Bishop Odoki Challenges West Nile Leaders to Tackle the Persistent Poverty in the Region
Hon. Jennifer Driwaru accompanied by Bishop Odoki in cutting cake Photo Credit Matata Bezamin
The Bishop of Arua Catholic Diocese, Rt. Rev. Sabino Ocan Odoki, has challenged leaders in West Nile to work together and push for better government services as a way of tackling the region’s persistent poverty.
Bishop Odoki said elected leaders have been entrusted with the responsibility to identify the needs of their communities and use their positions to lobby the relevant government ministries for meaningful interventions. “Leadership is a calling, and so you must do it the way God wants us to lead. Our sub region of West Nile needs a lot of unity if we are to get out of the situation we are in,” Bishop said.
He made the call on Saturday during the thanksgiving ceremony for Maracha District Woman Member of Parliament, Hon. Jennifer Driwaru, held at Oniba Primary School playgrounds, which also coincided with the bishop’s birthday, where thousands of residents, parliamentarians and friends from across the country attended.
Bishop Odoki expressed concern that West Nile continues to rank among Uganda’s poorest regions, second only to Karamoja, and urged both leaders and residents to take deliberate steps to reverse the trend. “We have been repeatedly heard that West Nile is one of the poorest subregions in Uganda. Are we going to accept this to go on and on? We must come up and stand up to our subregion and do what needs to be done to transform our subregion. I mean, lorries and lorries bringing tomatoes, cabbages.” He stressed.
He attributed part of the challenge to what he described as a negative attitude towards work and called on residents to embrace hard work and productive activities to improve household incomes.
“Our land is here. Can we not grow tomatoes? Can we not grow cabbages? Why are we eating only cassava? We could enrich our diet. So let us decide to work hard for the transformation of our West Nile region.”
Hon. Jennifer Driwaru, the Maracha district woman MP commended the voters for giving her another term in Parliament, saying her focus remains on fighting poverty by improving household incomes.
She pledged to lobby the government for improved access to seedlings for cash crops such as cocoa and coffee, which she said could provide farmers in Maracha with better sources of income.
“We are planning to remove our people from poverty because this time around, we are going to mobilize our people to grow cocoa and coffee and lobby the government to give us seedlings, especially the perennial crops.” Hon Driwaru explained.
She added, “We have been in tobacco farming for so many years, which has done us bad, especially our soil and it has caused us to poverty. So our people of West Nile and particularly Maracha, we can grow here. We want to encourage people to sustain, mobilize for the government to support our people.”
Meanwhile, Hon. Rose Obiga, the Deputy Chairperson of the West Nile Parliamentary Caucus and Woman MP for Terego District, said the caucus is committed to working together to promote effective service delivery and address poverty across the region.
She said unity among West Nile leaders is essential if the region is to effectively lobby for national resources and government programs.
“These days, our enemy is one that is poverty and we are here to unite against poverty,” Obiga noted.
“And you cannot fight poverty alone. You need to join us. We are trying very hard to plant coffee and cocoa, and because these can grow in West Nile, and we are also trying to see how we can improve soya beans, sunflower and maize.”
She further added, “We are trying to see if we can take what we grow for food, even cassava, and export it.”
Responding to Bishop Odoki’s call, the Minister of State for Cooperatives and Moyo West County MP, who was the chief guest, Hon. Alero Tom Aza, said the government has rolled out Vision 2040 as part of its long-term strategy to transform Uganda’s economy to tenfold and raise household incomes.
“Vision 2040 presupposes that we must move out of poverty. We must move to the money economy by 2040, everybody must be able to earn money, which can help him to either pay school fees or other social services. We are supposed to grow our economy tenfold.” Minister Aza said.
He encouraged residents of West Nile to move away from subsistence farming and embrace commercial agriculture, particularly the growing of crops such as cocoa and coffee, which he said have the potential to improve household incomes and reduce poverty.
“It’s high time we left tobacco, we left the cotton, and take to coffee or cocoa or both because they are perennial crops which we can get income from year in year out, like other parts of Uganda. We are supposed to move away from subsistence to commercial agriculture. All this is what I’m going to do. So, my people of West Nile, please let us embrace the growth of perennial crops for commercial purposes.”
Hon. Jennifer Driwaru retained the Maracha District Woman MP seat in the 2026 parliamentary elections, securing more than 23,000 votes.