Milton Obote member of political party Uganda People's Congress
Apollo Milton Obote (28 December 1925 – 10 October 2005) was a Ugandan political leader who led Uganda to independence from British colonial rule in 1962. Following the nation's independence, he served as prime minister of Uganda from 1962 to 1966 and the second president of Uganda from 1966 to 1971, then again from 1980 to 1985.
He founded the Uganda People's Congress (UPC) in 1960, which played a key role in securing Uganda's independence from the United Kingdom in 1962. He then became the country's prime minister in a coalition with the Kabaka Yekka movement/party, whose leader King Mutesa II was named president. Due to a rift with Mutesa over the 1964 Ugandan lost counties referendum and later getting implicated in a gold smuggling scandal, Obote overthrew him in 1966 and declared himself president, establishing a dictatorial regime with the UPC as the only official party in 1969. Obote implemented ostensibly socialist policies, under which the country suffered from severe corruption and food shortages.
He was overthrown in a coup d'état by Idi Amin in 1971, settling in exile in Tanzania, but was re-elected in 1980 a year after Amin's 1979 overthrow. His second period of rule ended after a long and bloody conflict known as the Ugandan Bush War, during which he was overthrown a second time by another coup d'état in 1985, prompting him to live the rest of his life in exile.Early life
Milton Obote was born at Akokoro village in Apac district in northern Uganda. He was the third born of nine children of a tribal chief of the Oyima clan Lango ethnic group. He began his education in 1940 at the Protestant Missionary School in Lira, and later attended Gulu Junior Secondary School, Busoga College and eventually university at Makerere University. Having intended to study law, a subject not taught at the university, Obote took a general arts course, including English and geography. At Makerere, Obote honed his natural oratorical skills; he may have been expelled for participating in a student strike, or alternatively left after a place to study law abroad was not funded by the protectorate government. He worked in Buganda in southern Uganda before moving to Kenya, where he worked as a construction worker at an engineering firm.
While in Kenya, Obote became involved in the national independence movement. Upon returning to Uganda in 1956, he joined the political party Uganda National Congress (UNC), and was elected to the colonial Legislative Council in 1957. In 1959, the UNC split into two factions, with one faction under the leadership of Obote merging with the Uganda People's Union to form the Uganda People's Congress (UPC).Obote represented the UPC at the Ugandan Constitutional Conference, held at Lancaster House in 1961, alongside fellow Ugandan politician A. G. Mehta. The Conference was organised by the British Government to pave the way for Ugandan independence.
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