-A Response to the Historical Revisionism of the NRAMO Era
By Hon. J. J. Opondo*
One of the most persistent political myths propagated in contemporary Uganda is the proposition that history began in January 1986.
It did not.
Uganda was neither discovered nor invented by the National Resistance Movement.
Long before 1986, Uganda possessed functioning constitutional institutions, a productive agricultural economy, a respected civil service, a vibrant cooperative movement, a national development strategy, a professional Parliament, internationally competitive educational institutions, and some of the most admired public corporations on the African continent.
The tragedy of modern Uganda is not merely that these institutions declined.
The tragedy is that the architects of their destruction now seek to claim authorship of their creation.
The Constitutional Republic Before 1986
The 1967 Republican Constitution established a sovereign republic founded upon parliamentary supremacy, ministerial responsibility, and democratic accountability.
Although not without imperfections, the constitutional order that emerged after independence was animated by a vision of nation-building, economic planning, and public service.
Parliament remained relatively lean and functional.
Cabinets were smaller.
Public expenditure was directed toward productive sectors.
The civil service was meritocratic.
Political office was not viewed as a route to personal enrichment.
Indeed, one searches in vain through the public records of the 1960s and early 1970s for the industrial-scale corruption scandals that have become normalized in contemporary governance.
The Development State Uganda Once Built
The First and Second Development Plans established a coherent national framework for industrialization, agricultural modernization, education, infrastructure, and commerce.
The 1968–1971 Development Plan envisaged a State actively participating in economic transformation through strategic public enterprises, industrial development, agricultural support, and infrastructure expansion.
At the centre of this vision stood institutions such as:
- Uganda Development Corporation (UDC);
- Uganda Commercial Bank (UCB);
- Uganda Electricity Board (UEB);
- Uganda Railways Corporation;
- Produce Marketing Board;
- Coffee Marketing Board;
- Dairy Corporation;
- Cooperative Unions.
These institutions did not exist as patronage instruments.
They existed to create national wealth.
The Cooperative Revolution
The greatest economic emancipation programme ever undertaken in rural Uganda was neither Operation Wealth Creation nor Parish Development Model.
It was the cooperative movement.
Banyankole Kweterana Cooperative Union.
Bugisu Cooperative Union.
Lango Cooperative Union.
West Mengo Cooperative Union.
Teso Cooperative Union.
Bukedi Cooperative Union.
These institutions financed farmers, purchased produce, built schools, established storage facilities, and provided economic dignity to millions of Ugandans.
The farmer was not treated as a political client.
The farmer was treated as an economic citizen.
The destruction of these cooperative structures remains one of the gravest acts of economic vandalism in Uganda’s history.
Uganda’s Educational Golden Age
The contemporary generation is rarely informed that Uganda once maintained one of Africa’s finest higher education systems.
Students at Makerere University benefited from:
- State-funded education;
- Free accommodation;
- Book allowances;
- Meals;
- Medical care;
- Guaranteed employment upon graduation.
Education was viewed as a public investment.
Today, families incur crushing debt to educate children only for graduates to confront chronic unemployment.
This is not progress.
It is institutional regression disguised as reform.
The Great Privatization Project
The privatization programme of the 1990s was presented as economic modernization.
In practice, much of it amounted to the systematic transfer of public assets into private hands.
Strategic state enterprises were dismantled.
National assets were sold.
Cooperative institutions collapsed.
Agricultural marketing systems disappeared.
Public corporations were weakened.
The result was not broad-based prosperity.
The result was concentration of economic power.
The State retreated from development without creating effective alternatives.
Millions of Ugandans were left exposed to market forces they neither controlled nor benefited from.
The Patronage State
President Museveni’s recent State of the Nation Address speaks of economic growth, infrastructure expansion, and increased production. He cites growth in GDP from approximately USD 3.9 billion in 1986 to over USD 69 billion today, as well as improvements in agricultural output and electricity generation.
These figures deserve recognition.
Yet economic statistics alone do not answer the constitutional question confronting Uganda.
The true measure of governance is not merely aggregate growth.
It is distribution.
It is accountability.
It is institutional integrity.
It is whether citizens experience prosperity.
It is whether public office serves the public.
After forty years, Uganda remains burdened by:
- High youth unemployment;
- Persistent poverty;
- Rising public debt;
- Endemic corruption;
- Service delivery failures;
- Weak industrial employment;
- Growing inequality.
The paradox is striking.
The economy has expanded.
Yet so too has public dissatisfaction.
The Expansion of Government and Shrinking Accountability
The Uganda inherited by the NRM possessed a relatively compact Parliament.
Today, Uganda sustains one of the largest and most expensive legislative establishments in Africa relative to economic size.
Administrative units have multiplied.
Political appointments have proliferated.
Public expenditure increasingly finances governance structures rather than productive investment.
The Republic appears to have perfected the art of political expansion while struggling to achieve economic inclusion.
The Crisis of Corruption
Perhaps the most profound contradiction within official rhetoric emerges from repeated declarations of war against corruption while corruption scandals continue to dominate public discourse.
The challenge is not the absence of anti-corruption speeches.
The challenge is the absence of consistent accountability.
Corruption survives where institutions are weak.
Corruption flourishes where political patronage supersedes public service.
Corruption becomes systemic when access to power becomes access to wealth.
The Moral Question of the Republic
At its heart, the Ugandan question is not economic.
It is moral.
Can a nation prosper indefinitely when public institutions are subordinated to political interests?
Can democracy flourish where power becomes increasingly personalized?
Can constitutionalism survive where succession appears determined by proximity to power rather than competitive democratic processes?
History answers in the negative.
The NDOC Alternative
The National Democratic Opposition Council proposes a different path.
Not nostalgia.
Not revenge.
But reconstruction.
A return to:
- Constitutional government;
- Independent institutions;
- Cooperative economics;
- Agricultural modernization;
- Industrial development;
- Professional public service;
- Criminal justice reform;
- Accountability and transparency.
We advocate reviving the spirit that once animated Uganda’s development strategy:
A State that serves citizens rather than citizens serving the State.
Conclusion
The Republic does not belong to a generation.
It belongs to its people.
No political movement possesses a perpetual mandate.
No government owns history.
No administration can permanently suspend the democratic aspirations of a nation.
The question before Uganda is therefore not whether change will come.
The question is whether that change will be guided by constitutional wisdom or delayed until crisis imposes it.
As the ancient proverb reminds us:
The tree that forgets its roots mistakes survival for immortality.
Uganda’s future will not be secured by rewriting its history.
It will be secured by learning from it
*Public Relations Officer — National Democratic Opposition Council (NDOC)
