Patrick Aloysious Okumu Ringa was a person forward of his time. The previous junior Public Service minister and Padyere County lawmaker wished to construct a metropolis, or on the very least, set a benchmark upon which Nebbi City would develop right into a metropolis.
Such a ‘citypreneurship’ concept was a primary on many fronts. Not that he was self-seeking for Ringa, West Nile’s most well-known entrepreneur, truly laid the inspiration of such a enterprise.
In 1986, Ringa accomplished Rajja Deluxe, a four-storey advanced that supplied ample house for leisure. Sitting on the coronary heart of present-day Nebbi Municipality, Rajja Deluxe was the ‘Gurofa pa Ringa’ (Ringa’s storey constructing) and performed the GPS landmark again within the days.
Travellers approaching Nebbi City would know of their arrival on the sighting of the lights on Gurofa pa Ringa from 8km away at Agwok Buying and selling Centre.
There was the property at Namrwodho, just a few kilometres to Nebbi City on the Pakwach-Nebbi freeway, designed for workplace areas; Nebbi Pentagon for arcades; Aroma Tea; Ringa Building and Engineering Works; Ringa Transport Service; Pattex Garment Business; Ombidi and Nyaceng Memorial Hospital; and Orbital Excursions and Journey, amongst others.
These had been novel ventures that might uplift the livelihood of the Alur group. Ringa set his grandiose dream in movement at a time the Museveni authorities was working extra time to comb apart parts they suspected to have ties to Milton Obote’s Uganda Peoples Congress.
On February 28, 1987, President Museveni arrived in Nebbi and formally launched Ringa’s Rajja Deluxe. He stopped by Ringa’s household dwelling on Jukia Hill—a summit view of types from the place one might soak up a sweeping outlook of the panorama of Nebbi City.
“Getting Museveni, who was nonetheless so fashionable, to launch your online business and even stop-by your private home, that was alleged to take Patrick’s imaginative and prescient past the foundations he was laying,” stated a former native chief Sunday Monitor met in Thatha Division in Nebbi Municipality throughout Ringa’s funeral on Could 26.
“However the painful irony is that it was Museveni’s authorities that crippled the whole lot Patrick was working to realize,” added the middle-aged man who spoke on situation of anonymity.
Rollercoaster rise
It won’t have been a silver spoon that Patricio Ocam Ringa and Veronica Nyaceng gave their child that September 12, 1951, in Parombo Sub-county, nevertheless it wasn’t a wood spoon both.
Patricio was a profitable businessman in Zeu Village in Erussi Sub-county, whose 10 youngsters had been assured a future. From attending Parombo Catholic Faculty for his main, Ringa was despatched to Kololo SS in Kampala for his O-Degree earlier than crossing the Atlantic to Ohio, US.
He would later examine enterprise administration from Western Tutorial College within the US.
Ringa returned with enterprise astuteness that rivalled the expertness.
He made essentially the most of something. From kibandas (video shacks) the place locals would watch two-day previous African Cup of Nations and World Cup matches throughout tournaments—as a result of there was no entry to stay broadcasts—to move, there was Ringa.
Within the early Eighties, he single-handedly ran the transport business enterprise in Nebbi. Ringa had a fleet of lorries and buses, plying public routes. He additionally had boats connecting Panyimur and Wenseko touchdown websites in Buliisa.
From Jukia Hill, Ringa took within the scenic views of Nebbi Municipality and had his massive dream. A part of the huge hill is dotted with foundations of what seems like deliberate mega buildings.
They continue to be below grass, even these whose partitions had been raised are weathered by the desolation over time. These, and plenty of others, are birthmarks of the stillbirth of Ringa’s citypreneurship.
Ringa’s Afro-Motors was the only real distributor of French auto, Peugeot, in East Africa. Ringa drove a glossy Peugeot 505. He lived in a mansion on Acacia Avenue in Kololo, the identical one which now homes Kabojja Junior Faculty. From that dwelling, Ringa operated an open-door coverage as he promoted the Alur group.
