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Warring factions reunite to elect next paramount chief
Participants in the peace talks sing Lango anthem at Margaritha Palace Hotel, Lira City, on November 5. PHOTO/BILL OKETCH
What you need to know:
The new Lango paramount chief is expected to be inaugurated in October 2024
Two factions of clan leaders in Lango Cultural Foundation that have been fighting each other for more than a decade have reunited following a reconciliation meeting.
The leadership wrangle started in August 2013 when then speaker of Lango Cultural Foundation, Mr Wakili Okello, rebelled against Paramount Chief (Won Nyaci) Yosam Odur Ebii.
Mr Okello then organised an election which made Mr Benjamin Okii a parallel Won-Nyaci, with his own cabinet. Mr Okii later appointed Rev George Okeng as his speaker.
Another parallel faction led by Mr Charles Olet also emerged. The faction negotiated with Mr Okii’s faction. He stepped down in favour of Mr Olet when their cabinet emerged to form one parallel administration.
In 2017, Mr Moses Michael Odongo Okune, the former executive director of Uganda Road Fund, formed another faction after he won an election that his team had organised. Since 2017, he has been running a parallel cultural administration called Tekwaro Lango where he is the parallel paramount chief.
However, Mr Peter Okello Oyo, who was the Minister of Foreign Affairs (Awitim) under Yosam Odur leadership, felt it was time for the Langi to reunite, to eliminate constant cultural leadership battles, which have caused a lot of embarrassment to Lango as a tribe.
This was after a cabinet reshuffle by Yosam Odur last month, which also saw him removed from that position.
He managed to negotiate with Mr Okune to merge his cabinet of Tekwaro Lango with that of Lango Cultural Foundation to foster peace and unity in Lango Sub-region. Still, last month Mr Ebii had declared his intention to relinquish power and hand over office to a new leader in December 2024.
Mr Ebii, 94, has been at the helm of the Lango Cultural Foundation for two decades and his decision to relinquish power is seen by many as due to old age.
In an October 10 letter, Mr Ebii released a transition roadmap with different frameworks that he believes would foster a smooth transfer of power.
“As I present this roadmap, I want to send my sincere appreciation to everyone I worked with during my tenure in service both in government and cultural leadership,” he wrote.
In the one-year-long roadmap, he instructed the electoral body to organise the election of the new paramount chief who will be sworn in and inaugurated in October 2024, ahead of the official handover in December of the same year.
The roadmap also includes tours in all the districts that form Lango Sub-region. This exercise is expected to run for four months from February to June 2024. They also expect a visit by the Kabaka of Buganda and Omukama of Bunyoro to the site where Kabaka Mwanga and his Bunyoro counterpart Kabalega were hidden by the people of Lango during their resistance of colonial incursions on their respective Kingdoms.
Mr Ebii also plans to make his last visit in his official position as Won-Nyaci to President Museveni at State House Entebbe before handing over instruments of power to his successor, among other things.
Mr Oyo and his team brokered a peace deal at Lira-based Margaritha Palace Hotel on November 5 during a clan leaders’ meeting, which was attended by 147 from both sides of Mr Ebii and Mr Okune.
The peace brokers, who included four religious leaders such as Bishop emeritus of Lango Diocese Charles Odur Kami, Bishop Tom Ibrahim Okello of All Nations, Lira Diocese Vicar General Valente Opio and the representative of Lango Muslim Khadi. These managed to convince clan leaders from the two side to merge.
During that meeting, clan leaders came out with 21 resolutions, which among others, dissolved the cabinets of both Tekwaro Lango and Lango Cultural Foundation. The clan leaders, who were aligned to the leadership of Mr Okune, agreed to join their colleagues who were under the leadership of Mr Ebii.
The resolutions were then submitted to the Council of Owitong (the highest decision-making body of Lango culture) at Lango Cultural Centre on November 7.
This meeting resolved that the election of the new Won-Nyaci should be held early next year. The Council of Owitong also approved the names of seven members of the Electoral Commission who will organise the election of the new paramount chief.
End of an era
Paramount Chief (Won-Nyaci) Yosam Odur Ebii, 94, has been at the helm of the Lango Cultural Foundation for two decades and his decision to relinquish power is seen by many as due to old age.
