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BY RICHARD DRASIMAKU
ARUA: TUESDAY, JANUARY 6, 2026
Alfred Obitre, a bodaboda rider in Onzivu Ward has always longed for a humble, God fearing and sociable Member of Parliament whom community members could easily approach to pass on their issues and wait for honest feedback.
His aspirations grew more urgent as leader after leader, politician after politician went to their cell in the past years promising to fix the absence of a bridge on Asa River which would connect Agbirici Cell with Oleva Cell.
Obitre said he and many bodaboda riders had lost interest in voting that during the National Resistance Movement Party primary elections, they preferred to take and bring back nursery school children than go and line up to be counted.
However the emergence of Eng William Tiyo Odaa who fits his billing for competent leader has prompted him to get interested in participating in elections once again.
Voter apathy, especially among the young people has been a longstanding concern for the stakeholders in the election process including the political parties, candidates and the electoral commission that is managing the process.
To persuade the people, various candidates have employed variety of tactics including making unreasonable pledges in order to outwit opponents.
However Eng Tiyo warned the youths of Onzivu Ward in Ayivu East Division not to allow themselves to be deceived twice or even multiple times saying that the only moment a snake can bite a person twice is when that person has lost his or her mental faculty after the first bite.
He assured the people that much as he has not been voted into the parliament, he has already contacted the engineering department of the Arua City to carry out feasibility study and design appropriate solutions for box culverts as a temporary measure while a bigger solutions would wait for the elections to pass.
Falling mangoes
Eng Tiyo told the people that Ayivu East Constituency is now full of falling mangoes which he has shaken off after five years of famine that the people should enjoy a lot of it when there is still plenty.
“Enjoy these mangos, after that, let us burry the fly that refused to listen after losing the primary election with the electoral coffin on January 15, 2026” Eng Tiyo said in proverbs.
He then clarified that he was referring to money being dished out by politicians to try to influence the voting outcome ahead of the parliamentary polls.
The engineer is in the race with three other candidates, namely Isaac Ayikobua of the opposition National Unity Platform, Godfrey Anguyo of the Forum for Democratic change and Geoffrey Feta an Independent Candidate.
Such money, according to Eng Tiyo who is also the NRM flag-bearer, cannot cause development in the community because history has taught that people who attain leadership positions by bribing voters spent the entire term of office recovering their losses during campaigns and pay little attention to developing the constituency.
“Eng Tiyo is the person you can rely on to bring desired change in Ayivu East Constituency,” he asserted, stressing that if cash dishing was a yardstick for winning elections, he would not have been given the NRM flag because his opponents even despised him as a poor person during the joint campaigns since he did not have the financial muscle to flex through bribery of voters.
“What you want from a Member of Parliament is not a sh1,000 or sh2,000 after five years. You want services to come to your area. You want tangible development such as clean water, electricity, you want Muni NTC health Center to be upgraded to a dispensary that can serve the community in Onzivu,” he added.
He called for streamlining of the implementation of the Parish Development Model and youth skilling which he said will be under his constant radar once the voters hand the Ayivu East Parliamentary seat to him.
