29th July 2009
The Divisional Police Commander,
Jinja Road Police Station
Re: Nuwagaba Vincent MHC 1295/08
This is to bring to your notice that the above named was admitted to our Hospital as a patient in May 2008 and later discharged. Nuwagaba has not followed up treatment and has instead sued the state for alleged wrongful admission at the Hospital.
He unfortunately continues to visit the Hospital in an attempt to incite patients under our care. This is therefore to request you assist us keep the above named out of our Hospital gates to enable us offer our services efficiently to those that need them.
Yours sincerely,
Dr David Basangwa
FOR DIRECTOR
The DPC acknowledged receipt of the letter and noted thus, “correspondence received. OC Butabika please take note and liaise with the Hospital Management.
The foregoing letter demands that I raise the following issues for public consumption:
Institutional Abuse
The letter portends a clear case of state failure and institutional abuse in a three- dimensional manner- personalisation of state institutions and/or offices, desecration of the otherwise sacrosanct police force and failure to appreciate that I have a right to seek legal redress by suing any individual (with exception of the president who is shielded by presidential immunity against prosecution) and institution including the state through the Attorney General.
The personalisation of public offices and institutions.
I have laboured to teach public officials that public offices and institutions are impersonal. No sane person can write such a letter and use the word our Hospital as if it is a private enterprise. If he says our hospital, whose hospital is it and whose is it not? Doesn’t our include me and any other Ugandans who part with a hefty thirty per cent (30%) of their salaries to keep the lousy and unscrupulous bureaucrats in offices and the dictatorship in power? I must warn Dr Basangwa and all administrators in Butabika and any other public institutions including president Museveni that any attempt to personalise any state institution will draw the ire and unprecedented rage of the politically conscious and civically awake citizens and the results will not be enjoyable to the office and institutional abusers. Please stand warned. No sane person could write such a letter but on the presumption that the author of the letter is a person of sound mind, I will take legal action using the letter as one of the documents to support my case.
Desecration of the otherwise revered Police Force
That the Uganda Police Force whose functions are clearly spelt out in our constitution can be used to perpetuate and orchestrate criminality and illegality is a sad commentary indeed. For anybody to restrain me from my moral and legal obligation to fight for social justice; to speak out for the voiceless; to enhance the release of the captives; to set free the enslaved is unacceptable and unfathomable. I have made it quite clear that I am following Gaudance Tushabomwe’s case at the moment. But there’s nothing whatsoever that deters me from pursuing more or less related cases and I have put it in black and white before that I am the most qualified to do that since I have undergone similar hell. I am sure, the Jinja Road Police station Divisional Police Commander, enlightened as he is will not succumb to the illegal, despicable, disgraceful and loathsome command of Dr Basangwa and Ms Grace Lubale. Their letter must be dismissed with costs.
My suit against the Attorney General
It is prudent that anyone who occupies a public office undergoes some basic training in public administration in which case he/she would be taught administrative law. The Hospital administration is acting ultravires by forcefully denying me access to a public institution simply because I sued the state. Assuming all other state institutions were to read from Butabika Hospital’s script, would that mean that I will be restricted from accessing and using any public office, institutions and public goods including schools, hospitals and roads? Are the Butabika administrators attempting to criminalise filing suits against the state or any public servant? It is naïve, immature and a result of sheer malice to attempt to block me from having access from institutions run by tax payers’ money. It is equally myopic for anyone to inanely think that I can succumb to such madness. I will move with my head unbowed, my faith unshaken in all state institutions as long as I have reasons that take me there. For the benefit of naïve people behind my harassment, I don’t count how many times I have gone to the president’s office, whether or not I see him is a different matter but I have never been denied access to the president’s office. So, who are Butabika Hospital Administrators to deny me access to the place that was meant to be a healing centre but has unfortunately been turned into a killing centre all in the interest of keeping the NRM dictatorship in power?
Is Dr Onen involved in my plight?