The influence of this promotion was felt far and extensive within the nation. In Jinja, the place West Nilers had been extensively recruited for labour in Kakira sugar plantation, this Ringa impact noticed the Alur tradition waft within the air.
Circa 93, the Agwara dance conquered Jinja City because the Alur topped an inter-tribe dance expo. This was the peak of their unity, their pleasure. And Ringa, who was fanning all this Alur cultural pleasure, had been lured into politics.
He began as an LC1 chairman, then moved on to serve on the Nebbi City Council, the district council in 1992, the place he held the place of the secretary for schooling earlier than he was shipped to Kampala.
Patrick Oyulu, a former public relations officer, who was then chairman of the Nebbi Makerere College College students Affiliation (Nemsa), would meet with Ringa many occasions.
“He supported Nemsa and the schooling of many Alur college students. He would throw events at his dwelling and host graduating college students who couldn’t afford a celebration,” remembers Oyulu.
Downfall
However the whole lot got here crashing down so quick as if it had been deliberate with precision. Oyulu remembers the turnaround as the house they had been entertained in had all of a sudden been taken over.
“They threw him out. I used to be referred to as by members of his household and I used to be on the scene. It was a tragic, wet day, with all his belongings out on the roadside,” Oyulu says.
Dealing in Peugeot import was profitable given the federal government market on the time. With the federal government backing and being the only real supplier, there appeared a façade of assure.
So when the federal government got here calling, Ringa dived into the deep finish of the monetary pool to finance the apparent profitable deal.
It was whereas the consignment of 80 Peugeot automobiles and spare elements had reached the Kenyan port of Mombasa that the federal government terminated the settlement and opted to acquire Japanese autos.
Issues fell aside quick and with humiliation. The Kampala home was grabbed to get well financial institution loans as Ringa scoured each nook and cranny to salvage his losses.
“Many of the tasks he began in earnest within the early 90s stalled. The large housing mission as you enter Nebbi Municipality, Nebbi Pentagon, and plenty of others … Even his home on Jukia Hill began getting run down,” says Mr Oyulu.
The property at Namrwodho that was meant to be for workplace leases couldn’t be accomplished. A nursery college was established on the facility. It too didn’t final lengthy. Overgrown grass runs the power immediately.
“He didn’t fail as a businessman. He was intentionally pissed off by the very individuals and authorities that he trusted, just because he was means forward of his time,” says a member of the Ringa household in confidence.
Mr Geoffrey Thorwinyowa, a councillor in Nebbi, says the federal government nonetheless owes the Ringa household a part of the compensation for the botched Peugeot deal.
President Museveni is known to have paid as much as Shs900m to Ringa in installments. However the citypreneurship dream has lengthy been useless – it was buried with its dreamer at Jukia Hill on Could 26. Jukia Hill is synonymous with two issues: an embarrassingly unhealthy highway connecting West Nile to DR Congo by way of Goli, and the late Ringa. He owned your complete swathe of the hill.
On Could 26, undertakers wheeled a coffin from the principle home. Ringa was leaving his dwelling for the ultimate time. The son of Zeu had seen a lot that he wished to realize from this ‘summit view’ and now he was being seen off.
In loss of life, Ringa had many regrets and the state of that highway should have probed like a foul tooth. If he had achieved his dream, that highway would most likely be a pristine tarmac.
Standing in an expansive verandah, one might see your complete Nebbi Municipality. Right here, Ringa had stood many occasions, confirmed his friends round and shared with them his imaginative and prescient for what was then Nebbi City.
There was Congolese rumba legend Tabu Ley Rochereau whom he had flown in for a live performance in 1993. An image of Tabu Ley posing with Ringa tells the story of this hill.
Then there was President Museveni in February 1987. After which they had been solely gray recollections. Like his political message.
“Our persons are not appreciative. All I wished from them was votes. I’ve educated so many youngsters, however all they inform me is I’ve finished nothing,” Ringa lamented after his election loss in 2018.
