|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Charles Odongtho is the veteran journalist of more than 25 years in practice and he has worked at Uganda Radio Network, Observer newspaper, NTV, NBS and UBC. He has been a good talk show host and sometimes even stands in for Oscar Semweya Musoke on Capital Gang.
Sometime back, Odongtho had landed a very good job in Kenya but his offer was cancelled after it turned out he had never worked in government civil service.
That is how he came back to Uganda and took up the UBC job as a host of Behind the Headlines political program on Wednesdays. This was after working at both NTV and NBS, which caused pals to laugh at him wondering why he would be so desperate.
After UBC, in order to accumulate the necessary experience of working in government, Odongtho joined the OPM where he was supposed to replace Julius Mucunguzi as the head of communications.
At the OPM things haven’t gone well for him as Nabbanja and other bosses realized he wasn’t up to the task at hand. They discovered he was not as good as they always thought while seeing him from a distance. They discovered a lot when they got near him.
They were shocked to realize the man was not able to deliver the outputs they wanted to see. Sources say Odongtho failed to fit in and people Nabbanja took to be smaller officers ended up being more effective at the OPM than Odongtho. He was put in the Executive department of the OPM where the prime minister’s Press Unit resides.
When Odongtho was found wanting, Nabbanja consulted former state minister for Karamoja Agnes Nandutu who advised her to bring in Jjingo Francis who is the Head now of the press unit. Odongtho had to be demoted and made to be under Jjingo Francis to whom he currently reports.
Sources say there is a lot of intrigue as Odongtho struggles to find his foot in the media unit which has a lot of little known but highly qualified officers who have had to teach him how things are done in public service.
Apart from journalism, Odongtho is also a good corporate events MC though he now feels sidelined inside OPM where everyone minds their business instead of bowing before the man from Nebbi who at first took himself to be a very big person only to be ignored by even small guys at OPM.
If you have a story in your community or an opinion article, let’s publish it. Send us an email via ultimatenews19@gmail.com