At first I was told that Dr Onen is the one who does not need me in the Hospital. Accordingly, when I was beaten on Tuesday 14th July 2009 I called him in the presence of Mr. JK Zirabamuzale, Chairman of Uganda Prisoners’ Aid Foundation. I put the phone in loud speaker and thus Mr. Zirabamuzale can attest to this. Dr Onen distanced himself from that act. He was pleading with me on phone not to involve him in that matter and he told me the Hospital Management is under Dr Kiggozi, Mr. Basangwa, Mr. Ronald Segawa and Ms Grace Lubaale and that Dr Onen has nothing to do with directing them on who they should restrain and who they should allow in. I believed in what Dr. Onen told me.
On Monday 27th July 2009, I went with the lady police sergeant to Butabika Hospital. Actually it is me who ironically facilitated her to do police work for I was told by none other than Mr. Ashraf Chemonges that the police force is not facilitated and they do their job patriotically and thus if I am to be “helped” I must facilitate the Investigating officer. Sadly, no sooner had I and the lady police officer reached the Hospital premises, than Grace Lubale called the Kampala Metropolitan Police Commander Mr. Soroweni telling him that I Vincent Nuwagaba was in the Hospital premises. Paradoxically, although I was told by the OC Station, Jinja Road Police Station that the police had no facilitation, Mr. Soroweni came with very many junior Police Officers and some key senior officers, DPC Jinja Road Mr Aguma, Regional Police Commander Moses Kafeero, OC Operations Jinja Road IP Alphonse Mutabazi among others.
These officers never talked to me but chose to talk to Dr Onen who has nothing to do with my assault case and Gaudance Tushabomwe’s case. Later the OC Operations, Jinja Road Mr. Mutabazi told me, “Nuwagaba, we have talked to Dr. Onen about your matter. Please don’t come back to the Hospital but wait for the court to handle your case” I told Mr Mutabazi, “Look, Mr. Mutabazi I have nothing to do with Dr Onen unless he comes out and says, it is me who ordered that the Hospital guards assault you” I went further to state, “My case with Dr Onen is in court and it will be handled there. Right now it is subjudice and I am not at liberty to discuss its merits and demerits”
On Friday 31st July 2009 I was once again beaten and this time by the police men Mr Kabanda and some other SPC. I wondered what sort of society Uganda is. Are we in a state of nature which according to Thomas Hobbes life is nasty, brutish and short and is characterized by violence of every man against every man? The DPC told me that each time I need to go and do research on mental health rights, I should always notify him so that he accompanies me. I appreciate that magnanimity but I find it impracticable. The DPC will not move by my time table and the reverse is true. Personally, if I am pursuing a matter, before it is concluded I cannot settle. Extremism in defence of justice is no vice and moderation in pursuit of right is no virtue. I cannot be patient when Tushabomwe is kept on health and life killing drugs. I think this is an extremely urgent matter and needs urgent attention short of which we shall see an innocent educated woman die at the hands of unscrupulous public officials.
Meanwhile on Saturday after I left the clinic where I had gone for treatment Dr Onen called me and talked to me for fourteen minutes. He told me he has nothing to do with my recent plight at the Hospital and he told me he never settles in Butabika for he goes to Soroti, Mbarara, Kabaale, Hoima and many other places. By the time I talked to him he was reportedly on his way to Hoima. He reiterated what he had told me before that the leadership of the Hospital is under the Executive Director, Deputy Executive Director, Principal Administrator, Senior Administrator and Administrator. He told me that Ugandans nowadays have resorted to committing crimes and hide under other people’s cover. He told me as a human rights defender, he couldn’t in any way bar me from doing my human rights research in the Hospital. He told me that he handled me for quite a short time when I was there and my case with him is basically over the report he wrote about me and I do concur with him. Dr Onen even challenged me to confirm whether the letter banning me was authored by him and indeed although inanely and without any sense of decorum the author never gave me a copy, I found out that it was written by Dr Basangwa David.
Dr Onen knows the implications of subjecting me to inhuman and degrading treatment like the hospital administration is doing. I have accordingly concluded with my lawyer that on the basis the letter written to the Jinja Road Divisional Police Commander and my eventual illegal arrest and detention we must file a suit against the attorney general, Mr. Basangwa, Ms Grace Lubale. Although the Hospital is a government Hospital, I shall not accept tax payers’ money to always be spent on unscrupulous public servants and that’s the reason as to why Ms Grace Lubale and Dr David Basangwa have to be sued jointly with the Attorney General. As a Christian I cherish individual responsibility for individual actions (Ezekiel 18:20 - The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself).
