Ogwel’s tough path to be NCS supremo

KAMPALA- Dr Bernard Patrick Ogwel’s spacious office at the National Council of Sports (NCS) in Lugogo has a collage of framed pictures representing different milestones of his life. Seven of them are academic accomplishments. He is a proud academician who is still a visiting lecturer to Kampala International University (KIU) teaching development, peace and conflict studies.

On May 1, 2019, he added another chapter to his rich résumé when he was appointed the General Secretary of the NCS succeeding the bedridden Nicholas Muramagi.

A multi-faceted football player, accomplished sports administrator, former referee and academician, Ogwel, who thrived as a left back in his playing days, has been a distinguished personality now running one of the most powerful offices in the sports sub-sector. All this has been accomplished through hard work and dedication.

His career is not without a stain though as he was the coach during the game that cast a spell on Uganda’s football. The year was 2003 when SC Villa mauled Akol 22-0 at Namboole and he was the man that commanded the nine men from Lira as SC Villa won the league under a cloud of match-fixing.

Humble beginnings
The message was clear. He had to work his way to the top. Born 47 years ago, Ogwel is the second born of the Late Bernard Omedi and Grace Achen of Lira District. He grew up in an extended family of 19 children, five of whom were from his mother and 10 from his father’s second marriage while four belonged to the extended family.

“This taught me early to appreciate life. Dad’s slogan was little but daily. He was teaching us to live one day at a time,” Ogwel said of his father, who passed on early this year.

His father was a head master until his retirement in 2012. He was also a member of the Lango Diocese Synod, a Scout and a furnished sports person who loved football and athletics. Omedi featured for the northern Uganda team alongside the great Denis Obua. He retired as a grade I Fufa referee while he served as a Fufa delegate Rev. Milton Otto Olima in 1994 for Lira District.
This background launched Ogwel, Omedi’s heir, to the world of sports. Ogwel, who was an athlete, also played volleyball and handball but he cherished football.

After completing his studies from Comboni College, his dream was to become a lawyer but after failing to earn a place at Makerere, his father forced him to join National Teachers’ College Ngetta. Despite being the deputy school captain at Comboni, his leadership skills shone through at Ngetta. During this time, Ogwel was a player with District League side Otuke at the same time the district football association secretary. When he left Ngetta in 1995, he was in charge of organizing football activities in the Acholi region.

He juggled these roles with playing. In 1998, he lined up alongside the likes of Hussein Mbalangu, Ndugga, and Simon Kwikwi at Pamba in the Nile Special League Serie B. It was here that coach Charles Katumba turned him into a forward.

He was also the head teacher of the defunct King of Peace School. When the school closed, he started his own, Central SS in 1998 before he left to pursue a bachelors in development studies at KIU where he stayed for a masters and later doctorate.

Cutting his teeth in sports
Ogwel said that he borrowed many things from his dad but the burning desire for sports is infinite.

Born- again since 1992, he learned to live modestly. He was the deputy captain at Comboni College and NTC Ngetta. He played in the Copa Coca-Cola finals in 1992 with Comboni College, a team he later coached in Masindi finals in 2006. He officiated at three Coca-Cola championships.
His introduction to refereeing was in 1998 when he attended an elite course at Lugogo. He later upgraded during the 1999-2000 training programmes under Guenter Zittel, the former director of the German-Ugandan Football Development Project.

In 2001, he guided Black Rhino of Lira in the Nile Special Premier soccer league as coach with the likes of Dan Obote and Bob Obira among his players.
At the height of political tensions in football, he sided with the in-coming Lawrence Mulindwa faction but the then education minister Namirembe Bitamazire disbanded Fufa for a year in 2005.

Mulindwa appointed Ogwel as delegate for Zone 3 before getting a nod on the technical committee as vice president under Asuman Lubowa in May 2009 lasting only six months. In between he earned his coaching badges as a Caf certified tactician.

