RIBUTE TO FIRST APG CHAIRMAN, HON. ABENEGO ONGOM OF OMORO COUNTY:
Ladot Oran, Ajan
File photo
BY RONALD REAGAN OKUMU*
In 1996, I left Burcoro village to represent Aswa County in particular and Acholi interests primarily. I was a product of the conflict and as a student activist, was well aware of Acholi leaders in various places that included Ali Kiseka, Ojok Mulozi, Okello Okello, Abenego Ongom, Zachery Olum, Charles Alai, Owiny Dollo, Betty Bigombe and many others whose outlooks about Acholi dignity and survival were beyond their narrow partisan, social and economic leanings.
Personally, apart from student activism and engagement with Acholi elites and community, I had no experience in the role of a national representative. I had been a leader leading peers at various life stages, I considered leadership as a service anchored in accountability, courage, and mentorship.
Throughout my leadership before and at the Ugandan parliament, while working for peace and in post-war reconstruction, I led by uniting diverse voices, rebuilding trust, and developing others to take the lead. My approach centred on people, protecting their dignity, fostering peace, and ensuring sustainable progress that extended beyond my individual tenure, but recognising continuity of the past, and therefore was willing to listen to the wisdom of elders like Abenego Ongom.
For me, in that respect, leadership was never about authority or titles, as Hon Abenego Ongom kept telling APG. It was about answering a call, often in times of conflict, loss, or uncertainty, to bring people together, rebuild, and restore. I have therefore learnt through service that leadership means serving consistently, mentoring intentionally, and accepting accountability for the lives and futures entrusted to you.
Therefore, leadership is the inner responsibility to stand up when others are uncertain, the willingness to be accountable for people’s lives/dignity/future, and is a call to serve before being asked, making it an instinct to guide, protect, and grow others, not primarily for a position title.
Leadership, therefore, is distinct from rulership, which possesses formal powers and appointments, as rulers operate or act only within a defined establishment. Leaders who also become rulers often possess additional characteristics of charisma and moral authority that extend far beyond the scope of their office and limited legal authority.
Hon Abenego Ongom exhibited this when he became our first APG Chairman with Okello Okello as Vice Chairman, Nyeko Penmogi as Treasurer, and Okee Bermich of Lamwo as Secretary. We were only 11 and therefore called Acholi 11. As soon as Abenego Ongom became APG chair, he was invited by Prime Minister Kintu Musoke, claiming that the government was willing to work with him and that he should tone down radical voices like mine and that of Hon. Mao. He stood firm and reminded the prime minister that there was nothing strange about what we kept raising. The Ironical twist was then when Kintu Musoke invited me and told me that the government was willing to work with *”young and fresh faces”* like ours, but not those of Ongom! I shared this with my Chairman, and he urged me to remain focused and not accept divide and rule approach by the government. In short, Abenego Ongom held *APG together that consisted of 5 opposition (Reagan, Ongom, Mao, Okello Okello, and Olum) and 6 NRM (Jane Odwong, Betty Akech, Pen Mogi, Owiny Dollo, Okee, and Omony Ogaba)* unlike today’s APG that has become non-functional.
The first test of Ongom leadership was *maneuvering our unity through the motion to investigate the war in the north.* Ongom delegated his Vice Chairman and me to present the APG position not from parliament, but from Kitgu,m where the committee scheduled to havea hearing, a position that the entire Acholi community endorsed and stood by.
We were facilitated by Hon. Owiny Dollo’s official vehicle when he was minister resident in Gulu, a position that most ministers would not facilitate a group going to present a different position from what the government wants. Unfortunately, by the time of the committee report presentation on the floor of parliament, *like Judas betrayed Jesus at the 11th hour, one of the Acholi 11th NRM members, betrayed Acholi at the 11th hour* to mislead parliament that Acholi were not united, a strategy the government employed.
Fortunately *Hon. Jane Akwero Odwong, an NRM, stood up in tears and declared that she would walk out of NRM if the government would not stand bythe Acholi. Owiny Dollo, a whole Minister on the front bench, stood up to make his position clear by standing with Acholi and not the Cabinet position*.
Those were the leaders Ongom led in APG who put Acholi before their promised cakes! Acholi must therefore *remember Ongom that it was his two-and-a-half-year term that Acholi’s suffering came on the national and international agenda.* And that it was his time that he set *APG tours throughout Acholi on a routine basis twice a year and on emergency response whenever it happened with unified voices from leaders to the Acholi people, a position that made Acholi solid.*
His leadership was smoothly taken over by Owiny Dollo after his set term, where I too became Secretary to APG.
I still recall, when Besigye declared in the Newspaper that he would contest, Ongom called Okello Okello to consult and declared that *if it were true,* in the spirit to mount pressure on the regime, we should support Besigye, declaring ” *that is where we should die. One of our colleagues in the “Acholi opposition” walked in and found us in the parliament lobby, and when Ongom told him what we were considering, he declared, “I have rejected Satan with all its colours and forms” claiming Besigye was NRM, whom he had rejected in his entire life!*
Hon. Ongom was humble, principled, knowledgeable and mindful of the welfare of his community. Acholi should remember that it was his time as APG leader that our suffering was considered a national concern, and that he evaded attempts to be appointed minister to silence his voice as APG Chairman *MAY THE SOUL OF HON. ABENEGO ONGOM REST IN PEACE AND MAY HIS LEGACY SHINE ON.*