Accordingly, Grace Lubale who has turned into a disgrace and Dr Basangwa will pay dearly for subjecting me to inhumane treatment and all the other funny ordeal I have gone through.
My arrest and illegal detention at Jinja Road Police Station
As I have already mentioned in the foregoing, I learnt on Wednesday 5th August 2009 that Gaudence Tushabomwe was being subjected to inhumane treatment. Immediately, I ran to Butabika Hospital to arrest the situation. Because the Senior Hospital Administrator Grace Lubale had told me that I could only be given permission to talk to inmates by the Executive Director, I went straight to the Director’s office. Upon reaching the Director’s office, I was told he was for a meeting and that his deputy was also in the said meeting. I begged to see the third person in hierarchy who is the Principal Hospital Administrator Mr. Ronald Ssegawa. I was led to the Principal Administrator’s office by the secretary to the Executive Director. While in the Principal Administrator’s office, Grace Lubega came with police operatives and arrested me. Within a matter of minutes, a police patrol vehicle came for me and took me to Jinja Road police station. At Jinja Road, I was injected with a certain drug which I don’t know to date and I must stress I should be told what that drug is. Otherwise, I suspect it may be a slow killing toxin which needs to be drained from my body very soon. I was also forcefully divested of my property and money and thrown into the filthy jail. Shortly after dumping me in jail, they cut off water and I am sure the purpose was to ensure that I get the real feel of the jail. Because there was no water, the toilets had an offensive odour and I almost developed a running stomach. I together with a Rapid Response Unit operative Ali Magambo put the police officers on duty on pressure to give us water. Magambo faced the wrath of the OC CID and OC Station as they pulled him and embarrassed him so as to silence him. I maintained that if I was the problem, they should discharge all other inmates or remove me from the cells and put me in a secluded cell wherein I would be effectively given the appropriate punishment. Otherwise, I would not accept other inmates to stay without water just because, “stubborn” Nuwagaba was detained. I was detained incommunicado for my phone was snatched from me by Police Constable Alule as I was talking to Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIGP) Julius Shalita. The hell I went through was horrible but was nowhere near the one I have already undergone. After two days on Friday 7th I was beseeched to call anybody that could stand surety for me so that I am given bond. I was told by the Officer in Charge of Criminal Investigation Department (OC CID) Jinja Road that I shouldn’t go back to Butabika because it is only administrators that complain about me. I told the OC CID that as long as they keep human beings in Butabika, as a human rights defender, I have both a moral and legal obligation to research and investigate about the human rights situation therein.
I said, it is laughable, despicable, illogical, ridiculous, ludicrous and sheer inanity to charge me of criminal trespass in a state institution. I maintained that I needed to be taken to court but nothing could be done.
Meanwhile, at a time of my arrest I had 423,500 (four hundred twenty three thousand five hundred) Uganda shillings and 1 US Dollar. Upon my release I found out that my money was stolen and many files in my computer were tampered with and I ended up losing my invaluable documents and information thereon.
They declared only 3500 shillings, typical of what they have always done. I also own three phones but only two phones were declared and ultimately given to me. In the presence of my cousin January Sunday, shamelessly the officer who was handling my property could not give me back the paper on which my property was recorded. But, at least, it is clear that they cannot give any paper on which I signed. What’s more laughable when I said I had dollars, the OC CID whom I am convinced is more understanding compared to his other colleagues told me that I will be asked where I got the dollars from. I wonder whether he could have asked that question because for him he has never held any dollars in his hands or because he took me to be too cheap to hold any dollars in my hands. As the Banyankole say, “efiire etyo ebagwa etyo”, I knew I would never be under any obligation to explain the source of the dollars but just to let him know even our Ugandans who do business in south Sudan, most of them use dollars as foreign exchange. But, also if the OC CID never learnt basic Economics, a US dollar is one of the hard and stable currencies that we have and I accordingly have never been without any dollars. That said however, I feel succumbing to the OC CID’s inanity and myopia is out of question.
Tampering with my computer in addition to stealing my computer and memory sticks which the police did last year (when I was illegally detained at CPS and later taken to Butabika) is the worst crime ever committed against me and if the police leadership is genuinely mandated to fight crime and deter crime, the officers who perpetrate criminal activities against citizens must be punished with an iron hand.
