that in five years, meaning there will be 2 students sponsored under the scheme from every parish each year giving a total of 180 scholarships for entire Ayivu West Constituency.
Atiku implored the people of Ombaci ward, especially Aravule village to mature politically and stop using violence against opponents.
“Listen to all candidates so that you can judge them on the basis of the weight of their manifesto. If chase people from other parts of the constituency who come to look for votes from here, how will people from this village go to look for votes in other parts of the constituency?” he quipped.
“This is dirty politics and I will clean it as well because during the ten years when I was Member of Parliament, I campaigned peacefully in Aravule village,” Atiku emphasized.
He asserted that voting is a process through which the people are mandated to exercise their constitutional powers and elect leaders who can cause development to take place in their area.
Atiku noted that in Ombaci ward the people deserve good roads, clean water, electricity, good education and health service.
However he noted that development in Ayivu West ceased in 2021 when he exited parliament that 37km of road network that was surveyed with pegs fixed to demarcate road reserves from people gardens to allow tarmacking was lost as a result.
As a result, the Kebir-Onduparaka-Lia-Odramachaku road is one of the dustiest roads due to the busy traffic to Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo when it should have been tarmacked.
Atiku reported that the money that was budgeted for tarmacking that road was reallocated to do road works in other areas where the Member of Parliament knew their job well.
“That is the loss you make when you remove and excellent performer. Elect as your leaders people who are exposed and can guide you on development matters,” he said.
Atiku outlined a number of programs including land security, generational wealth creation through cocoa to replace generational poverty, skilling of youths among others to transform Ayivu West into wealthy dwellers of Arua City.
Under the cocoa program, Atiku said every cell will have 200 registered farmers trained in the best cocoa agronomic practices and given 500 seedlings. That will be 100,000 seedlings per cell and because in the open market a single cocoa seedling is sold by nursery bed operators at sh1,000, that means every Cell in Ayivu will receive an investment of sh100,000,000 worth of cocoa seedlings.
To make the cost of investment cheaper, every Ward will have their own nursery bed to raise the seedlings and these will be distributed to the farmers free of charge.
