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As heads of security committees, RDCs deployed to represent the president in Lango sub region are having sleepless nights over fears that religious sectarianism has lately been on the increase in especially Lira City.
There, a small clique of little known and not very significant Catholics have aggressively been de-campaigning City Woman MP Jane Ruth Aceng on grounds that she is unworthy to keep the office of Lira City Woman MP merely because she isn’t a Catholic like them.
Led by so-called presidential advisor Okello Opio, the small clique says that Betty Amongi Ongom Akena (who is curiously running away from Oyam) is better placed to become City Woman MP in 2026 merely because she is a Catholic.
This illogical way of looking at political stuff weird and also belittling not only to the NRM but to Amongi herself too because, as a senior leader who has been MP for now 25 years, she ought to have other selling points beyond just parochial and sectarian considerations of religion. Some leaders have been MPs for only 3-4 years but have done great things for their people.
Religious sectarianism belittles NRM because its founder YK Museveni has consistently preached against religious bigotry and sectarianism since when he was a young boy at Ntare School. He has remained outspoken against such sectarianism and his entire State House establishment ought to be ashamed of what his advisor Okello Opio, a civil servant who is supposed to be non-partisan, has been parroting in a bid to justify Betty Amongi’s candidature.
In fact, the indifference with which Okello Opio (who controversially lives with his parent’s home even after clocking 50) has been wearing sectarian lenses has made many right-thinking and grown up Langis, including his fellow Catholics (especially senior citizens), very uncomfortable and in the process caused senior NRM leaders in Lango like GCW Hamson Obua and Erute South’s Sam Engola to come under immense pressure to sit him down for some polishing and counselling.
The overriding concern is that by insisting on selling his candidate Amongi basing on religious considerations, Okello Opio is inadvertently contradicting the president and the NRM whose stand against religious sectarianism is legendary and well known. Even Amongi, being a minister, can ordinarily not be comfortable being portrayed to be a DEI candidate for the position of Woman MP Lira City.
Being projected as a DEI candidate projects weakness and not strength because having been around and occupying public offices for 25 years, there ought to be a lot Okello Opio should be able to say to illustrate the suitability of his candidate beyond just religion. The great things Aceng Ceng Atedero has done in just 4 years have demonstrated that serious leaders don’t require to be in office for an eternity to get great stuff done for their electors.
As they plan to push back for the interest of security in the sub region, the RDCs themselves are restless and not that safe because their future is equally uncertain. This uncertainty escalated a few days ago after Okello Opio-like-minded conspirators met at a hotel in Kamdini and agreed on a list of Resident Commissioners who have to be fought and forced out of Lango sub region on the eve of 2026 polls simply because they are not Catholics.
Plotters at the meeting were so serious that one penurious, childless and homeless old man present was tasked with drafting a petition imploring presidency minister Milly Babalanda to knife all RDCs who aren’t Catholics in Lango districts in months leading to 2026 campaigns.
This same old man sleeps in his parent’s car in Lira City’s Boroboro neighborhood because he has never had a house or home of his own. The shrewd old fox (names withheld) keeps all his clothes in that same mum’s car because he has never owned a closet where such clothing can be kept. He is also Olara Otunnu’s partner in crime when it comes to despising those things of marriage.
Mid last month, NRM grassroots mibilisers converged for a crisis meeting in Lira City East’s Ongura ward or parish and resolved to petition the president calling on him to intervene and tame the growing politics of religion this shrewd old fox is propagating not just in Lira City but the entire Lango sub region where people consume repeated recorded audios of his inciting hate against elected leaders who aren’t Catholics.
The NRM cadres demanded that in the meantime, Obua and Sam Engora do something or else they as grassroots NRM people will resort to power of the powerless to the shrewd old fox’s own detriment. That the growing religious sectarianism way of campaigning risks belittling the great gains Museveni has made for all these years uniting the people of Uganda.
On his part, Okello Opio began growing into Catholic extremism in 2019 when he was posted to be a member on the construction committee of Lira Catholic Diocese. He has been very outspoken vigorously spreading his staunch Catholicism ideologies mainly among Catholic establishments and community members on the periphery and not in the City center where he is man of limited influence.
Even top clerics at the Diocese have come under pressure from the security apparatus representatives like ISO to gather some courage and call out those who are marketing Minister Betty Amongi using Catholic sectarian lenses. It’s important that the clerics do as requested because religious sectarianism, if not tamed, can ferment chaos and instability; something President Museveni ought not to tolerate.
As a community, Langi opinion leaders, known for their objectivity ought not to tolerate such anymore as the country counts down to 2026 general elections. As we all ought to know, leaders must always be elected on merit and not on sectarian grounds. This ought to be one of the things officials at Amongi’s ministry of Gender teach to Ugandans on a daily basis.
No one should be tolerated fuelling religious sectarianism. Not in Museveni’s Uganda. It must be an abhorration all human beings must be up against. And those involved in propagating the same ought to be despised and treated with all the contempt they deserve. They are an abomination and ought not to hold public office anywhere in contemporary Uganda.
It must be made risky for anyone to campaign for and seek public office based on his or her religion. And political leaders ought to be punished by voters, as opposed to being rewarded, for seeking to gain political advantage and getting elected basing on their religion.
Gen Museveni would order the locking up of anyone who comes or gets chance to speak at his rally and campaigns using lenses of religious sectarianism. This is why such abhorrent behaviour has to be punished by voters in Lango as opposed to being rewarded. All people of good conscience have to be up against such abhorrent behaviour wherever its prevalent-not just in Lango sub region but in any part of Uganda.
The long campaign speeches Okello Opio and other like-minded actors have been making in wards like Iwal, Ngetta and Boroboro in Lira City East over the past few days ought to be very unsettling to all people of good conscience. It was all about nothing but popularising their candidate merely on sectarian grounds which is very shameful and repugnant.
As someone who, inspite of being a Catholic, miserably trailed in his race to become Lira City East MP in 2026, Mr. Okello Opio ought to know how political races are won or lost in the mighty Lira City as opposed to deceiving his opposition UPC candidate for the office of Lira City Woman MP. He should be in position to render truthful and workable advice as opposed to mere grandstanding and deceptive tactics.
To her credit, Aceng whose approach to public service ought to be emulated, demonstrated not very long ago that an effective leader should govern in a way that is inclusive and capable of impacting all people equally regardless of their religious affiliation.
A few days ago, she selflessly did stuff which benefited all manner of constituents including the 45 Catholic church catechists whose pilgrimage she cheerfully supported in Kampala lasting 6 days.
This cost her millions of shillings but the bottom line was that the benefiting clerics travelled and got exposed to better ways of doing things and should be able to serve God’s people better-going into the New Year. She didn’t have to be a Catholic to create such lasting impact.
Yet that isn’t all. Around the same time, the minister also supported the Lira Catholic Diocese cooperative society for which she bought incubation, hatchery equipment and funded the purchase of parent stock eggs to amplify poultry farming among low income group members.
And the Ugx440m she handed over a few days ago went to more than 800 women groups, an intervention meant to benefit all people of Lira City regardless of their religion and other sectarian considerations. Voters have gone on to express their gratitude by christening their Woman MP and Health Minister Ceng Atedero which means ‘Sun of the People.
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