Conclusion
We need to understand why Butabika Hospital is out of bounds to journalists because I am sure they would help improve the image of this institution by exposing the ills therein. The Police Force is now fully desecrated. Besides, militarizing it by deploying military cadet officers in the force, the police officers have been given a green light to extort money from motorists. Accordingly, many officers act as traffic officers and the rate at which they are fleecing the motorists is unbelievable. Nonetheless, all these are signs of a decadent regime and demented leadership. Like Honourable Norbert Mao has always argued, fish starts rotting from the head. The presidency is a failed institution and thus all other institutions have read from the president’s script and since many institutional heads take Museveni to be their role model they think they are on track by doing what he has done and what he likes. This is a clear signal of Machiavellian politics with the unholy principle of “the end justifies the means”. We must prepare to give the current regime a decent political burial lest it turns its head in the political grave and return to haunt innocent Ugandans. May the NRM rest in eternal peace come 2011. Finally, personally I am very passionate about human dignity and as such I believe that extremism in the defence of liberty is no vice and moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue. For God and my country!
Vincent Nuwagaba is a human rights defender and can be reached at vnuwagaba@gmail.com or +256702 843 552
Annex 1
Examples of cases I found out while in detention at Jinja Road Police station from 5th to 7th August 2009
Findings in the Police cells
Ogwang Richard 27, phone number +256774 612 029 an employee of Phillips pharmaceuticals Uganda limited was detained on Monday, August 3, 2009. He had a company motorcycle stolen from him by his cousins that stay with him. Sadly even after getting the thieves, the police went ahead to arrest and detain Richard without trial for by the time I left the cells, he had not been taken to court and there was no signs that he was to be taken to court.
Abdul Soozi, car dealer, phone number +256702952735 was arrested on flimsy grounds because the police officers wanted money from him.
Ali Magambo and John Paul Olinge of Rapid Response Unit (RRU) arrested Saleh Musitwa and handed him over to those responsible for the cells. Musitwa later died in the cells but surprisingly the people who effected the arrest are the ones that were charged with murder. Magambo and Olinge can be contacted on +256782149437 and +256701000385 respectively. By the time I left the cells at 9am on Friday 7th August 2009, Magambo and Olinge had spent five days in detention without trial.
Elton Mutizze (+256756253160/ Elton.mutize@gmail.com) Zimbabwean was arrested on business related charges and deprived of his passport. His only close friend in Uganda is Farai Mkutuwe (fmwaku@hotmail.com).
Benjamin Turyasingura +256777730393 driver UAL 4111H was arrested because he was carrying a passenger who was suspected to have done an accident using his boda boda. One wonders, how a taxi driver would understand that passenger A or B has committed an accident. He spent two days in the cells and was released after his brother had paid a bribe.
Kasozi Tom 23, resident of Ntinda, semawata road told me that a man by the name of Peter gave him 12 batteries to sell. Kasozi looked for a buyer whom coincidentally happened to be the person from whom the batteries had been stolen. Kasozi was then beaten by a mob including the police at Nakawa. When he reached Jinja road police further beat him. “I was beaten terribly in the private parts and I now urinate blood”. Kasozi needs to be taken to the hospital.All the inmates felt that Kasozi’s kidneys were broken for he was almost in comma for the period I was in the cells. Shamelessly, the police pulled him out of the cells and put him outside in the cold without any cloth to cover him. Should he stay there for some extra days, his death will be catalysed by pneumonia which could be induced by extreme cold. Kasozi is a broker for house rent, works from Nakawa and has no phone. The immediate next of kin to Kasozi is Lukuta Medi whose contact is +256752 163 628
Livingstone Kizito 32, resident of Kitintale zone 12 reportedly hired a motorbike going to zone 12 and was to pay 500. Upon reaching there he was asked to pay 1000 and he declined arguing that he already told the motorbike rider. The boda boda cyclist reportedly grabbed Livingstone and made an alarm saying the man was taking his motorcycle. Livingstone was beaten by a mob, divested of his phone (he told me nokia with camera), money (48,000), shoes, trouser and small radio. Police ordered him to be taken to Mulago on Sunday 2nd August 2009. At Mulago, no treatment was offered and the following day, (Monday 3rd August 2009) Livingstone was put on the police patrol vehicle and dumped at Jinja Road. He was dumped just outside the cell without even a mat or a piece of cloth to protect him from cold. When I stepped in the cells I started advocating for the duo (Kizito and Kasozi) but my advocacy fell on deaf ears. Livingstone told me that he doesn’t know the man’s name but the Kitintale Police know. Kizito Livingstone hails from Wobulenzi, he’s a chicken trader with a capital base of around 1.8m and he told me that he buys chicken from Luwero, Migyera, Masindi and brings them to Kampala. Both Kasozi and Kizito were lumped together in the cold without even a sack to protect them from the extreme cold. Moreover they were on cement.
