By Mulengera Reporters
Within just a short time (actually less two years), Dr. Charles Lagul has managed to rebrand and transform National Animal Genetics Resources Center & Data Bank (NAGRIC & DB) into a vibrant government entity.
And there are indicators it’s no longer the corrupt, inefficient and intrigue-riddled entity government officials and ministers shunned as stinking. In the days of Lagul’s predecessors, corporate governance standards and practices sunk so low that it wasn’t uncommon for fist fights to be expected during governing board meetings as some BoD members ganged up to reject Minister Joy Kabatsi’s political leadership.
Majorly centered around a clique of BoD members who rejected their Dr. John Nkuuhe’s leadership, the top-level feuding spread downwards among entity employees and also split technocrats and political leaders at MAAIF.
President Museveni, one of whose Secretaries Dora Semambo is married to former ED Dr. Daniel Semambo, severally tried to reconcile the warring parties in vain. The result was decline in performance of work; development partners turned their back and NAGRIC was always cast in bad light in the numerous Auditor General reports. Qualified audit opinions were the order of the day and the entity suffered as excellent researchers and scientists exited seeing only hopelessness.
Then came media stories of how billions had been spent importing one bull from South Africa for breeding purposes. Everybody seemed to become increasingly embarrassed about NAGRIC and yet the Board (that could ordinarily have recruited a new ED to usher in new leadership) became polarized and cowed when former ED Semambo dragged them to court and was awarded Shs600m.
Dr. Wilberforce Kifudde, who was the Ag ED, couldn’t do much especially when faced with a Minister Kabatsi who didn’t trust him to act in good faith. To her, Kifudde was part of the past NAGRIC regimes that had run down the place and how to get rid of him created a wedge between her and the Board some of whose members considered Nkuuhe too subservient to the Minister.
On failing to fell Nkuuhe, the disgruntled Board members tried to recruit Minister Vincent Sempijja on their side in order to isolate and neutralize Joy Kabatsi. But being a livestock farmer herself and being very much aware of how helpful a properly-functioning NAGRIC would be to farmers, Kabatsi refused to be cowed.
She was even accused by some of working with “rogue-minded city lawyers” to extort money from tycoons in whose favor some of the government ranches had been allocated. But the thick-skinned politician from Sembabule remained firm-insisting she knew the right thing and was determined to stay course. At some point, she wrote to the IGP calling for police deployment to ensure Kifudde hands over and leaves the organization.
It wasn’t an easy fight but a determined Kabatsi gradually prevailed having rallied livestock farmers across the country who agreed with her that for whatever new start the MAAIF management envisaged for NAGRIC, the Semambo-era technocrats had to vacate including the Kifuddes.
In the end the ED recruitment process, that had stalled for years, was reinstated and carried to completion. This too wasn’t easy because there was a lot of lobbying from many powerful circles as power brokers wanted to continue having a hand in the way the otherwise wealthy and asset-rich NAGRIC is run.
The IGG was petitioned several times but being Irene Mulyagonja (a level-headed judge), sanity in the end prevailed and the IG decreed the Board should do its work. That is how recruitment carried on with youthful Lagul, who was running a very big NAADS livestock project in Ankole, carrying the day.
THE NEW ERA
On taking charge, Lagul knew it wasn’t going to be easy as the MAAIF intrigue that failed his predecessors awaited him. The former NAADS employee preferred caution and being receptive and open-minded to whoever felt they had a suggestion on how to reform NAGRIC. From within NAGRIC, he assured staff he wasn’t here to fight or witch-hunt anyone but to learn from them given their institutional memory. He told them he was a team player not here to witch-hunt anybody because he was generally neutral and not part of any of the previous feuds.
He called in HR experts to speak to staff and re-motivate them towards working under a new setting where everybody’s contribution would be appreciated. It was a hard situation because even money wasn’t there as previous litigants had garnished the accounts. But even bosses at the Finance Ministry saw no reason financing an organization that had no output or clarity on the direction it wanted to take.
