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BY RICHARD DRASIMAKU
ARUA: WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 13, 2025
The activities under the Operation Wealth Creation, a nascent government poverty eradication program in West Nile are expected to receive new impetus following the appointment of Rt Maj Gen Michael Ondoga, a distinguished army officer to oversee the program in Uganda’s North-Western sub-region.
Maj Gen Ondoga takes over the mantle from Rt lt. Col Wilson Bart Anguni, who was one of his command officers during the high stakes African Union Peace keeping operations in Somalia.
During the handover ceremony in Arua presided over by Uganda’s former envoy to China, ambassador Phillip Idro on Tuesday, Maj Gen Ondoga thanked the Chief Coordinators of OWC, Gen Salim Saleh for trusting him and taping him from retirement back into national service.
“I am very happy that Uganda is stable and the economy is generally doing well, although there is a section of the population that is still being beaten by the economy,” he remarked.
Maj Gen Ondoga said he comes with a positive spirit to work with soberness and appealed for cooperation from all people and coordinating officers so that “together we can continue to roll the wheel.”
He brings into OWC a vast wealth of experience accrued from 36 years of distinguished military service that saw him holding different positions in the intelligence army of the army, and command positions right from battalion to being the political commissar of the Uganda peoples defence forces.
Gen Ondoga led the UPDF operations against the notorious Lord’s Resistance Army rebels of the International Criminal Court indicted Joseph Kony in South Sudan, commanding the mobile forces that dismantled the LRA hideouts in the Imatong mountains among others.
He also served as the brigade commander for the Arua based 409 brigade, 3rd Division commander in Karamoja region, twice the contingent commander of the UPDF under the Amisom.
From Mogadishu, President Yoweri Museveni, the Commander in chief of the armed forces reassigned Ondoga to serve as deputy director for the National Enterprise Corporation, overseeing the Kyoga operations of the UPDF’s business arm.
He rounded up his military service in a civil-military diplomatic capacity as the Defence Attaché to Saudi Arabia.
Gen Ondoga described his predecessor Lt. Col Anguni as a disciplined officer with proven dedication to service.
And from him he takes over an assignment that is lacking an office space of its own and is grappling with district coordinators lacking transport due to breakdown of the vehicles that the government had given them years ago.
In his handover report card for the period 2015 to 2020, Lt Col Anguni indicated that the government had injected sh56.6b worth of inputs for crop and fruits production and livestock raring.
Col Anguni informed his successor that West Nile has the potential to achieve accelerated transformation if the government initiatives, especially OWC is embraced.
While officiating at the function held at the Arua district council hall, ambassador Idro who is also a senor adviser to Gen Saleh on OWC, told the officers assigned to spearhead OWC to execute their tasks with iligence.
He said OWC is at the forefront of the socio-economic transformation agenda and is targeted towards the section of the population that does not have the capacity to repay agriculture loans.
He was flanked by the former Gender Labour and social services minister, Zoe Bakoko Bakoru reminded the farming community to prioritize commercialization and take advantage of the West Nile’s location to maximize trade in agriculture commodities.
“We are blessed with countries around us – DR Congo, South Sudan and even Central African Republic – which do not produce a lot of agriculture products. Let us take advantage of these markets,” she urged the people.
Bakoko said the primary elections (that she lost) are over and it’s time to focus on development. She told the people to pay attention to the things that she talked about during the campaigns and join the OWC agenda to achieve transformation.
“West Nile had lost three generations to war,” said Bakoko, referring to the period of insurgency (1979 to 2002) when rebels led by former soldiers of the Idi Amin regime fought against the government under different factions, – Former Uganda National Army (FUNA), Uganda National Rescue Front under Gen Moses Ali, the Juma Oris led West Nile Bank Front and he Uganda National Rescue Front II of Maj Gen Ali Bamuze that signed the durable peace accord with the government in 2002.
“Now we have a government that has come with this policy (OWC), you need to understand it as technical people so that you can work together with us to achieve the targets which the government has set,” Bakoko who also is an advisor under Gen Saleh told the office bearers of OWC.
