I want to congratulate the newly elected Teso Parliamentary Group leaders. Thank you for the elections, but I hope the elected leaders of the group will not just carry the name; they should be instrumental.
I remember the TPG used to be vibrant when the late Bishop Patrick Okabe was the chairperson. He used to coordinate with the Karamoja Parliamentary Group to bring out the issues affecting the Teso and Karamoja regions.
Bishop Okabe knew very well that the Iteso and the Karimojong are one people facing similar challenges, so they used to sit as one and raise one voice to the government to act on them. But all this activity ended after the death of Bishop Patrick Okabe.
The so-called Teso Parliamentary Group became useless beyond boundaries. Those who were elected as TPG leaders after the death of Okabe could not even lobby for a single beehive for the bee farmers in Teso. They could not even lobby for a single syringe of injection. They were only carrying the names of TPG leaders, loitering without making any impact.
Any parliamentary group should always front the needs of the people of its region.
My prayer is that I hope the new team that has been elected will now show the people of Teso the relevance of the Teso Parliamentary Group. They should not use the group for fighting one another or protecting corruption, but instead use it to lobby for better services in Teso and Karamoja.
We need the meat packers back. We need Saimco Limited back. It is only the Teso region that does not have a single manufacturing industry, yet the region also has many minerals.
The TPG should advocate for the construction of a stadium and an international airport in Teso.
The writer is a senior veteran journalist.