Kakoza Swalik, Solomon Tumushinga and Lubegga Mohammed were arrested on Sunday 2nd August 2009 and charged with stealing police pipes. Kakoza Swalik told me, “bwenabuza lwaki tebatutwala mu court, bankuba mpi”. He reportedly asked on Tuesday after two days in the cells.
Isabirye Richard 28, stays in Naguru barracks. He stays with Police Constable Joshua Lubale +256702 384 160. Richard was charged with sale of ammunition. He was searched in vain. Surprisingly, now the charge has been changed to criminal trespass.
Esimu Solomon +256755 900 616 charged with stealing a police tent with two other friends Kakoza and Lubega. But this is a planned move from the nearby market operators who want to take our place of work. This is not the truth at all (this statement was written by Esimu Solomon himself)
Fred Sande Asaba (UK citizen) whose father is reportedly Ghanaian and mother is Ugandan was deported from England on 19th July 2009. Taken to Jinja Road police station by the Immigration Department on 20th July 2009 ostensibly for “safe custody”. He was told to contact anyone/ any relative to come and claim him and now he is being told that he is not Ugandan. His only identity is the British Driving licence that remained with the Immigration officers at Entebbe airport. Mr Asaba is a staunch Pan Africanist whose passion for Africa can be seen even from his dreadlocks and his love for humanity. Actually, he is the one who welcomed me to “Sheraton cell” where he sleeps as an RP and allowed me to sleep on his “comfortable bed”. I say comfortable because at least his has a blanket, a pillow (although extremely dirty) and a bed sheet with which he covers himself. Fred Asaba told me that the UK authorities first contacted the Ghana government about deporting him to Ghana and the latter refused. Uganda accepted because of the bilateral aid Uganda gets from the United Kingdom but should the need for aid mean that an innocent African be sacrificed? Fred has since his deportation lost not less than fifteen kilogrammes. This can best be explained by looking at his trousers which by the time he came were fitting him. He is coughing profusely and he believes the squalid conditions in the cells will induce some sort of sickness which may be difficult to heal. He wonders why the Ugandan authorities accepted that he be deported in Uganda if genuinely they knew he was not Ugandan and he prays that instead of dying here in a country he calls home, it would be better if he was re-deported to the UK.
The name alone shows that at least Fred Asaba has got some roots in Uganda.
Grace plot of land in Butabika
As Grace Lubale, a hospital administrator of Butabika harasses me, I have received anonymous calls telling me that Grace is extremely corrupt and that the patients don’t receive adequate food. I was also told that Grace grabbed a plot of land from the hospital land which I later confirmed as true and she has since sold it to a neighbouring Indian who has built a posh house there (also in hospital land). Since President Museveni and his lieutenants claim they have waged a battle against corruption, the circumstances under which Grace got that public land must be thoroughly investigated by the police and the Inspectorate of Government. Otherwise, as a citizen I am duty-bound to fight corruption. Grabbing of public land is a matter over which every citizen must interest him or herself. We cannot be seen hiding our heads in the sand like an ostrich.
Conclusion
The more the state functionaries harass me the more information I get about them and the more I gain the courage to expose them. There is surely a section of society that sees me as their mouthpiece and is determined to channel their complaints through me since they are sure that I will not be intimidated and cowed into submission as to reveal the source of my information. And as a human rights researcher I am ready to investigate human rights violations anywhere including but not limited to state house and military barracks. I am actually not limited to state institutions for there are human rights violations everywhere so even if I went into a private sector enterprise where there are people I don’t think I would be charged with criminal trespass. What I find laughable is that anyone can have an illusion that they can ban me from accessing state institutions. I am sure; it is only a fool that can be fooled into charging me with criminal trespass in a state institution. If they don’t want me in state institutions, let them stop admitting people there. Human rights surely are about human beings and this explains why I don’t carry human rights research in the water, forests or national parks if I am convinced there are no people. Any institution that has people is susceptible to human rights abuse and it is accordingly my area interest.
