When Lule was sworn in as fourth president

Forty five years ago yesterday, Prof Yusuf Kironde Lule was sworn in as the fourth president of Uganda.

The former university don was sworn in on April 13, 1979, two days after Kampala had fallen to the advancing combined force of men of the Tanzania People’s Defence Forces (TPDF) and Ugandan fighting groups.

Two individuals who would later become part of the list of Lule’s successors, Generals Tito Okello Lutwa and Yoweri Museveni, both clad in military fatigue, were there to ensure that the new president was secure.

The man who had earlier served as the first Black principal of Makerere University College and later assistant secretary general of the Association of African Universities, and much later assistant secretary general of the Commonwealth Secretariat, was named chairperson of the Uganda National Liberation Front (UNLF) during the Moshi Conference which commenced on March 24, 1979.

The conference, which ended on March 26, 1979, was presided over by Prof Tarsis Kabwegyere as convener. More than 28 political parties and actors from the world of academia and two special guests – Prof Lule and Paulo Muwanga – attended the conference.

It was ironically those two special guests, along with Mr Martin Aliker, that emerged front runners for the leadership of the country.

Failed diplomacy
It should be remembered that then Libyan leader, Col Muammar Gaddafi, tried in January 1979 to convince Nyerere to halt the TPDF’s advance further inside Uganda. His attempts were, however, rebuffed.

Nyerere insisted that the fighting would only stop if member states of the Organisation for African Unity (OAU, now African Union) condemned Amin and his aggression. He also insisted on Uganda making a commitment to pay reparations for all the damage it had caused in northern Tanzania.

If what the late Brig Bernard Rwehururu wrote in his book Cross to the Gun is anything to go by, the damage that Nyerere was referring to was precipitated by the incursion into Tanzania by a handful of Uganda Army soldiers under the command of Lt Col Juma Ali Oka Rokoni, better known as Juma Butabika.

“In October 1979, Juma Butabika, with a handful of some of the Malire troops, left his unit and took over command of the troops that had been permanently stationed at the border before advancing into Tanzania,” Brig Rwehururu wrote.

Rwehururu indicated that Amin later sanctioned Butabika’s march further south through Kasambya to Kyaka Bridge after Butabika lied that it had been the TPDF that had attacked first. 

Amin announced on November 1, 1978, the annexation of the entire Kagera Salient, prompting Nyerere to declare war.

Libya enters 1979 war
According to www.ospreypublishing.com, angered by Nyerere’s rebuff, Col Gaddafi deployed 2,500 men and equipment, including T-54 and T-55 tanks, BM-21 “Katyusha” multiple-rocket launchers (MRLS), MiG-21s, and a Tu-22 bomber, the first of which arrived in Uganda at the end of February 1979.

“The Libyan force was a hodgepodge of regular units, People’s Militia, and members of the Islamic pan-African Legion - a force of sub-Saharan Africans equipped and trained by the Libyans (and reinforced with a number of mercenaries) to serve as an expeditionary force in precisely this sort of operation,” the report said.

The battle of Lukaya
The New York Times of March 7, 1979, reported that the entry of the Libyan forces increased the Uganda Army’s firepower and halted the TPDF’s advance. Whereas Lukaya has a vast deep water swamp which would make it difficult to cross, the TPDF chose to directly cross the 20km-long causeway which stretched across this swamp northward from the town with the 201st Brigade moving directly across the causeway, while the 208th Brigade would outflank the western edge of the swamp. 

Little did they know that the enemy armed with tanks, recoilless guns and Katyusa’s were preparing an attack of their own.

“The Libyans, reinforced with several units from Amin’s army, charged down the causeway and into Lukaya, fortuitously catching the Tanzanians by surprise as they regrouped. The moment the Libyans spotted the TPDF troops in Lukuya, they stopped and began to shower those units with fire from their BM-21s,” says the book. 

“The Tanzanians had never faced multiple-rocket launchers before, and many bolted from the town in terror. When the Libyans finally moved in, they encountered little resistance and occupied Lukuya without a man killed on either side,” it adds.

The combined force unfortunately did not exploit the situation to their advantage. That allowed the TPDF that had been thrown into disarray to regroup and make their own surprise attack on the night of March 11. By the end of the fighting 200 Libyan fighters and another 200 or so Uganda Army  fighters had been killed. Most important of all was that Col Godwin Sule, the man to whom Amin had relinquished command of the war, was killed.

Lule beats Muwanga
Following Uganda Army’s defeat in Lukaya, it became increasingly clear that it was only a matter of time before Amin was out of Uganda.

It became imperative that Ugandan rebels and exiles be given a chance to prepare for the establishment of a new government to take charge of Uganda.

It was against such a background that the Moshi Conference commenced on the afternoon of March 24, 1979. After initial haggling over who was eligible to attend the conference, it was announced late on the afternoon of that day that the Uganda National Liberation Front (UNLF) had been formed. 

The UNLF was to be governed by a 30-man national consultative committee (NCC) and an 11-person strong national executive committee (NEC).

It was at the same time agreed that there would be three special commissions, one on finance and administration, one on political and diplomatic affairs, and one on military affairs.

It should be remembered that the conference was attended by actors from the Democratic Party (DP), Save Uganda Movement, Uganda Freedom Union to which Godfrey Binaisa belonged, Museveni’s Front for National Salvation (Fronasa) and the Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC), to which the Kikosi Maalum, led by Gen Tito Okello and David Oyite-Ojok, were linked.

Whereas Nyerere had convinced Obote to stay away, it soon emerged that UPC and Obote had a residual effect on the conference. 

It, therefore, did not come as a surprise, that Paulo Muwanga, one who later became Obote’s vice president after the 1980 elections, emerged as one of those that were being fronted to take over as chairman of the UNLF.  

Others that emerged were Prof Lule and Martin Aliker.

“Mwalimu [Nyerere] was very clear. He wanted the world to know that this was a Ugandan effort. Among those who attended the conference was Lule, who had been known to Nyerere from when the Tanzanian president was a student at Makerere,” Prof Kabwegyere told Sunday Monitor in a previous interview.

It is not clear whether Nyerere had a hand in the development, but the matter was not put to a vote as had earlier been anticipated.

“Dr Aliker stood down for Lule and he went ahead to campaign for him. In his campaign for Lule, he [Aliker] told Muwanga to also step down because he was not a man of substance,” Prof Kabwegyere revealed in a previous interview.

It was against such a background that Lule emerged unopposed as chairman of the UNLF, but not before it was agreed that Muwanga would become chairman of the all-powerful Military Commission.

Eighteen days after he emerged as chairman, he was on the steps of Parliament for the swearing in ceremony. 

He, unfortunately, lasted only 68 days in office. He was voted out by the NCC on June 20, 1979, for among other things naming a Cabinet without the NCC’s input.