Godfrey Lukongwa Binanisa QC, the man who ascended to state power against furious opposition from his countrymen in Buganda.
He is known for being the architect of the movement ideology that he termed ” Ekigaali” or “Umbrella “, which was later adopted by the President Yoweri Museveni and his colleagues while in in the bush during their struggle against government.
He had to consolidate his position before embarking on any national development program and one of the instruments he used was the famous “Umbrella” which was sought to bring all Ugandans under the same political thought. Hardly a month after he had been sworn-in as President he had a task of leading the Ugandan delegation to the O.A.U summit in Nigeria where delegates condemned the role of the republic of Tanzania in the 1979 liberation war.
There were some elongated arguments as to whether the letter criticizing Tanzania’s role in overthrowing the military regime of Idi Amin could be read to delegates, and Binaisa had failed to convince the Major General Olusengun Obasanjo for he was the host nation, Nigeria’s President then, he decided to storm out of the summit.
He feared to be part of the group criticising Tanzania and therefore its President Mwalimu Julius K. Nyerere as this was dangerous to the stability of his office as president. It should be remembered that at this time it was a condition that any Ugandan president must be on good terms with Nyerere for his office to secured otherwise it was precarious because Nyerere was stil directing some political affairs in Uganda from the rear sit. He was still having the army in his hands.
But even after this effort Binaisa did not cautiously follow his moves because it was not long before he made a blunder in making changes in his government and diplomatic appointments which did not go well with the wishes of the NCC and was there and then removed from office which military commission took over.
Binaisa threw himself back into exile and ever since he has just returned after nearly 14 years in exile in the USA.