As a citizen and not a subject, I will not be deterred by those who live in the dreamland. Those who take me for a ride surely don’t know that the more I am oppressed, repressed and brutalised the more I emerge hardened. To all government functionaries, please stand warned; refrain from the infraction of our inherent rights. I know the inane regime diehards may be fooled into killing me. However, it would be foolhardy to kill me when I am innocent and trying to set a pace for very many other citizens and surely, whoever kills me, will die too. But also if I died in any unclear circumstances, it would be the last nail in the NRM coffin for I am sure no government vehicle would head to Bushenyi and very many regime operatives would be killed by a mob and that’s why I dare the NRM to kill me if I am a criminal deserving the death penalty. If am not (and indeed I am not a criminal), I beg that the NRM goons should forever keep their hands away from me. Accordingly, it is in the best interest of the regime that I don’t die in the foreseeable future. In fact, even if I fell sick and died, everyone will know it is because of the slow killing poison I have always complained about that I suspect I was injected when I was in Butabika as a real or perceived opponent of the regime.
Vincent Nuwagaba is a human rights defender
Email: vnuwagaba@gmail.com
Cell phone: +256702843552
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
We shouldn’t tolerate impunity for human rights violators
First published by The Razor Newspaper Monday, April 25th, 2011 | Posted by The
I am enraged by the on-going developments in Uganda where the opposition politicians are being subjected to untold humiliation and suffering just because of the walk-to-work campaigns. The government has ordered media houses not to broad-cast live the police brutality arguing that this incites the people into violence. This is utter shamelessness. The media is part of civil society and what civil society should do is to act as a mirror which shows you exactly who you are. If the government has blemishes, the broader civil society should show those blemishes as they are.
Sadly, rather than addressing the root causes of the walk-to-walk campaign, the government is hell-bent on demonizing the opposition politicians who have launched this campaign to show solidarity with the ordinary citizens that face the brunt of rising commodity prices. While addressing journalists on Tuesday 12th April 2011, the DP President Norbert Mao said what the government needs to do is to cut the tax on fuel by only 400 shillings on each litre, the commodity prices would go down.
Only last week, the Kenyan civil society groups threatened to go on the streets protesting the rise in fuel prices. The Kenyan government responded by slashing 30 per cent off the tax on fuel. What’s so unique with Uganda? While addressing journalists at his country home, president Museveni said they could not reduce the taxes on fuel because then they would fail to raise money to run the state. Ironically, this money doesn’t benefit the Ugandan taxpayers. Do we need huge sums of money to spend on the swearing-in ceremony; buying fighter jets at a time when the country is at peace? Why would the state need taxes if they cannot ameliorate the current plight in which citizens are embroiled? What are taxes for if they don’t help the citizens?
I know government is paranoid that the opposition intends to exploit the situation to capture power. But why can’t the government address the issues raised? I personally received a text message reading, “This is the old man with a hat. Thank you for voting me and the NRM. Let’s work together for a better Uganda. Congratulations on the NRM victory”. I also received numerous calls with a recorded voice of the president with the above message. So, what exactly did the president mean when he said let us work together for a better Uganda if he cannot listen to the cries of Ugandans? If the opposition never had any point in what they are doing they wouldn’t attract a following. The president said that increase in food prices puts a smile on the faces of his farmers. Don’t the farmers buy other commodities?
I know walking has never been a crime. The state is currently violating what in the human rights parlance we call negative rights. These rights are inherent and all the state should do is to refrain from infringing them. Unfortunately, the police force which is headed by a professional lawyer is at the forefront of violating Ugandans rights. It is amazing that the military has also joined the police in the crack-down on peaceful people’s rights. For how long will impunity be brooked? I have seen some people in the business community saying they are going to organize counter demonstrations against the Activists 4 Change walk-to-work campaign. Why can’t they call upon the government to address the grievances raised by the walk-to-work campaigns?
