By Oweyegha-Afunaduula
I woke up on the morning of 14th December only to receive the bad news that my elder (by 9 years) and source of inspiration in terms of independent critical thinking, writing and reasoning, and an incorruptible mind, Dr Frank Nabwiso, had passed on.
Interestingly Dr Nabwiso passed on at the age that my father, Charles Afunaduula Ovuma Ngobi Isabirye (who he knew very well) and my mother Ester Stephanie Wabiseatyo Kyabwe Naigaga Nawamwena died at in 2007 and 2016 respectively: 84. May the 84-years rest in peace!
I heard of Dr Frank Nabwiso through his voice on the Radio in the early 1960s when I was completing primary school education before embarking on junior secondary education. I fell in love with his Lusoga news broadcasts, through which I improved my Lusoga. I would never miss the broadcasts in Lusoga because I would learn about local, national and global affairs for my civics subject, which I enjoyed very much, and for my political education, which those days started in homes.
I was lucky my father, Charles Afunaduula Ovuma Ngobi Isabirye was involved in National and Busoga politics and would bring the Argus and Munno, which I would read from the first page to the last page even if I was in primary school. This would be entrenched by Frank Nabwiso’s news broadcasts. So, my political development and political literacy started early.
Later, when I was in Senior Four at Busoga College, Mwiri in 1969, I learnt that Nabwiso was teaching senior army officers Development Studies. I started asking myself “What is Development Development Studies?” and saying if Development Studies can be taught to soldiers it can also be taught to me. However, I had to wait until I joined the University of Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, in 1972 to be taught Development Studies by people like Nabudere, Mamdani, Shivji, Bhagavan, Bugingo, Greene and Rodney.
At that time Development Studies was a crosscutting study, which every first-year student across the university curriculum had to take before fully embarking on his or her degree programme but after passing it. I excelled in Development Studies because the name of Nabwiso who taught Development Studies always cropped up in my mind, with the thinking that I could also teach the course to soldiers if I graduated.
Unfortunately, when I graduated with an Upper Second Honours degree in Zoology in 1976, the year Dr Nabwiso got his PhD, I did not come back to Uganda. I instead joined the East African Community and was posted to Zanzibar to work as a Fisheries Research Officer (Biological Oceanography) in the East African Marine Fisheries Organisation (EAMFRO). But my Development Studies was not a waste of time. It enhanced my political development and political literacy, which I make use of in my writings even if I am a natural scientist.
The first time I met him in person was in 1980 at the University of Nairobi where I was pursuing a Masters degree in Zoology (The Biology of Conservation) in the Department of Zoology, Chiromo Campus. I immediately fell in love with him because of his critical thinking and reasoning. We exchanged ideas on a variety of issues. He told me he was a representative of a certain American University to Africa and the Middle East. I don’t remember the name of the university. He gave me his business card but I failed to locate it among the thousands of business cards I have before writing this tribute.
I was not surprised that he joined the National Resistance Movement (NRM). The rebel group needed every smart brain. I was also not surprised when the Movement leaders made him their secretary at the Nairobi Peace Talks, popularly known as Nairobi Peace Jokes, in 1985 and brokered by fallen Kenyan President Arap Moi between them and the Tito Okello group which included Paulo Ssemogerere.
As does happen when a government is felled by rebels anywhere on Earth, jobs were shared, but Nabwiso was not absorbed in President Tibuhaburwa Museveni’s Cabinet. Instead, he was appointed Director, Uganda Export Promotion Council, a job he performed very well without being accused of corruption. He was later appointed the second Director of Uganda AIDS Information Centre. Again, I never heard of him being accused of corruption. There is no doubt that the ruler wanted to use his smart brain to lay the foundation for those two organisations.
My second association with Dr Nabwiso was when Martin Musumba (a former Katikiro of Busoga and former LC Chairman of Iganga District before it was bantustanised), Frank Muramuzi and myself opposed Bujagali dam, reasoning that the construction of the dam would erase the environmental, ecological, cultural and cultural values that Bujagali Falls offered Busoga; that Instead of destroying Bujagali Falls, the government and World Bank should develop the poor man’s energy source -solar power -since virtually all the electricity was for lighting; and that in any case, the electricity would be unavailable to the majority of the poor because it would be unaffordable to the absolute majority poor, although it would be accessible to them
Dr Nabwiso was one of the 7 or so Members of Parliament who sided with us and even wrote and signed a letter to the US Government about the dangers of the Bujagali dam. All the other MPs were happy with the project.
I have kept in touch with the fallen Dr Nabwiso. Whenever he wanted my views on certain issues, he would ring me at my rural domicile in Nawaka in Ikumbya Sub country in Luuka District, Busoga. The last time he spoke to me was about a research he was making on Christianity in Busoga.
Lastly, Frank Nabwiso was frank and straightforward; one of the very few such leaders that were remaining in Uganda. Many times, I thought he did not know how to lie. One of the reasons he couldn’t fit in NRM was because he could not lie well. We shall miss a critical mind that sustained critical thinking and reasoning in Uganda.
May His Soul Rest in Peace!
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