30/01/2019
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Dear Mr. Peter Mayiga,
You are wrong to say that Obote was a failure who failed to uplift Ugandans to the standards of Singapore. I will take it that you said that statement because of the past bad blood between Mengo and central government that resulted in the 1966 Buganda crisis.
I want to state that under Obote 1, Uganda was developing faster than Singapore. You are aware that Singapore sent a delegation to come to Uganda and learn the way Uganda was doing things that made Uganda register impressive economic growth figures, lift people out of poverty and was scoring excellent points on the Human development index.
One of the problems that faced the UPC-led government was that of lack of the right qualified local Ugandans to work in government and in the business world in Uganda.
The Education system in Uganda under the colonial government deliberately produced fewer Ugandan professionals. Britain used to dump her excess unemployed people in Uganda as expats.
So to face the challenge heads on, the Obote 1 government embarked on an ambitious programme to expand the educational sector and many new primary schools were built all over the country . The existing secondary schools were enlarged to take in more students. And many new secondary schools were built. The same was done to the technical education section.
The nature of educational expansion between 1962 and 1970 can be shown by the following figures. In 1962 there were 28 government grant-aided secondary schools. By 1970, there were 73 government aided secondary schools. The enrolment of secondary schools at 0-Level was a mere 1991 students in 1962. By 1970, there were 29,540 0-Level students. To the above secondary schools were added many private secondary schools built by individual people, which produced very many students.
Thus in the respect of producing many secondary school students, the First Five Year Development Plan, 1962-1965/66 had the following preamble:
"The main weight of government expenditure on education must concentrate on Secondary and Technical education, particularly the former, since the present limited secondary school facilities are the bottleneck to the production of Ugandans for higher academic professional and technical education".
Facilities at Makerere University College were increased to take in more students and new halls of residences were built by the government. Similar expansions were made at the University College of Nairobi and at the University College of Dar es Salaam to cope with more students from the three East African countries. Consequently, there was a great increase of Ugandan students doing degree courses at Makerere University College, at the University College of Nairobi, at the University College of Dar es Salaam and at various Universities abroad. Incidentally by 1960, all the above three University Colleges were under the authority of the University of London. In 1963 they all became independent of the University of London and they were formed into the University of East Africa each as a constituent College of the University of East Africa. Students from the three East African countries were free to attend at any of those constituent colleges of the University of East Africa.
In 1970 however, each of the three constituent University Colleges of the University of East Africa became independent and the University of East Africa ended. From then each constituent University College became a fully fledged University.
The expansion at Makerere outstriped that on the other universities.
This is specifically on education. I can now pick and discuss other sectors of the economy eg agricultural development, industrial development, the expansion of the health sector, transport network, etc. I want to discuss these things with statistical figures to give a clearer picture.
Obote was overthrown by Idi Amin to jubilations from your fellow Baganda.
Is this what you call failure?
How did you, Peter Mayiga of all persons, expect Obote to have lifted Uganda to the levels of Singapore when his regime was overthrown by Idi Amin in January 1971 to the jubilation of the Baganda as a tribe....
How did you, Peter Mayiga, expect Obote 2 to have had a serious impact on Uganda when it was the Baganda elders, Baganda Catholics, Baganda DP supporters, Baganda Catholic clergy and Baganda royals who took up arms in earnest to fight and destabilise his government, soon after Obote was voted in power in 1981.
By the way, just remember that Singapore sent a delegation to come to Uganda, twice in the 1960s, to learn from Uganda how the country was able to register rapid positive development figures that the world was witnessing.
Well, we know very well that Ronald Mutebi entered Uganda via Rwanda to drum up support for the NRA project. Mind you, Peter Mayiga, a Muganda and a representative of the Kabaka, you are right to tell us all what we already knew, that Museveni and his NRA rogue outfit (in your eyes) are far better than any other regime in Uganda, because it is your project.
We know that Museveni's PRA and Yusuf Lule's UFF gave birth to the NRA in Nairobi. This was predominantly Baganda, Banyarwanda, together with few Hiimas, and few individuals from former Kigezi that formed the nucleus of the NRA project.
Mr Peter Mayiga, thank you for reminding us of your past.
Regards
Omusongora Sunday Geoffrey
Kasese District.
