Dr Apollo Milton Obote was born in Akokoro village in Lango in the present-day Apac district to chief Stanley Opeto.
Obote attended his primary education at a mission school. He then went to Busoga College Mwiri for his secondary education. He later joined Makerere University College, but he never finished.
Obote left for Kenya to work with Mowlem Construction Company as a clerk.
While in Kenya, Obote became one of the founders of Kenya National Union in 1947.
He came back to Uganda in 1950 and became a member of Uganda National Congress (UNC), a political party of Ignatius Musaazi. He was appointed Chairman UNC, Lango Branch.
In 1958 Obote was appointed to the Legislative council representing Lango Sub region.
When UNC split into two in 1957, Obote became the leader of one of the groups.
Obote’s group of UNC joined with Uganda People’s Union (UPU) to become Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) under Milton Obote in 1960.
In the 1961 election, Obote UPC lost to the Democratic Party (DP) of Benedicto Kiwanuka.
Benedicto Kiwanuka therefore became the leader of Legislative Council (LEGICO) and Obote became the opposition leader.
It was in the LEGICO that Obote strongly demanded for self rule.
In the elections which were to see Uganda being granted self rule, Obote’s UPC made an alliance with Kabaka Yekka, a traditional or royalist party in 1961.
On 1st March 1961, Uganda was granted self rule.
The final elections for Uganda’s independence were in April 1962. Obote got a landslide victory with 58 seats in parliament for UPC/KY alliance against DP’s only 24 seats.
On 9th October 1962, Uganda was granted independence. Apollo Milton Obote became the executive Prime Minister and Sir Edward Mutesa, the leader of KY as the first President of Uganda.
Obote’s leadership was punctuated with conflicts between himself and the president Sir Edward Mutesa. This was majorly because of who was higher in leadership of the country.
Subsequently Obote order for the attack of the Kabaka’s palace at Lubiri under the command of Idi Amin Dada. This forced the Kabaka into exile in the United Kingdom via Rwanda.
Obote then declared himself the executive President of Uganda.
In 1967, Obote changed the constitution, abolished all Kingdoms and Uganda therefore became a republic.
In 1969, Obote declared the “Move to the left”, a socialist ideology. This was done to create unity and development. All the parastatals were nationalized.
On 25th January 1971, Milton Obote was overthrown by his own army while attending a common wealth summit at Singapore. He alleged that Obote was Corrupt and was a dictator.
While in exile Obote and other exiles tried to fight Amin. They invaded Uganda through Kagera Salient in Tanzania but they were pushed back.
In 1979 with the support of Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, Obote and his group overthrew Amin on 11th April 1979.
In May 1980, Obote returned home in a heroic welcome.
He right away organised his UPC party to participate in the December 1980 general elections.
The December 1980 general elections were contested between four political parties, namely UPC under Milton Obote, DP under Paul Semogerere, Conservative Party (CP) under Johash Mayanja Nkangi and Uganda Patriotic Movement (UPM) under Yoweri Museveni.
UPC under Obote won although with a claim of vote rigging from other political parties.
Dr Apollo Milton Obote ruled Uganda for the second time until July 1985 when he was overthrown again by his own army in yet another military coup.
Meanwhile, Yoweri Museveni a UPM candidate and a sympathizer of DP believed to have won the 1980 general elections went to the bush to fight Obote’s government.
Obote was overthrown by Generals Bazilio Olara-Okello and Tito Okello-Lutwa on the ground that he was a dictator and tribalistic. That he had also refused to hold peace talks with Yoweri Museveni, who went to wage a guerilla war against Obote’s government on account of the 1980 general elections claimed to have been marred by vote-rigging.
Obote for the second time fled the country via Kenya to Zambia where spent the rest of his life.
He remained the President General of UPC until October 2005.
Dr Apollo Milton passed away on 10th October, 2005 at the age of 81 due to kidney failure in a South African Hospital.
The UPC leadership was passed over to Obote’s wife Mama Miria Nakitto Kalule Obote after UPC delegate conference held in November 2005. She took part in the 23rd February 2006, elections.
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