By Gyagenda Semakula Zikusooka
The stylish and eloquent orator; an intellectual giant; astute legislator and a lawyer’s lawyer as his colleagues referred to him, was laid to rest at 17:45hrs on Friday, April 8, 2022 at Ajuri Village in Lalogi Sub County in Omoro District of Acholi sub region in a national send-off funeral ceremony that was a cocktail of emotions. This was the climax of an eventful 20-day season that started on March 20th at the pronouncement of his death by President Museveni. His last public moments and appearances as a legislator and Speaker of Parliament are very misty and hazy to the public except for a few friends, fellow parliamentarians and those with whom he closely worked. My graphic memory exhibits one of the biggest funeral crowds in an open primary school field between two places of worship; Ajuri Church of Uganda and Ajuri Chapel, both built by late Jacob.
The emotive scenes of national mourning, dancing to the traditional Bwola and Otole tunes, condolences and homages, the moving sermons by Archbishop Kazimba Mugalu and Emeritus Archbishop Luke Orombi, capped with the hasty whirlwind whose interpretation has attracted public discourse are what filled our hearts, minds and speech during this time of mourning. Chief Justice Owiny-Dollo, undoubtedly one of Oulanyah’s right hand comrades capped his tearful sendoff panegyric with a traditional Acholi hymn that says, “Our spear is gone.”
I have read very moving eulogies from people who grew, studied and personally knew Jacob Oulanyah. They have said it all. I am not of one of them. I did not know much about the late. The Oulanyah I knew is the same that the majority of Ugandans knew. I did not have any personal interactions with him while he still mingled with fellow congressmen at our base of Uganda House and did not even have a single opportunity to interview him as a practicing journalist during his spell as an MP or Speaker and there can never be any such opportunity for me, never. I simply admired and esteemed his multiple skill-sets.
Mine is just an observer’s perspective, who was right at the center of the last eight days of Oulanya’s remains with us. My observation starts right at Entebbe International Airport where Captain Binyam Negatu safely landed the Ethiopian airbus A350, flight ET334 at exactly 14:30hrs. This unusual moment was broadcast live on several TVs as Ugandans watched. The only other such moment was 51 years ago on March 31st, 1971 when President Idi Amin returned to Uganda the remains of Sir Edward Muteesa from London. Assistant Commissioner of Police in charge of Protocol, Honours and Ceremonies, Hajji Basalirwa Jamal climbed into the cargo compartment of the airbus A350 to drape late Oulanyah’s casket in national colours.
The moment of reality downed on all of us when his casket was finally lowered from the cargo compartment onto a cart that was driven by ENHAS’ airside driver Patrick Katusabe who delivered and handed it over to Vice President Jessica Alupo who was in the company of her immediate predecessor Kiwanuka Sekandi, tearful Speaker Anita Annet Among and other dignitaries. Police performed their national rituals and body was put into an A-Plus funeral hearse whose driver throughout this journey to Ajuri was Shakib Mugalu. The roadside bystanders reminded me of Queen Elizabeth’s 2007 CHOGM and Pope Francis’ 2015 visits respectively. The crowds were not the same in numbers but the gesture of welcoming home Oulanya’s body was not the usual one as witnessed for the several VIP deaths in this country. Oulanyah became bigger in death than he was in life. He was loved more than he was hated.
The outpouring of condolences, both verbally and electronically was so revealing. All the good, the bad and the ugly had something to say and tweet. All of us eventually became Oulanyah’s school old boys, trainees, mentees, friends and relatives. Unfortunately, he had departed from us and gone forever. I admit that we all lost the towering national leader with international approval. Paradoxically, we had never lost a person of this stature in office; so, we did not practically know what to do and how to do it. We simply had an imaginary outline of how a speaker who dies in office should be accorded an appropriate burial. This unprecedented situation was worsened by the immoral, callous and uncultured Article 82(4) of our country’s constitution. The framers of our constitution must have felt shameful and guilty.
As usual, the corrupt got to the center stage and ran ahead of everybody. They swung into action and vulgarized the dead man’s funeral arrangements with colossal sums of money. The government did not readily know what to tell the ever suspecting public that wouldn’t mind a state funeral for country’s number three. While his body laid still in a funeral parlor at Mengo, the debate was about who eats what.
Oulanyah was hailed for being a unifier and for some reason, there were unanimous voices of tugikwateko and amend the constutition. This was intended to honour a stickler to rules of procedure and rule of law. We all agreed in one accord that it was indecent and disrespectful to the dead to replace them before interment.
There were eulogies of nobility and pretense both at home in Muyenga and in Parliament. Those who castigated him as a regime’s fixer during his tenure as deputy speaker were now hailing him as the best gift that this country has ever had. Oulanyah chaired the very first sitting of the dishonorable and infamous article 102b amendment in 2017 and was called all sorts of names.
