Prof. Dani Wadada Nabudere
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Prof.
Dani Wadada Nabudere will always remain in the annals of East Africa as
a great constitutional lawyer that was, and fierce political
heavyweight undaunted to speak his mind.
His
legal and political footmarks are well documented in the East African
sub-region. His sudden death therefore will be a great loss towards the
full realisation of the east African unification dream he espoused.
To most Ugandans, he will be remembered in political, academic and legal combat zones. First, he participated in post-Independence
Uganda early 1960s by virtue of his membership of the country’s ruling
party then, Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC), and later, when UPC ceded
power to Idi Amin’s murderous regime in 1971, he was among a few who
brought the wheels rolling on the late dictator through a protracted
political struggle based in Dar es salaam, Tanzania in 1972. Throughout
the years till his death he has presented papers, written books and
taught at the country’s major higher institutions of learning.
Memorable contributions
Notably,
his other major contribution was enormously felt as a member of what
became the Constituent Assembly (CA) for Budadiri West, Mbale during the
making of the country’s first Constitution under National Resistance
Movement (NRM) rule that climaxed in 1995. It was from the CA that I
became interested in the professor’s speeches and writings prominent in
most dailies at the time. His speeches were needless to say, quotable
quotes by reporters, academically breath taking and it goes without
saying that his well researched newspaper commentaries, an epitome of a
scholar of high calibre were often granted space by editors.
In
Dar es Salaam, the don was very popular in academic and political
circles. He taught constitutional law at the University of Dar es salaam
for many years in the 70s, and on several occasions later, an invited
political guest speaker at the university. In the course of such
political gatherings I came face to face with Prof. Nabudere on January
16, 2006.
We
were attending the annual Walter Rodney memorial lecture at the
University of Dar es Salaam’s council hall, and the professor was a
panelist along with Prof. Ali Mazrui, a Kenyan scholar teaching in the
United States. The moderator, Prof. Othman, a Zanzibari, introduced
Nabudere superfluously, with the kind of introduction unheard of in his
native Uganda. He praised the don for his contribution to the
unification talks between Zanzibar and Tanganyika that gave birth to
what is now Tanzania.
Prof.
Haroub explained that, unknown to most people, when former Tanzanian
leader Julius Kambarage Nyerere was negotiating the union with the
president of Zanzibar, Abeid Amani Karume, in 1964 only two other people
were present in the room where the talks were being held. Mr, Roland
Brown, provided legal counsel on the side of Nyerere, and Nabudere for
president Karume. These two lawyers, a white man from Britain for
Nyerere, a black man from Uganda, provided legal guidance to the two
fallen presidents on the legal technicalities and jargon of the union
document.
In
later commentaries corroborating this, on the ‘articles of the Union’,
Prof. Hariob writes that when the union discussions were at an advanced
stage, Nyerere is said to have called in his Attorney General at the
time and asked him to draft a Union Agreement without anybody knowing.
In the case of Zanzibar, the Attorney-General, Wolfgang Dourado, is said
to have been sent on a one-week ‘leave’ and instead, a Ugandan lawyer,
Dan Nabudere (according to his own account), was brought in to advise
Karume on the draft submitted by Tanganyika. Both Brown and Nabudere
were present in the Karume-Nyerere discussions.
These
four people concluded what is commonly referred to as ‘articles of the
union’ whose contents to date is still contentious. Without his input,
perhaps the union between Tanganyika and Zanzibar would not be there.
Today that union is being taken as a benchmark for many other
integrations attempts as a success story around the world.
As
fate would have it, the four people in that famous union negotiation in
1964 including Prof. Haroub the scholar, have all passed on, but the
fruits of their union counsel are still visible for all to see. May the
soul of Prof. Dani Nabudere rest in peace, and may his country Uganda,
experience the same unification dream devoid of tribalistic, political
and religious divisions envisioned by him in the Tanzanian case.
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