Makerere University will rise and shine again – Muyingo

Weeks after the closure of Makerere University, Baker Batte Lule has been talking to the minister of state for Higher Education, JOHN CHRYSOSTOM MUYINGO, over when the institution will be ready to reopen. 

When is government reopening Makerere University?

Makerere University was closed and a visitation committee was put in place and it was given terms of reference to carry out an inquiry into the issues.

It is expected to conclude its work in a period of not more than three months. Of course the reopening of the university does not depend on the conclusion of the committee’s work.

These problems seem to be the same in other public universities. Will you close them if there is a strike?

There are different stakeholders in public universities, who have all got different responsibilities according to the Universities and Other Tertiary Institution’s Act 2001 as amended. Government, like the parents; budgeted what to give public universities.

One of them is the salaries which have already been sent to the universities. Second, a public university is governed by a university council, It is that council; that is responsible for the overall management of the university. For us as a ministry, we only come in to give guidelines or directives.

Did you as a ministry advise the visitor (president) to close Makerere outside the law that governs universities?

The visitor is at the same time the head of state. When these lecturers downed their tools, the students went on rampage. The head of state has a duty to protect life and property of all Ugandans. It is not news to you that people of Wandegeya and areas surrounding Makerere lost property.

Even within the university, the president could not guarantee the safety of lives of the people and their properties. That is why he had to come in. Did you expect the president to just look on?

So, why did the president appoint a visitation committee yet the issues at stake are already known to all thanks to previous similar probe committees?

The other committees did work, but the problems have continued. That is why if the solutions worked, there wouldn’t be any need to have another committee. But the fact that the problems continued means that they didn’t provide a solution.

This time we are very committed as government to put right what has gone wrong in Makerere University. I have to tell you that government is going to pump money in Makerere if the problem is money.

We are just waiting for the results of this committee and we put everything right. You will see Makerere glittering; just give us time. My prayer to you and the public is that give the best environment to that committee put in place by the president. 

Will you act on this report, when previous reports are still on the shelves?

This time we are very committed as government to finding a lasting solution to all problems Makerere has been having. We are tired of seeing fights at our biggest premier university.

We want it to be the best university in the country, the region, if not the whole of Africa and it is going to be. Soon you’re going to start seeing big changes in the university.

Can’t the visitation committee do its work while the university is open?

The work these people are doing has nothing to do with the closure. In fact it would even be faster for them to work if the university was open.

But you need to understand who closed the university or why it was closed. It is the lecturers who closed the university when they refused to teach. So, there is no way we can reopen the university without the lecturers first agreeing to go back to class and teach.

Will the lecturers get their salaries even when they are on strike?

Makerere is governed by a university council; for us as government, we have ready disbursed our share to the university which covers part of the salaries and some activities.

That portion that is accommodated in our budget; we are committed to giving it to them. We are going to give Makerere everything we budgeted for up to the 30th of June 2017 when this current financial year ends. Now, who decides who to pay and how to spend that money is the university council.

Prof Ddumba–Ssentamu has indicated he wants future vice chancellors to be appointed rather than elected. What is your view?

Some of the problems in these universities have a lot to do with management. Unless we get a solution to the mismanagement of these universities, we will continue to have these problems. I’m not saying the solution is in appointing or not appointing, but we have to review the law.

We have got quite many ideas we want to capture in the amendment and very soon we will be presenting them to parliament for consideration. We want to strengthen the management.

Government has trouble running five public universities but is in a race to open more. Why?

For your information, we now have nine public universities and I want to tell you that we are not failing to manage these universities.

Two, if Uganda is to attain the middle-income status we are talking about, government has a duty to increase on the number of citizens accessing higher education. So, how do we increase [the number] by not having the institutions?

There is talk that it was a mistake for Makerere to remain a public university when private students are the majority.

I don’t think government made any mistake; what you are seeing are very small things we are going to fix. I want to tell you that I have the ideas to fix these problems but you know the way government works; it believes in democracy and the involvement of all stakeholders in the decision-making.

That is why with our good policies, we have to also involve other people to put their ideas on paper so that my ideas are put to test.

Is the first lady a hindrance to the ministry of education? Some say it is difficult to meet her.

That is not true; Maama Janet Museveni, I think is the best person we need in that office today. I want to tell you that I have worked with other ministers before, but they didn’t have the ear on the ground like the first lady.

She is a lady who listens to all of us including primary school children. She has been holding meetings with student leaders of all public universities in this country.

She has gone to schools and held meetings with primary school teachers; she has been meeting non-teaching staff within this short time she has been in office. She has met almost all the stakeholders in the education sector. I want to tell you she has given in all her time to solving the problems in the education sector. She is the best gift for our ministry.

bakerbatte@gmail.com