Apollo Milton Obote
(Akoroko, Lango, 1924) Ugandan politician.Apollo Milton Obote served as Prime Minister between 1962 and 1970 and was President of the nation twice, from 1966 to 1971 and from 1980 to 1985.In 1962 he led his country to independence from Great Britain.The constant disputes between racial groups in northern and southern Uganda were the main reason for the military coups that led to the end of his terms as President.
Apollo Milton Obote
Obote, the son of a farming family in north-central Uganda, completed his early studies at Busoga College in Mwiri and Makerere College in Kampala between 1948 and 1949, from which he was expelled without graduating Because of his frequent political activities, which led to the British colonial government preventing him from studying in the United States and East Germany.Faced with these events, Obote traveled to Kenya in 1950, where he combined various jobs: he was a bracero, clergyman and salesman, while participating in independence movements and joining the African Union of Kenya.
On his return to Uganda in 1957, he joined the Uganda National Congress Party and was elected in 1958 to represent his native district in the Legislative Assembly, where, despite little support due to the limited number of African delegates, he did not hesitate to criticize the government.British.Following the dissolution of the Uganda National Congress Party, he founded, in 1960, the Uganda People's Congress for which he was appointed Prime Minister in 1962.
Obote's party found its greatest support in northern Acholi and Lango and its main opposition was the powerful Buganda, under the reign of Mutesa II.The constitution followed by Obote in 1962 defined Uganda as a federal state made up of five kingdoms, a circumstance that was not to his liking.Despite this, he formed a government in coalition with Mutesa's party and, in 1963, Mutesa was appointed president of the Ugandan Federation with his approval.
The coalition formed by Mutesa and Obote did not stop the existing discrepancies between both and, in 1966, Obote ordered the officer Idi Amin, from northern Uganda, to attack the palace of Mutesa II, forcing him to emigrate from the country to Great Britain.After these events Obote formulated a new constitution in which Uganda became a unitary Republic that abolished the old kingdoms and in which the positions of President of the Executive and Prime Minister fell to him.
He tried to create a one-party regime based on the military and police repression of his political enemies, a fact that caused resentment, especially in southern Uganda, and that Amin took advantage of to build an army of followers.This situation led, in 1971, to a military coup led by Amin, with the overthrow of Obote, who took refuge in Tanzania, together with a small army under General Acholi Tito Okello.
In 1979 the union of Tanzanian forces and Okello's army overthrew Amin and allowed the return from exile of Obote, who was again elected President in May 1980.He tried to rebuild the country's economy with external help ruinous after Amin's rule, but looting in southern Gambia and in Amin's home province by soldiers acholi and lango led General Okello to take power in July 1985.After this new overthrow, Obote took refuge in Zambia.
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