In his review of Prof Samwiri Rubaraza Karugire’s book, The Inevitability of Instability, published in Sunday Monitor of January 29, Philip Matogo writes: “Prof Karugire also debunks Prof Ali Mazrui’s view of Obote as ‘a brilliant politician and one of the most fitted politicians modern Africa has produced’.”While I am preparing a contrary view of Prof Karugire’s book, I would immediately like to provide other evaluations of Obote’s political skills.Ironically, the first recorded good review came from the royal family of Buganda itself. This was in the period leading to independence. Prof Kenneth Ingham, who wrote a biography of Obote, has recorded thus: “Obote’s speeches (in the Legco) were to have repercussions in an unexpected quarter. Towards the end of the year, Obote received a telephone call from a nominated member of the legislative council, Ms Pumla Kisosonkole, the stepmother of the wife of the Kabaka, inviting him to call on her in her office.“When he did so she told him that a number of people had been impressed by the tenor of his arguments, among them the Kabaka himself. She thought that much might be gained if Obote were to have a private meeting with her son-in-law. Obote was excited by the prospect, but while recognising the need for a measure of secrecy at this tentative stage in the discussions, he was wary of becoming involved in any activity which might not have the approval of his party.”More directly, former Kabaka of Buganda Edward Muteesa was to write in his book, The Desecration of My Kingdom, thus: “The opposition party (the Uganda Peoples Congress, always known as UPC), received more votes than DP, but secured only 35 seats. It was led by a man from the north named Milton Apollo Obote. At the time I had heard little of him, and certainly never met him. There were a number of stories about him.“He was said to have been a herd-boy and been wounded by a spear-throw. Deciding that life was too vigorous, he went to school, and followed that with a brief career of one year at Makerere. I do not know why he cut short his studies. A spell in Kenya as some sort of clerk under Kenyatta during the time of Mau Mau came to an end, and it was on his return to Uganda that his fortunes began to mend. Up to this point his career had not been a conspicuous one. Elected to the Legco, he became the head of a powerful party, and even then I do not think his undoubted ability was recognised.”It is important to note that Muteesa wrote this complimentary assessment of Obote when in exile. The fact that Obote had caused him to go into exile did not diminish his view of Obote.Prof TV Sathyamurthy who wrote the encyclopaedic book on Uganda politics, Political Development in Uganda, had this to say about Obote’s political skills: “Obote’s political enemies, believed that it was a matter of time that he would return to Uganda to assume power. Despite the fact that [former Tanzanian president Julius] Nyerere took great care not to be involved in Uganda politics as a partisan of Obote, Ugandan politicians knew that, in experience and organisation, Obote was unquestionably the best of them.“While making sure that the interests of UPC were well represented in the UNLF, Obote had nothing to do with it personally. He was shrewd enough to realise that, within a very short time, such a heterogeneous unit was bound to hoist itself with its own petard, thus leaving the way clear for him to re-enter the Uganda political scene at the top. If ever there was a Pareto’s fox in African politics, it was Obote.”
Former Kabaka Edward Muteesa.
Edward Sheehan, The New York Times correspondent who interviewed Obote in the mid-60s compared Obote’s skills to those of his colleagues, Nyerere and Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya in the following words: “As yet he enjoys neither the prestige nor the personal fame of East Africans other presidents Jomo Kenyatta and Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, but he probably surpasses both as a tactician and as a pure political animal who possesses an almost mystical understanding of the mechanics and sources of power. “He does not inspire the awe and reverence that Kenyatta’s charismatic history commands in Kenya. Nor, despite his intelligence and omnivorous reading habits, can he claim to possess the intellectual brilliance of Julius Nyerere, but then, neither is burdened with the excessive introspection, diffidence and indecisiveness which so often seem to have immobilised the President of Tanzania.“In the misty forests of Uganda’s tribal politics, however, Obote has proved himself a manoeuvre whose foresight and cunning have invariably overturned the most ingenious stratagems of his enemies. When his political fortunes were at their lowest ebb, and just as it appeared he was losing his grip, not only did he surprise his opponents by creating the Commission of Inquiry, but he took the brilliant gamble that its composition was beyond his political control, free to scrutinise his personal probity as it pleased. Then he turned the attention of the country from the debate over his honesty to the controversy over his new Constitution.” This was published in the article ‘Making of a President, Uganda Style’ in The New York Times of January 22, 1967.“In their repeated confrontations, Obote has consistently outwitted the Kabaka, who never really had the stomach for the power game in the first place. The Kabaka was under pressure from his own people to prove that he was running Buganda, and pushed by foolish advisers to take untenable positions from which there was no retreat.” (Edward Sheehan’s article, Making of a President, Uganda Style in The New York Times issue of January 22, 1967).Another evaluation came from a contemporary who used the pseudonym, Andre de la Rue and published an article, ‘The Rise and Fall of Grace Ibingira’ in The New African–radical review published in Cape Town, March 1967. Andre de La Rue wrote: “Dr Obote, prime minister and now president, is an astute and exceedingly able machine politician and not a charismatic leader. He is a pragmatist and in social outlook a moderate–in African terms. Ideology is not of central concern to him; the maintenance, consolidation and use of power are. On the other hand, Dr Obote is deeply dedicated to Uganda’s unity, social development, and economic progress.“In political tactics, Dr Obote’s pragmatic idealism takes the form of cautious waiting and quick advances at times of his choice. He allows his opponents to muster strength, to let their aims become known, to build up internal factions within their own coalitions, to overextend themselves in grasping for power just out of reach. Meanwhile, he consolidates strength and removes minor weaknesses. At times he gives the impression of losing control over the situation. Then as rumours begin to herald his coming defeat, he moves rapidly and decisively. His immediate objective attained and the whole opposition thrown into disarray, he gains speedy adoption of major changes whose mere proposals could have cost him his office before the crisis.”