The Old Testament Prophet Isaiah; one of the greatest foreseer of the fulfilled Messianic prophecies said, _“In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord….”_ It can be said of the late Jacob Oulanyah that in the year he died, we (some) saw the Lord. The triune in him (Speaker, MP and CEC Member) was dismembered and melted. Some got businesses; others got money, power and positions. These were not serendipities. They had to happen anyway. I personally take pride in what I saw at Oulanyah’s courtyard in Ajuri as his lifeless body laid still; the pioneer sitting of the Greater North Emergency Regional Council Meeting of 29 district councils and three cities of Acholi, Lango and West Nile sub regions. This was a litmus test to Article 178 of the Constitution and Section 8 of the Local Government Act on cooperation among districts.
Ugandans watched in awe and admiration one of the most organized sittings of highly progressive, liberal and broadminded local government politicians. Their conduct has been adored and revered by the public. Omoro District Speaker Richard Bongowat Luganya was the celebrity of the moment. His strong voice, humor, level of intellectualism and oratory skills drew conclusions that he was the Oulanyah incarnate. His speakership abilities were spectacular. The unique council sitting had the country’s Chief Justice, Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Ministers, Members of Parliament, dignitaries and the media in the gallery. You would expect the former Gulu University guild president to be cowed by this nature of audience but it was a moment for him to see the Lord.
The 10 page joint council write-up was read by another composed and eloquent Omoro District Chairperson, Okello Peter Douglas. They resolved among others that; government renames the cancer center under construction at Koro to Jacob Oulanyah Cancer Centre, rename all major roads in the three cities in northern Uganda after the late, upgrade the Northern Uganda Commonwealth Youth Development Center to Jacob Oulanyah National Polytechnic Institute, the Parliamentary Commission approves his portrait and have it hanged in all council halls, amend Article 82(4), conduct a massive tree planting campaign in greater north et cetera. If all these resolutions are given legal force, out of Oulanyah’s death, we will see a semblance of the regional tier or LCVI system being borne. The bad and damning situation could turn out to be the best thing for regional tier in this country.
The final moments of Oulanyah were characterized by a strong wind that some villagers allegedly said started from the house of the late which was just a few meters away from the grounds where his body lay. Was it just a wind or a ghost that had come to demand for answers? What message was in this wind that blew through the crowds as Jacob’s son Harold had just tearfully spoken? The wind that blew high the A-Plus umbrella on the MC’s podium took all mourners by storm. Journalist ran for their lives as everyone was thrown into panic. When the wind blew the gazebo over the coffin that was when we realized there was something unusual. The traditional chants and religious mantras were all you could hear. It was a short-lived moment and sanity was restored.
We switched back to eulogies. I intentionally observed Mzei Nathan Okori as he listened with disinterest to all these glowing speeches about his son after capping his eulogy with the revelation that his son told him, he had been poisoned. He wanted to bury his son and nothing more. Oulanyah’s young brother Francis Emuna stood to speak and put all mourners to notice that he had lived with the late for 54 years and that except for their father; Mzei Okori, he alone knew Jacob more than everyone else. He spoke about his brother’s life of relationships and angrily denounced any ladies in Jacob’s life. He also attributed to the wind as a signal of his brother’s restlessness and anger to some people who he accuses of meddling into the deceased’s affairs and estate. He furiously charged at some woman who he alleges refused him to travel to the US to save his brother. He accepted that his brother would have died yes, but he would have done anything to try and save him. He was blocked from donating to Jacob the required bone marrow that had shrunk in his body.
However, Jacob’s health had far reaching complications and way beyond just the bone-marrow transfer. Dr. Jackson Orem of the Uganda Cancer Institute had told mourners at Kololo and Ajuri what the cause of death was. Jacob’s daughter who lives in Phoenix Arizona, Diana Aceng to the contrary thanked Auntie Patricia who I later learned about as this unwanted lady by her in-laws.
The tearful peasants watched from a distance as the Bwola dancers stamped hard their feet in a rhythmic movement to the Otole tune, running behind Jacob’s casket as we followed him to his final resting place. Everybody was not permitted to access the graveside. Police performed their national burial rituals and Jacob was finally sent home with a 21 gun salute.
Out of the triune in one man Jacob L’Okori Oulanyah, there is a Speaker of Parliament in chambers, an MP for Omoro County who will be sworn in by June and the NRM Vice Chairman for Northern Uganda who will also occupy office sooner than later. As expected, there is an ensuing battle over who manages Jacob’s estate. I am not personally privy to what is happening in Okori’s backyard.
Jacob Oulanyah was laid to rest that same day Pope John Paul II and Archbishop Cyprian Kizito Lwanga were laid to rest in 2005 and 2021 respectively. When Pope Paul II visited Uganda in February 1993, he visited Gulu district in Northern Uganda and youthful Jacob was one of his congregants. His life’s chapter was closed and what are left with us are his legacy and his signature bowtie. Oulanyah was mourned by the noble, the corrupt and the peasants. Life is indeed an enigma!
King David said, “… _Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.”_ 2Samuel 12:23.
Rest in glory, Ladit Jacob L’Okori Oulanyah.
The writer is a Journalist & Media Practitioner.