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Article Published on:
25th November 2004. |
| Icon of political morality |
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By Benon Herbert Oluka Far from the vibrant and maverick minister that he was in his prime, Mzee Cuthbert Joseph Obwangor, 84, now needs crutches to get around. However, though age has taken its toll on the former Obote I minister and MP, his memory remains razor-sharp: He remembers the exact dates when the most significant things in his life happened.
�I was born on November 4, 1920,� he said with a chuckle. Yet, except for the crutches and the wrinkles on his face, C.J. � as his contemporaries know him � is as effervescent as anyone can get. As recently as 1994, Obwangor was a member of the National Resistance Council (interim parliament between 1986 and 1996). Shaka was on a special assignment to East Africa, but he felt a compelling need to meet with a man he calls �a political and democratic treasure for Uganda.� �I have come to pay tribute to him for what he did,� Shaka said on our way to Soroti. The tribute was a one-hour conversation and a Voice of America watch for a present. It certainly spoke volumes about Obwangor�s stature that Shaka drove for four hours to Soroti to pay homage to him. People like Shaka admire Obwangor�s past � a legacy revered by all who attach value to principles. During the Obote I government, Obwangor made a name when as a minister he declined to submit to the principle of collective cabinet responsibility and attacked what he deemed unjust government policy. Obwangor was opposed to Dr. Apollo Milton Obote�s dictatorial proposals in the making of the 1967 constitution. �What is the use of having political independence without political freedom?� he asked during our interview. It is a question Obote must have found hard to answer back then. Obote, having contemplated defeat at the hands of his own ministers, became paranoid and arrested five of them (Grace Ibingira, Dr. E.B.S. Lumu, George Magezi, Mathias Ngobi and Balaki Kirya). Obwangor insisted on a fair trial for the detainees. �I refused arresting people without trial,� he says. When Obote rejected his plea, Obwangor resigned on July 11, 1967. Immediately after his resignation, Obwangor was arrested, together with 8 MPs who had openly supported his view. Not everybody was on his side, though. Back in Soroti, Obwangor was being derided for giving up such a lucrative position, but he stuck to his principles. �My people were telling me: �You are losing Shs 60,000.� But I said I didn�t come [to politics] for money,� he recalls, wagging his finger authoritatively. Obwangor may have lost the money and affluence that comes with being cabinet minister in Uganda, but he is at least happy that he didn�t corrupt his conscience. Sitting in front of his once flamboyant but now dilapidated double-storied house in Soroti, Obwangor is at peace with his conscience. His house, though built in the 1960s, remains unfinished without shutters in some windows. In their place are rusty, soot covered iron sheets. On the front of the house is an iron plaque with the words: airiamunet ateker (the clan meeting place). It is probably because he wants to stay close to his people that Obwangor chose not to fence his house. He obviously had the means then, but he chose not to. Like his house, most of Obwangor�s life is basic, though he says he has the capacity to have a more affluent lifestyle. He says he has no regrets for the decisions he took and the way he lived his life. But after a pause, he adds: �Except this government because they don�t listen to the people.� Though the wily old fox and the present government are not bedfellows, he is a close friend to President Museveni, who was one of his cadres in the Uganda People�s Congress (UPC) youth league in 1963. At the time (1962-1967), Obwangor was the national treasurer of the UPC youth league. �Those are my boys� Museveni, Bidandi Ssali and [James] Wapakhabulo. They used to come to me in my office on plot 4, Nakasero,� he said. The old man has mixed feelings about the president � fond memories of a young Museveni and reservations about him now. Yet, such is the President�s respect for him that whenever Museveni is in Soroti, he never fails to seek Obwangor�s wise counsel. In July, when the President visited the Eastern Uganda town, the two met again and �we had a good conversation.� For all their cordial relationship, Obwangor and Museveni disagree on many policy issues. �If Museveni cared about Uganda, he wouldn�t have sold the economic backbone of the country,� he says of the privatisation policy, which the President is very passionate about. Obwangor reasons that the President doesn�t want Ugandans to grow rich because they would know and demand their rights. Asked if he respects the President, Obwangor replied, curtly: �I respect him as a human being.� Obwangor does not have that kind of respect for most of Teso�s politicians, though. He accuses them of being opportunistic. Even after his retirement from politics, Obwangor says he will serve his people for as long as he is able to. The old man has spearheaded the construction of 11 schools in Soroti district. He is also one of the people pushing for a university in Teso. His favourite project, though, is Moru Apesur Primary School, a girl�s school near his home. �By next year it should be a secondary school,� he said. Obwangor personally chose the name Moru Apesur to reflect his union with his community, despite several attempts by local politicians to persuade him to name it after himself. It is a challenge he thinks they will never undertake, not because they don�t have the means, but rather because they are too self-centered to do it. Most of today�s politicians don�t rank highly on Obwangor�s political scale, but three personalities of another era do: John Babiiha (Obote I vice president), Dr. Lumu (Obote I health minister), and Frank Kalimuzo (vice chancellor at Makerere University, later allegedly murdered by Idi Amin). What Obwangor lives on today are the savings he made in between 1943 and 1952 when he worked for East African Railways. �If I had not kept money in Nairobi, I would be a dead man,� he said. In his eventful life, Obwangor got 18 children, from three wives. His last child, Frank Aruo, is at Makerere University. Only one of his wives is still alive, though. When our interview ended, Obwangor waved us goodbye and went back to his newspaper: He spends Shs 12,000 a week buying papers. He reads carefully, underlining every sentence of interest to him. On the way back to Kampala, our five-man entourage was dead silent; each reflecting on the old man�s situation today and his contentment with the life he has lived. Then Shaka broke the silence, saying: �He has no money [to live a luxurious life �befitting� of a former minister] but he has moral authority; something you can�t put a price tag on.� |
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