He replaced Justus Mugisha in the youth department. At the same time, he was the General Secretary of the basketball body, Fuba, as well as a committee member for the East African Sports Federation. He was the founder chairman of Airtel Rising Stars, MTN Inter-regions, projects that rejuvenated sports. But his involvement in the 22-0 demolition of Akol at the hands of SC Villa at Namboole had already done a lot of damage. “This period was about crisis after crisis in football and anyone could do anything to malice the other,” he says.

At this time, Ogwel, who likes multi-tasking was making waves at KIU. He was in 2005 appointed the sports tutor establishing a sports powerhouse until he left in 2012. During his term, the university scooped 98 trophies and that introduced him to a spectrum of other sports. He was at the time serving on the executive of Association of Uganda University Sports (AUUS) formerly National University Sports Federation of Uganda (NUSFU).

“In 2010, I hosted the University Woodball World Cup as the Village Mayor. We also had many foreign students and they liked basketball, rugby, swimming and martial arts especially karate.”

KIU’s biggest achievements were in basketball where KIU Rangers and KIU Titans were vibrant sides in the league. It was during this tenure that he launched himself into basketball as the General Secretary and later a vice president. He spearheaded a constitutional review and by the time he left in 2015, funding for the association had increased from Shs40m to about Shs1bn.

Defining moment
From clubs, associations, schools and institutions, Ogwel has seen it all. He now dreams of transforming the sports industry. How he came to the highest office, that controls sports activities in Uganda on behalf of government, was both dramatic and unexpected. After Nasser Sserunjogi defeated him in the Fuba elections in 2015, he applied for the vacant job of NCS assistant General Secretary (administration) and was confirmed on May 1, 2017.

Tragically, on April 27, 2018 on return from the Commonwealth Games, his boss Nicholas Muramagi got an accident which has since left him bedridden.

On May 1, Ogwel was appointed in an acting role until June 2019. He was later confirmed the substantial GS on July 1, 2019 after Muramagi’s position became vacant. “It was not my aspiration and I submitted my application on the last day. I was chosen among 25 applicants but now I have to accomplish the job before me,” he said.

Transformation agenda
The recent sports transformation which has seen government increase its funding from Shs400m to Shs17.5bn and now Shs26bn in just two years has come under the leadership of Ogwel. He is incredibly effective when it comes to planning. He has invested significant amounts of time in building a planning team. “Sports ceased to be an entertainment.

It is now an industry of high value. This calls for investment and an enabling environment. Football and athletics are already leading the way. We have more professionals and world champions. But federations must be prepared to receive government funds,” he said. NCS identified support areas and has submitted a Shs197bn proposed budget. He is working right policies to suit the times saying the 1964 act is stale. Ogwel wants to leave NCS as a proud citizen with a hallmark of a changed environment.

Balancing act
Ogwel faces tough times as the accounting officer. His roles need him to work from as early 7:00 a.m. until 7:00 p.m. including weekends. He is a visiting lecturer at KIU, a research fellow, and a member of Watoto Church Kansanga. Yet he has to offer guidance to his seven children, with the youngest in top class after the death of his wife in February 2017. “I live a positive lifestyle.

I have never admired to drink. I have never smoked for the 47 years of my life. I learned a lot from Dr Lawrence Mulindwa (the director of St Mary’s SS Kitende, where his two elder children attend A-Level) about being determined. We came in at a time of bad politics. Mulindwa taught me that when you perform you draw your enemies to you. He taught me to have a strategy for life. Actually, NCS is just another step for me in life.” He spares Sunday is for prayers and family.
“I am looking to find a wife and settle. That is my next assignment,” he concludes.

Previous General Secretaries
1985-87: Abbot Ssebuliba
1988-89: Jackson Kiraka
1989-92: Sam Walusimbi
1992-03: Abbey Kits Lutaya
2004-2015: Jasper Aligawesa
2016: Nicholas Muramagi

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