The Inspector General of Police and the government should come out clearly and tell us whether the rights enshrined in Article 29 of the constitution can only be enjoyed by other citizens and not political leaders. I would want to know whether we are in a state of emergency as to warrant the suspension and limitation of human rights. If the government cannot tolerate peaceful means of dissent, how does the ruling party expect the opposition to express their grievances? I saw the president saying Besigye was allowed to hold numerous rallies during the campaigns without any interference. Does that mean the opposition should never participate in any activities after elections? Have we appreciated the fact that we are in a multiparty dispensation?
There is no pretence now that in Uganda we cannot talk of human rights – not civil and political rights or economic, social and cultural rights. The ruling party has arrogated itself the powers to give and take rights. I am worried that in future they may even block opposition figures from going to churches and mosques because they will mingle with the people. Finally, people who are arrested in the walk-to-work campaigns are charged with assault; inciting violence; blocking traffic and other funny charges. Why can’t they charge them with illegal walking if it is a crime?
VINCENT NUWAGABA
is a political scientist cum human rights defender
I am enraged by the on-going developments in Uganda where the opposition politicians are being subjected to untold humiliation and suffering just because of the walk-to-work campaigns. The government has ordered media houses not to broad-cast live the police brutality arguing that this incites the people into violence. This is utter shamelessness. The media is part of civil society and what civil society should do is to act as a mirror which shows you exactly who you are. If the government has blemishes, the broader civil society should show those blemishes as they are.
Sadly, rather than addressing the root causes of the walk-to-walk campaign, the government is hell-bent on demonizing the opposition politicians who have launched this campaign to show solidarity with the ordinary citizens that face the brunt of rising commodity prices. While addressing journalists on Tuesday 12th April 2011, the DP President Norbert Mao said what the government needs to do is to cut the tax on fuel by only 400 shillings on each litre, the commodity prices would go down.
Only last week, the Kenyan civil society groups threatened to go on the streets protesting the rise in fuel prices. The Kenyan government responded by slashing 30 per cent off the tax on fuel. What’s so unique with Uganda? While addressing journalists at his country home, president Museveni said they could not reduce the taxes on fuel because then they would fail to raise money to run the state. Ironically, this money doesn’t benefit the Ugandan taxpayers. Do we need huge sums of money to spend on the swearing-in ceremony; buying fighter jets at a time when the country is at peace? Why would the state need taxes if they cannot ameliorate the current plight in which citizens are embroiled? What are taxes for if they don’t help the citizens?
I know government is paranoid that the opposition intends to exploit the situation to capture power. But why can’t the government address the issues raised? I personally received a text message reading, “This is the old man with a hat. Thank you for voting me and the NRM. Let’s work together for a better Uganda. Congratulations on the NRM victory”. I also received numerous calls with a recorded voice of the president with the above message. So, what exactly did the president mean when he said let us work together for a better Uganda if he cannot listen to the cries of Ugandans? If the opposition never had any point in what they are doing they wouldn’t attract a following. The president said that increase in food prices puts a smile on the faces of his farmers. Don’t the farmers buy other commodities?
I know walking has never been a crime. The state is currently violating what in the human rights parlance we call negative rights. These rights are inherent and all the state should do is to refrain from infringing them. Unfortunately, the police force which is headed by a professional lawyer is at the forefront of violating Ugandans rights. It is amazing that the military has also joined the police in the crack-down on peaceful people’s rights. For how long will impunity be brooked? I have seen some people in the business community saying they are going to organize counter demonstrations against the Activists 4 Change walk-to-work campaign. Why can’t they call upon the government to address the grievances raised by the walk-to-work campaigns?
The Inspector General of Police and the government should come out clearly and tell us whether the rights enshrined in Article 29 of the constitution can only be enjoyed by other citizens and not political leaders. I would want to know whether we are in a state of emergency as to warrant the suspension and limitation of human rights. If the government cannot tolerate peaceful means of dissent, how does the ruling party expect the opposition to express their grievances? I saw the president saying Besigye was allowed to hold numerous rallies during the campaigns without any interference. Does that mean the opposition should never participate in any activities after elections? Have we appreciated the fact that we are in a multiparty dispensation?
