By Tenywa Alexander
Once a philosopher said “If you want to destroy any nation destroy its education”, and Nelson Mandela once said “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”.
All the above quotes are linked to the tremendous effort of the current guild council for Busoga University to safeguard the future of the continuing students and graduates which is at stake by the ongoing threat of invalidating the degrees of over 2000 students as reported by a local media outlet.
Busoga University was founded by the Busoga diocese in 1998 with its headquarters in iganga. However, in 2017 National Council for Higher Education revoked its license on allegations of unqualified staff, running illegal study centres, uncredited courses and affiliation, and issuance of fake degrees to over 1000 students primarily from South Sudan.
The university sought relief from the court restraining NCHE from revoking its license, a court order which was issued to that effect. And it’s upon this order that the university has continued with its academic menu.
The Busoga diocese agreed to hand over the university assets to the government as a public university as per the executive orders of President Yoweri Museveni. Several meetings between the President and the committee on the government take over the university sat, where the government pledged to settle 15 billion shillings bank loan of the university where 2.5 billion has been already paid to the Bank of Baroda and the bank given back to Church of Uganda land titles that were deposited as collateral security for the loans. These land titles have been handed over to Ministry of Education and Sports.
To put the presidential directive to its effectiveness, the Ministry of Education appointed a six-member taskforce committee led by Professor John Robert Stephen Tabuti to foster the reopening of the institution but still been in vain for 7 years now.
GENESIS OF POLITICS AT THE UNIVERSITY
Politics at Busoga University started immediately after the unceremonious handover of office by Professor Frank Nabwiso the then vice chancellor to Professor David Lameck Kibikyo in 2015, after two years the university was no more. This was witnessed after the 2016 graduation ceremony where students from South Sudan were crowned with military science awards under the disguise of Juba Institute Affiliation. This attracted NCHE to take a step as both the course and the affiliation weren’t accredited by the council.
As the National Council for Higher Education revoked the university license, no warning letters were given to its management as the case was with Fairland University where such notices were issued in 2007 and after 2 years (2009) another notice was issued prior to revoking of its license in 2013.
After revoking Fairland University’s license, NCHE wrote to the Jinja chief Admiration officer to stop the university from its continuity.
In the case of Busoga University, the NCHE has even failed to deploy police to stop its continuity meaning that they are much aware of the university operations then why invalidate students’ degrees? Why has Tabuti’s task force failed to have an operational office at the main campus and still operate in Kampala at the Ministry of Education building?
The university sought a Court order which was issued by continuing to threaten the current students and graduates by NCHE is contempt of court under natural justice.
If not politics at play and some people have ulterior motives of deliberately failing the university why has NCHE continued to disregard the presidential directive and even appoint the executive director for the council?
Why parliament has failed to handle the issues of statutory instruments for the establishment of the university yet since the financial year 2021/2021,2022/2023,2023/2024 budget allocations have been made for the commencement of the university but still struggling to date? Where has been this fund going, has it not been misused,who can trace for it apart from the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament?
FUTURE OF GRADUANDS AND CURRENT STUDENTS
Once NCHE invalidates the degrees of over 2000 Busoga University students, it is most likely to cause unexpected protest, support and rise of opposition in the subregion and this effect is to be felt in the forthcoming polls for the following reasons.
Globally universities are hotbeds of protest, they serve as institutions for regime change for example President Museveni used to mobilize for anti-regime fights while at university and also among his 27 fighters were university students.
University are usually highly political environments an example is the University of Nairobi in the 1960s,1970s and 1980s was described as a hub of political activism filled with public speech, sharing political literature, pamphlets etc
Universities create opportunities for potential protesters to coordinate and overcome collective-action problems, as facilities of social networks, organization and physical infrastructure offer focal points for coordination. So Busoga University issues should not be handled slightly as the current students and graduates continue to trek to different authorities including the speaker of parliament but nothing has been yielded.
In my conclusions, The National Council for Higher Education such burry its pride and at least accredit the said degree to avoid creating an army of 2000 Ugandans who are capable of causing political unrest due to its betrayal. The current administration should liaise with Prof Tabuti’s task force and NCHE to have the institution fully operational and safe the future of the students in question.
The Busoga parliamentary association and other political leaders in the Busoga sub-region should collectively fight for a statutory instrument for the university and this should be spearheaded by the Rt. Hon: speaker Anita Among and minister Hon: Rebecca Alitwala Kadaga.
The office of the Inspector General of Government should investigate how the funds allocated to this institution have been used and provide an audit report. No country can develop unless its citizens are educated.
The writer is an investigative journalist based in Eastern Uganda.
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