Museveni’s lies about Nandala made me cry
By Norman S. Miwambo
3rd January 2011
I read an article in the Daily Monitor of December 23rd under the headline “Has government dug own grave by sacking Mafabi from BCU?” in which President Museveni is reported to have said, “…Mr Nandala is a man who thinks like a two-year-old child. He cannot even appreciate that government is the one that bailed out BCU [Bugisu Cooperative Union] from big debts; we shall see”.
Museveni said his government had bailed out BCU by injecting money in it to make the Union keeps running after it had been mismanaged by Budadiri West Constituency MP Nandala Mafabi’s predecessors.
That statement took me back to Thursday, September 25, 1985; the day when the National Resistance Movement/Army (NRM/A) captured Masaka town. The way Museveni handled BCU reveals that his NRM actually planned to dismantle Cooperative Unions; including Masaka Cooperative Union [MCU] which used to be a source of revenue for the population in Masaka.
Before I finished reading the article, tears started flowing down my cheeks. Someone came into my study room and asked: “can we call the ambulance?” I said it was not necessary because it wasn’t illness. My tears came because the Cooperative Unions had saved me from being a street kid. Up to 245 primary co-operative societies ensured that there were no street kids in Masaka and its surroundings.
Sixty eight coffee factories under Masaka Cooperative Union “died” on 25th September 1985; it was too much to bear. There is no way I can tell anyone that I enjoyed Christmas after reading Museveni’s lies about Bugisu Cooperative Union and Hon. Nandala Mafabi.
Since 1951, Masaka Cooperative Union had never been ill until the NRM came to the area on 25th September 1985. Before then, all inhabitants of the region had jobs in coffee processing, farming, food processing, or in any of the subsidiaries of Masaka Cooperative Union. They were like the people working for Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) today.
Cooperative Unions guaranteed food on the table, transport, medical care, fees, and clothing for over 85% of families. During the holidays, grown up children would work in coffee factories picking out stones and black beans from the coffee before it’s taken to Bugolobi Coffee Marketing Board (CMB) for final screening before export.
But if it wasn’t for the final screening which only Bugolobi CMB could do, Masaka Cooperative Union had the capacity to export coffee and compete with other countries in East Africa. And this was not exclusive to Masaka. It was the same in other parts of the country.
In Mityana, there was Wamala Growers Co-operative Union which was established in 1968 and it dealt in coffee, cotton, cattle ranching etc. It was like a huge ATM machine for the people of Mityana. It produced cooking oil, bricks, tiles, and other clay products.
The importance of Co-operative Unions was not only recognized in Masaka and other parts of Uganda. According to a document availed to me by a British history professor, on July 28th 1954, Henry Hopkinson, the UK’s Secretary for Overseas Affairs at the time had informed the British Parliament about the significance of Cooperative Societies in Uganda.
Then there was Uganda Co-operative Transport Union (UCTU) which took full charge of transporting farmers’ produce to the market. UCTU used to import trucks, spare parts, and it even helped repair trucks belonging to individual farmers. Not even the notorious Idi Amin ever tried to dismantle the Co-operative Unions.
Instead, he encouraged people to grow more produces. In fact, the first time I saw someone being handcuffed was when the Governor of Masaka Walusansa led an operation to arrest people who had cut down coffee trees in Bukomansimbi, Kawoko, Villa and other areas. Co-operative Unions were a high priority because it enabled all Ugandans to live descent lives.
Before 1987, farmers used to buy their fertilizers and insecticides from Tororo Industrial Chemical and Fertilizers. The Tororo chemicals used to do very well in both coffee and banana plantations. But in 1987, farmers were ‘cunningly’ advised to switch to Safi-Safi. That was the end quality farm products from Masaka. Today, you can hardly fill a lorry with Matooke from a single farm.
From being the nation’s food basket, Masaka is today a dependant district. District leaders have been reduced to fighting for Taxi Park contracts. By 1992, police records showed that nearly all the car robbers arrested in Kenya, Tanzania, DRC, and Southern Sudan were from Masaka. The whole Masaka town is messed up with “Boda-Boda” motor-cyclists contaminating the atmosphere with toxic fumes. Masaka Co-operative Union is now resting in eternal peace.
But I pray that some “medical experts” find a cure for Bugisu Cooperative Union to survive Museveni’s assault on it. Please log into www.ugandacorrespondent.com every Monday to read our top stories and anytime mid-week for our news updates.
The writer is a Ugandan Journalist based in the United Kingdom
