Obote One’ last surviving minister, Mathias Ngobi has died at 99 years. His death was confirmed by the family. The former Minister of Agriculture in Obote’s died at his home in Namulesa, Jinja District.
Ngobi who represented Butembe County in Parliament in the 1960s, was the only surviving member of Obote’s cabinet after the death of Emmanuel Lumu, Uganda’s first Health Minister in December 2019.
The former minister is remembered as one of the five Ministers that were bundled up and arrested by President Obote during a cabinet meeting in Entebbe on February 23rd, 1966.
The arrest of Ngobi and four others who included Balaki Kirya, Goerge Magezi, Grace Ibingira, and Dr. Emmanuel Lumu was the final straw as Obote moved to impose a new constitution that would later be termed as the pigeon hole constitution.
In 1971, all the 4 Ministers including Hon Ngobi were released following the overthrow of President Obote by Gen Idi Amin Dada and Ngobi was reappointed to serve as the Minister of Agriculture in 1979, a post he held for one year under Binaisa’s government.
In 1980, upon the return of President Obote, Hon Ngobi took off to exile in the UK where he stayed until August 1985 with the overthrow of Obote II’s government and has lived quietly in his home in Jinja.
