Prime
Lule deposed amid accusations of defying decisions of Moshi Conference
Former president Yusuf Lule (centre) was removed from office in 1979 in what was widely reported to have been a bloodless coup. Photo | FILE
What you need to know:
- On June 8, the NCC passed a resolution in which it demanded that president Lule submits before it a list of all political and administrative appointments, a request Lule dismissed.
Forty-four years ago on Tuesday, a few hours after a Catholic priest warned that he would fall if the pillar on which he was leaning were to be removed, president Yusuf Kironde Lule was removed from office in what was widely reported to have been a “bloodless coup”.
Prof Lule’s removal from office after only 68 days in power, was reached following a vote in which 18 out of the 32 members of the National Consultative Council (NCC), which served as Ugandan’s interim Parliament after the fall of president Idi Amin, voted on June 20, 1979, to remove him.
The NCC decision was relayed to the public in a broadcast aired on Radio Uganda.
NCC accused Lule of having “ignored democratic methods” of work, saying he had failed to consult on key appointments and policies.
He was also accused of having failed to set up systems to facilitate recovery of the economy, and that he had gone about attempts at reorganisation of local governments “arbitrarily”.
The build up
Prof Paul Wangoola, who was a member of the NCC, told Sunday Monitor in a previous interview that Lule spent most of his days in power fighting the NCC.
“Lule refused to accept that he derived his power from the Uganda National Liberation Front (UNLF) and the Moshi Unity Conference. So he refused to respond to the authority of the NCC, which was the authority of the UNLF,” he said.
Lule skipped meetings of the NCC despite several reminders from Prof Edward Rugumayo, who was its chair.
Writing in the book, War in Uganda: The legacy of Idi Amin, Tony Avirgan and Martha Honey revealed that seeing the standoff was moving towards crisis level, then Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere summoned the protagonists to Mwanza where he let Lule know that Tanzania would play by what had been agreed in Moshi – that the supreme power lay with the NCC.
Lule blasts NCC
Former NCC member Paul Wangoola
On May 22, 1979, he finally met the NCC, but told them that he had no time for them. It was a time to work, he said.
“Before that, we (NCC) had thought that well, maybe this seating (is not happening) because the president is busy as there are many important things to be done, but when we eventually sat and he effectively tried to dissolve the NCC by saying that is time for work and that if we wanted to talk it would be much later after the work was done, we knew that the battle lines had been drawn,” Prof Wangoola recounts.
Battle lines were as a result of the speech drawn. A clash was on the horizon. It came on June 7, 1979, when he announced a reshuffle that saw the Cabinet expanded to have 24 ministers and 20 deputy ministers, all of whom would automatically become members of the NCC.
“It (expanded Cabinet) was intended to pack the NCC with loyalists because ministers sit on the NCC as ex-officials. Having more ministers than the official members of the NCC was aimed at defeating the NCC,” Mr Wangoola says.
On June 8, the NCC passed a resolution in which it demanded that Lule submit before it a list of all political and administrative appointments that he had so far made for vetting and ratification.
NCC also demanded for a meeting for purposes of calling him to order. He acquiesced, but on his own terms – the meeting would be at State House Entebbe and not within the precincts of Parliament.
He wanted to hammer home the point that he was more powerful than the NCC, but that was not lost to some members who started consultations on the next course of action.
“We agreed to use ministerial appointments for the president to recognise the source of his power and authority. If he accepted NCC as having authority over him, then it would be automatic to say that then you bring those appointments, they must be subject to approval,” Prof Wangoola recounts.
Lule Defiant
Lule dismissed the NCC as “strangers to his exercise of power”.
“He told us that even in terms of the meaning, the word consultative means something which you can consult if you choose, but you are not bound to consult, or even when you consult, you are not bound by its decision,” Prof Wangoola says.
Some of the members found the stand very contradictory. What business did the president have agreeing to a meeting with a body that he did not recognise? Why did his assistants bother engaging the group of “strangers” in such a debate?
Members of the NCC were livid. Prof Omwony Ojok said by referring to the meaning of the word as spelt out in the dictionary, Lule had reduced the NCC to a bunch of secondary school students.
“The National Consultative Council is an animal which has a historical life independent of what your dictionary says,” Prof Ojok said.
Fr Christopher Okoth issued an ominous warning, but one that Lule clearly missed.
“Your Excellency, consultata in Latin means a power, a force, which supports you and without which you fall. So even in terms of deep meaning the root of that word means some energy on which you lean and when it is removed you fall,” Fr Okoth was quoted to have said.
Crossing the Rubicon
One of the members then moved that that the president presents the list for approval, but he declined. The options available to the NCC were to either allow its dissolution, or become a rubber stamp Parliament at the beck and call of the president.
A majority in the NCC had anticipated that Lule would step back and present the list to the Cabinet for vetting and approval, but the possibility of moving a motion of no confidence in case he remained adamant had also been discussed.
After more than eight hours of debate, Prof Wangoola tabled the motion that saw the curtain come down on Lule’s presidency after just 68 days.
Lule attempted to put up some resistance.
“I have not voluntarily left the presidency. I have been forced out,” he declared in a radio statement that was smuggled out of State House Entebbe and broadcast on the evening of June 20, triggering off demonstrations in Kampala. But those were quickly snuffed out.
