Gulu is home to tolerant happy people -Aol

By Gloria Nakiyimba

With just a few days left to the Capital Radio tour of Northern Uganda, Gulu has been described as one of the best places in Uganda with very happy people. Gulu district woman Member of Parliament and Leader of opposition in parliament, Aol Betty Ochan says Gulu is a great place to live with a number of tourist sites including the historical Sir Samuel Baker site.

“We are happy in Gulu. It’s a happy place .I encourage people to visit Gulu. I love the people of Gulu because of their kindness, because of their truthfulness and because they are hard working. Women work so hard” she noted.

Majority of the people in Gulu are predominantly Christians. However, there is religious tolerance and a peaceful co-existence with people from other religious denominations.

“It has been a very long journey for us from camps. We have the Muslims who work together very well with Christians. We have Acholi religious leaders’ peace initiative which unites all the different denominations and people co-exist respecting each others’ opinion. You don’t force people to believe in what you may believe in. All of us believe in God, but knowing that there are many different ways of traveling to God” said Hon. Aol Betty.However, the rate at which people commit suicide in this northern district are some of the negatives impacts reminiscent of the suffering the population went through during the Lord’s resistance war that left thousands dead and many maimed.

“Suicide is common, people commit suicide. Some of our young babies these days are born of children who were brought up in the camps, who never got proper informal education, so they do not care for their children. So those things are there and we need to have a lot of concerted effort to make sure that our young people should love their children, they must be cared for, and they must be educated so that tomorrow we have quality people”

In spite of being a good place to live, Gulu still faces the problem of the quality of the population. “Education is still a problem, since our parents can only afford primary, but when it comes to secondary it’s a challenge. People are struggling to make sure they take their children in good schools”

The peace experienced in Gulu is one of the reasons why leader of opposition says you don’t want to leave Gulu once you go there.

There is always a bad apple in every basket, there are some pockets of criminals who still terrorize residents.

Although it’s a smooth ride to Gulu town, due to the good roads, the story is different traveling in the villages outside the town.

“The roads in the town seem to be okay. They are good. Its only deep in the rural areas that the roads are bad, but I always encourage people to visit Gulu”