Lule, the president for 68 days

By Frederick Womakuyu

Prof. Yusuf Kironde Lule is the president who served Uganda for the shortest term – just 68 days. He was 68 years the day he was asked to relinquish the presidency.

The first black principal of Makerere University College, Lule was installed president by the Uganda National Liberation Front (UNLF) shortly after the fall of dictator Idi Amin Dada.

Political analysts say being a Muganda, Lule was strategically made the first post-Amin president on April 13, 1979 to win support from the powerful Baganda ethnic group.

To some, Lule’s involvement in the anti-Amin struggle was a span of few weeks spent in hotel rooms and caucuses after flying from Scotland in the UK. To others he was like flies falling on a carcass killed by others.

As leader of the Uganda Freedom Fighters that merged with President Yoweri Museveni’s Popular Resistance Army to form the National Resistance Army (NRA) in 1981, Lule was the unlucky man that missed the chance to become today’s president as leader of NRA. He died shortly in 1985 before the NRA captured power.

Described by some as the only unifying factor of all Ugandans to form a post-Idi Amin government in 1979, Prof. Lule is also regarded by others as a conservative and rigid principal of Makerere University College – now Makerere University Kampala (MUK) during the colonial times (between 1940s and the 1960s). As principal, however, he is credited for encouraging and physically taking black students to Makerere University for better education.

Ascent to power

Makerere University historian Dr. Ndebesa Mwambutsya says although Lule played a small role in deposing Idi Amin, the UNLA fighters and its political wing, the UNLF, were faced with the dilemma of choosing a unifying president.

“Nyerere told them to look around for people and when they did, most of the politicians that had served in the past regimes were not clean,” says Mwambutsya.

“They then saw Lule as a clean man having been in the civil service. So he was called from exile in England where he was teaching. But the most unique thing that made Lule an attractive candidate was that he was a Muganda and Buganda was a large and influential tribe in the politics of Uganda. They saw Lule as a unifying factor and at the end of the day, he was elected the interim president,” Mwambutsya explained.

A ministerial system of administration was adopted and a quasi-parliament – the National Consultative Commission (NCC), was created. The NCC and the Lule cabinet reflected widely differing political views.

Lule did not know he had very limited powers. The real power was in the hands of Nyerere, Paulo Muwanga, who was preparing the return of Dr. Milton Obote, and the UNLF cohorts. So, in trying to assert his authority as president, little did Lule know he was committing a grave mistake.

His plans to reform recruitment into the armed forces was seen as undermining the army. It was also viewed as a threat to the dominance of the so-called traditional areas for army recruits such as Acholi and Lango. Lule’s proposal to disband the National Liberation Army to replace it with a newly-created National Army was viewed as a malicious move to sideline those who formed the bulk of the liberation force.

The NCC coup

On June 20, 1979, the NCC staged a coup, removing Lule as president for allegedly making wide ranging appointments in government without consulting them. Prof. Edward Rugumayo was elected to replace Lule.

However, Rugumayo’s election sparked off massive riots in Buganda with chants of ‘No Lule, No work’.

To win Buganda’s support, another Muganda, Godfrey Lukongwe Binaisa, was called to replace Prof. Rugumayo.

Mwambutsya, however, says some radical members of the NCC saw Lule as too conservative as a teacher, too autocratic as an administrator, and too willing as a Muganda to listen to advice from people from his ethnic grouping. He had during his inaugural speech as president made a blunder by speaking in Luganda, a move that did not go down well with the non-Baganda who held real power in the UNLF.

“Some people accused Lule of turning the UNLF into a Baganda property. In Lule, the other Ugandans thought the Baganda saw the return of kabakaship and were determined to get him out,” he explained.

Prof. A Mutibwa in his book ,Uganda Since Independence, says Lule had no experience of running a country, especially after Amin, and in working with men of very diverse background, who were custodians of varying and mutually incompatible ideologies and political aspirations.

Out of office, Lule went to exile in Tanzania, where he was put under house arrest by Nyerere. “He suffered ill health and his doctor pleaded with Nyerere to have him released for treatment,” adds Mwambutsya.

He was allowed to travel to the UK for treatment. But on improvement, he formed the Uganda Freedom Fighters that merged with Museveni’s Popular Resistance Army in 1981, to form the NRM with Lule as president and Museveni as vice.

But Lule, again, fell ill and died of kidney failure at Hammersmith Hospital in London. Museveni then took over and steered a five-year guerilla war, capturing power on January 26, 1986.

Early life

Lule was born to Abdullah Kironde of Mpigi district in January 1912. A close friend to Kabaka Daudi Chwa, Kironde sent Lule to a local primary school in Mpigi before joining the prestigious King’s College Budo and later Makerere College to study education, specialising in sociology. He graduated top of his class and became a lecturer in the department of education at Makerere College.

He later got scholarships to study at Fort Hare University at Alice, South Africa and the UK before coming back to Uganda to continue his lecturing career at Makerere, becoming the first black principal in 1964.

In 1970, however, Obote removed him as Makerere University vice-chancellor and replaced him with Prof. Frank Kalimuzo.

Lule went back to the civil service and headed several commissions before going into exile in the UK following Amin’s coup of 1971.

Veteran educationist Prof. Senteza Kajubi, says Lule kept a very low profile politically between 1940s and the 1970s because of his position.

“He was a civil servant and the British and later Obote did not allow civil servants in politics. He was a very principled, but sometimes a rigid man that could stick to his position all times,” he said.

Former MP, Wasswa Ziritwawuala, describes Lule as a true nationalist.

“When he was called on to serve after Amin, he did it as a servant,” Ziritwawuala said.

What Ugandans think of Lule’s contribution as president

Ritah Nandyose, businesswoman
I was not yet born when Lule ruled, but I have learnt that he fought Uganda’s dictators although he was not a soldier. Few youth today can risk their lives like he did.      

Samuel Nabwiso, journalist
President Lule ruled at a time of political crises, but being a civilian, he created an enabling environment for peace to prevail although his regime did not last even a year.  

  James Mugyenyi, driver
Lule ruled for a short time, the shortest by any Ugandan President. But I believe he loved his country and was a true hero and nationalist. I cannot say he did this or that, but as any leader, he left a mark.       

George Michael Egunyu, Soroti LC5 chairman
I do not know Lule that much, but Ugandans should know that no person comes into leadership position and does nothing. Many are already saying Museveni has done nothing, which is not true.