Amin was no one’s fool – Abu Mayanja | ||
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In our continuing series, Serving Amin, to mark the overthrow of Idi Amin on April 11, 1979, Abu Mayanja talks to Peter Nyanzi about his brief time as minister of education: - Idi Amin's first Cabinet consisted mainly of people who had been permanent secretaries. Mr Emmanuel Wakhweya [finance] had been secretary to the treasury. Dr John Gesa [health] had been permanent secretary in the ministry. Mr James Zikusooka became minister of works and communication. [Valeriano] Ovonji had been a civil servant at the East African Community and was appointed to public service.
Justus Byagagaire [who went to labour] was the most experienced because when Frank Kalimuzo went to Makerere University as vice chancellor, Byagagaire took over as PS in public service. Mr Nkambo Mugerwa had been solicitor general and he became minister of justice and attorney general. [A few] of us [had not been PSs]. Mr Apollo Kironde [planning and economic development] had been ambassador and permanent representative at the United Nations. He was one of the first Ugandans to graduate in South Africa. Prof. William Banage was teaching zoology at Makerere. He was brought in as minister of animal industry and fisheries. Fabian Okware had been the commissioner of prisons and was brought in as minister of agriculture and forestry because of his experience in managing big prison farms. Then Erinayo Oryema, who was the inspector general of police, was appointed to be minister of water, land and mineral resources. Lt. Col. Obitre-Gama was the only person from the army. He did not want to have many soldiers in Cabinet because he probably wanted men with political acumen and he wanted to show that his was not a military government. International lawyers defended us and court acquitted us of the charges. But we were immediately rearrested and whisked back to Luzira under the emergency laws, which were then operational in Uganda. So it is not true that Amin released me; I had been acquitted about two months earlier. I remember the day Obote was ousted I was in Mulago suffering from tonsillitis and I shouted so much that I hurt myself. About a day or two after the coup, the announcement of the new Cabinet was made on the 7 O'Clock news on UTV. I did not listen to the news but somebody rang me up to congratulate me upon being made a minister. There was no question of being sounded out first. I could not want to decline the appointment because the whole country was in jubilation because of the things that Obote had done to Baganda. There had never been such jubilation before and I do not think there has been such jubilation since. So I was really excited about it. Soon after the swearing-in ceremony at Kololo [Airstrip], we held a long Cabinet meeting at State House, Entebbe. One of the decisions taken was the release of political prisoners. Some of the people who were released were some of [Obote's] former ministers [Grace Ibingira, Balaki Kirya, George Magezi, Mathias Ngobi, Emmanuel Lumu], Benedicto Kiwanuka, Sheikh Kulumba, Prince Kakungulu and several others. When you wrote a Cabinet paper, he could call you to read it first while he listened. Then he would make decisions basing on that. He had a problem reading the Cabinet papers at first but later he picked up. But the years of difficulty were not during my time in Cabinet. So most of the killings of people took place when [I was] out. The four of us who did not know the goings on of power were dropped from the Cabinet in November 1972. That was I, Engur, Kironde and Banage. Kironde said, "Don't you know yet?" That was the time when Akii Bua had just won a gold medal in the Olympic Games in Munich. So Kironde, whom we had nominated to be our spokesman, said: "Your excellency, if it is speed, we concede that we cannot run at a high speed like Akii Bua." I felt I should not practice law in the country because defending people whose rights had been abused would bring us into conflict with the government. So I went into farming in Mityana. I never went into exile. Once or twice we were invited to some state functions. And sure he never followed us because we kept a very low profile and lived a sedentary life. I would only come to Kampala twice a week. I was not harassed and so I did not have to run away. Some of us were not as clever as President Museveni who decided on the first day that he would fight and remove Amin. One thing I know about Idi Amin was that he was not corrupt. You could not find things or property that you would say belonged to him. You could not find palaces, hotels, banks or whatever that belonged to him like you find some of our leaders have these days. In fact, he forbade members of his family from taking possession of the properties left by the Indians. One time he learnt that his most senior wife got some of these properties and he divorced her immediately. He was a jolly man; he would play the accordion for us at parties. Sometimes he was a bit comical.
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