Lagul won over such sceptics by prioritizing production of the NAGRIC strategic plan according to which fundraising and lobbying of both Parliament and Finance Ministry was undertaken. But livestock farmers too were called to many stakeholder meetings in Kampala to make them see that there was light at the end of the tunnel under the new leadership.
They gave their views on what they thought needed to be done to reawaken not just NAGRIC but the entire livestock and dairy sub sectors. Gratefully, Minister Kabatsi (who had no reason to believe Lagul was like those she had herded out of NAGRIC) was very supportive having agreed to give the young man from West Nile a benefit of doubt.
Gradually NAGRIC began to be taken seriously even by technocrats at MAAIF including those who had long written it off the list of the 7 agencies making up the agric. sector. But it took personal initiative and effort by Lagul who reached out to them seeking ideas on how to revamp NAGRIC. He equally reached out to fellow EDs heading the other six agencies like DDA, NAADs, NARO and others.
Yet that wasn’t all. Lagul also informally reached out to many other key stakeholders one at a time and on every occasion, he humbled himself saying: “here I’m now in charge of NAGRIC but I’m counting on people like you for ideas and where you think we went wrong.”
An influential member of the Veterinary Doctors Association, that had grown very critical of NAGRIC, says Lagul reached out to them (individually and collectively) like no other NAGRIC ED had done before. “We were disarmed because there is no way you are going to remain hostile continuing to criticize a guy who, as ED, is implementing ideas that were given by you in the first place. That’s how he got many of us on board,” says a veterinary Vet Association member who has seen many EDs at NAGRIC.
That Lagul equally reached out to Makerere Veterinary College where he is a former student and told the Professors “I’m going to succeed in this job because I’m standing on shoulders of giants you my Professors who made me who I’m.” Consequently, the Professors who had long given up on NAGRIC once again became very enthusiastic towards the organization. They gave not only ideas but positive referrals and recommendations to potential donors and funders for the sub sector.
To avoid being misunderstood, Lagul ensured everything he did, his sector Minister Kabatsi was in the know. Through Kabatsi, the message of a revamped NAGRIC spread in cabinet like bush fire. Donors began promising a return and this good news equally reached the President himself very much interested in the NAGRIC business being a big-name cattle breeder.
That’s how the President (who had shunned NAGRIC for years) recently entertained Joy Kabatsi’s invitation to come and preside over the launching ceremony for the AU/EU-funded Regional Gene Bank aimed at conserving indigenous animal genetics and resources for the benefit of current and future livestock farmers scattered in 13 EAC and IGAD countries. The event was last Friday; the President realized at the last minute he was unable to come but rang Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda to come and represent him.
Indeed, Rugunda came and in his speech agreed with earlier speakers like Vincent Sempijja and AU-IBAR/livestock program representative Dr. Mary Mbole-Kariuki that with the current leadership at NAGRIC, the multi-million-dollar AU/EU regional program would succeed and deliver to everybody’s expectations.
Rugunda seemed to feel at home as did the more than 10 MPs who attended and enthusiastically participated in the day long event at the NAGRIC demonstration farm facility near Entebbe Airport where the regional program is housed.
With support and guidance of livestock-minded cadres like Dr. Aggrey Kyobuguzi, Lagul also made himself politically relevant by reaching out to NRM bureaucrats like Moses Byaruhanga seeking to understand which NRM manifesto-related interventions NAGRIC could make to help the big man deliver his 2016 election promises. That is how NAGRIC, closely aligning with OWC, has lately been very active in political programs aimed at popularizing the NRM government ahead of 2021.
Lagul, for instance, has been reaching out to women and youth groups in politically volatile areas like Kampala where NAGRIC is partnering with community organizations like Beti Kamya’s LUNDA to reach vulnerable women groups that genuinely require government support. These are already being prepared to benefit from NAGRIC training programs on top of the chicken and livestock feeds they are to be given. The Lagul-led NAGRIC has also been leveraged upon by the State House political desk and mobilization teams to support such groups in other parts of the country including his own native West Nile sub region. (For comments, call, text or whatsapp us on 0703164755 or email us at mulengera2040@gmail.com).
