Yesterday 18th June 2022, the two members of parliament from Pakwach district missed the annual Jonam Development Conference.

This was the second annual conference with the first one that took place in the year 2019 before Covid-19 became a global threat which claims many lives worldwide.

There was a big surprise among the sons and daughters of Jonam when both Jonam county Member of Parliament Hon.Ongiertho Emmanuel and the Pakwach district woman Member of Parliament Hon. Avur Jane Panucho missed the annual super decisive conference organized by Jonam Development Foundation JDF. Not even any representative, verbal or written communication to the JDF leadership about their possible inability to attend. This raised a lot of questions among the people who attended the conference as it caused a big embarrassment to not only the Minister but also the people of Pakwach district.

A lot was discussed and presentations were made. Hon. Minister for northern Uganda Hon. Grace Kwiyocwiny said the government has a plan for high tech city for Pakwach and it will come to pass. She urged the community to make good use of Wadelai irrigation scheme and Andibu dam to sort out the prolonged draught in Jonam. She gave example of countries like Egypt and Libya which are desert countries in the world yet they are green because of the irrigation system in place. She further said that our people should embrace agriculture as source of livelihood to eradicate poverty. Agriculture is not only planting cassava, sim sim amongst other but things like fish farming, poultry, Sunflower, soya beans are some of the products our people have not thought about and they have higher demand. She gave assurance to the people that Palango saga is in her docket and they are working closely to resolve this matter before it completely turned bloody.

The northern minister was impressed by the organizers of the conference which had made her requesting for two conferences in a year because in this kind of meetings, we learn a lot and we have the right information from the disadvantage people to take to the president she said.

Meanwhile, the minister of energy tackles the issues of petroleum in the Albertine graben area and he said, Pakwach is the nearest town and it's the provider of accommodation and food for the oil workers but they realized that Pakwach has little accommodation facilities to handle big number.

One of the participants possed a question to the minister of energy concerning the land grabbers in Palango whereby he said, before the exploration, there was no serious land wrangles in Palango but later our people have been killed, crops were destroyed and land were taken out of the hands of the true owners of the land. What plan does the government has for the people of Jonam? 

The energy minister stood up and cited example of one minister who fraudulently acquired land title in someone's land and the title was withdrawn after investigation in the matter. He urged the community to follow the right procedures to table their cases true legal process and the matter will be resolved.

Some of the invited guests in the conference were Hon Kwiyocwiny Grace Freedom minister for northern Ugandan, Hon minister for energy, the RDC Pakwach District, the LCV Pakwach District, UNRA representative, local councils three of Pakwach town council and Panyango Sub County amongst other invited guests were in full attendance.

What happened to our two MPs to Miss JONAM DEVELOPMENT CONFERENCE (JDC) organizes by JONAM DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION (JDF) but the invited guests honored the call?

Compile by Otim