I agree that you can call it a program of sorts, but it is at a lower level than the chip can BE PROGRAMMED at. When you think about the level of programming languages, eg:

higher: C
lower: assembler
even lower: machine code
rock bottom: microcode,

So maybe a better way to phrase it would be: Microcode is a program, but not made one up of machine code instructions (it's lower than that) or put there to make the chip perform any specific function other than "being itself". Maybe microcode is the soul of the machine :-)?