President Yoweri Museveni has described the deceased former speaker of Parliament, Jacob Oulanyah as a great cadre of the ruling NRM party who used his talents well to benefit the country.
"Oulanyah was young but had already made impact. As NRM, we started dealing with him when he was the chairperson of the Parliamentary legal committee although he was still in UPC, but we noticed him and saw that he had potential," Museveni told mourners on Wednesday at the Kololo independence grounds.
“He broke away from sectarian politics of opposition and made good contribution to the country. When we supported Oulanyah to take up the duties of Deputy Speaker, he took that time to multiply his talents. Losing him was a big loss because he was coming up and the country was going to benefit from him.”
Museveni noted that as early as 1966, there were problems of divisions in the country and specifically in Northern Uganda that he said many governments failed to solve.
According to the president, whereas the ruling NRM government tried to solve the problem, Oulanyah sped it up when he was voted as the NRM vice chairperson for Northern Uganda last year.
“He had already done good job in uniting northern Uganda. It had been messed up by bad politics. When he became vice chairperson, in short time he had deepened unity. I need to salute Oulanyah and commend him as an example.”
The president also warned against tribalism that had started to manifest itself following Oulanyah’s death.
“I don’t want to hear talk of northern. He was not speaker of north but Uganda. When you hear opportunists talking of northern Uganda, tell them to shut up. NRM supported him not because he was this or that but because was good cadre. He would never have won if NRM didn’t support him. Ugandans supported him because of his patriotism and pan Africanism and not because of his clan.”
Big loss
Museveni said Oulanyah used his talents very well and that his death is a big loss to the country.
“He used his talents well. He was a good orator .He was hardworking. When we identified and supported him to take responsibility as deputy speaker used that time to multiply his talent. Losing Oulanyah now is a big loss. He was somebody who was coming up and the country was going to get a lot of benefits from him.”
The Speaker of parliament, Anita Among described his predecessor Oulanyah as a man of many attributes.
"For us that had an opportunity of working with him [Oulanyah], he was a man of many attributes. Full of humor, energy, and zeal. He executed his duties with utmost diligence and dedication. We shall greatly miss Rt Hon Jacob," Among said.
He added that parliament has resolved that every March 23, which is Oulanyah's birthday will be honoured as the Jacob Oulanyah memorial lecture day .