There is no pretence now that in Uganda we cannot talk of human rights – not civil and political rights or economic, social and cultural rights. The ruling party has arrogated itself the powers to give and take rights. I am worried that in future they may even block opposition figures from going to churches and mosques because they will mingle with the people. Finally, people who are arrested in the walk-to-work campaigns are charged with assault; inciting violence; blocking traffic and other funny charges. Why can’t they charge them with illegal walking if it is a crime?
VINCENT NUWAGABA
is a political scientist cum human rights defender
How universal is USE?
Vincent Nuwagaba
President Museveni promised to introduce Universal Secondary Education (USE) during the 2001 campaigns. His initial promise was that USE was to begin in 2003. However, it was promised again during the 2006 campaigns as he was facing his stiffest challenge from Dr Kizza Besigye for the second time. In 2007, “USE” began albeit without proper preparation by the government.
If one hears the term, they think, it is secondary education for all. This however, is a fallacy. Recently, I took time to interview staff and parents of Kigarama Secondary School in Bitereko Sub County, Mitooma District about USE. The findings are appalling.
Kigarama SS is a government-aided school implementing USE. It has 28 staff members comprising 18 teachers and 10 non-teaching staff. None of the support staff is on the government payroll and only 9 of the 18 teaching staff members are on government payroll. The school, I was told, should ordinarily have a lab attendant, librarian, matron, nurse, messenger, security guards, cooks, store keeper and at least two secretaries. The school has 1 secretary, 1 storekeeper, 1 laboratory assistant and 1 librarian all of whom are paid by the parents.
What I found revealing is that the government disburses a paltry 41,000 on each USE student. Yet feeding alone, if a meal is estimated at Sh 1000 costs 65,000 in a term. There are 13 weeks in a term and each week comprises of 5 days which is 1000 multiplied by 5 times 13 which makes a sum of 65000. Both the teachers and parents revealed to me that government reimbursement is less than 10% of the school’s basic needs per term. In fact, some schools have withdrawn from USE and many others had applied for withdrawal but the government refused because the number of the applicants was enormous. While the government occasionally gives boom for laboratory equipment (which it only did last year worth 4m) – the school spends so much on laboratory equipment – 10 million at a minimum annually this is only when the school does fewer practicals otherwise the school spends Shs 15m annually.
As for the salaries, the school pays 3.2m monthly to staff members that are not on the government payroll. Since USE started in 2007, it is only in 2010 that the school got a textbook and laboratory equipment boom of 7m and 4m respectively. This raises a question as to whether or not this government works in the interest of the masses. This is a party which says is a mass party.
The non-USE schools are often granted huge sums of money from the government budgetary allocations. The reason given is that the people dividing the national cake are products of such topnotch schools. The solution to that should be for the down-trodden schools to demand for affirmative action in the allocation of jobs to their alumni. Shockingly, the school has less than five alumni positioned in influential government departments and most of those there are underdogs.
As for textbook, I was told that government gave textbook boom worth Sh 7million to the school only in 2010 yet the school spends 12 million annually on textbooks. The school also spends on sports – taking students for interschool matches, uniform, coaches, etc. Term one has sports gala while term two has athletics. The annual school vote for sports alone is Sh 4million.
In all the school, I was told spends 120,000/= on each student yet students pay Sh 70,000 and government remits only Shillings 41,000 per student. This means the school operates in losses. Schools being church-founded have to remit certain funds to the diocese – chaplaincy funds at 1000 per student, education fund at 2000 each student, church projects -1000 for the hospital and 1000 for the university project. It is vital to note that government owns very few schools as most schools are church-founded and are on church land and the church built structures. In fact, many church-founded schools applied to withdraw from USE but were denied because the applicants became too many.
What do stakeholders suggest?
The stakeholders suggest that government must employ more teachers; build libraries, laboratories, staff houses; recruit more support staff –librarians, security guards, lab attendants. They also suggest that the curriculum shouldn’t be book-centred but should reflect societal needs. They also suggest that the government should appoint school administration. Many Head Teachers and Deputies are in the acting capacity and they cannot give all to the school because like Nikita Krushchev said, “incentives are what get people work harder”.
Motivate workers by raising their pay and other fringe benefits such as medical insurance, housing allowances and prioritise career development through scholarships for upgrading and promote those who upgrade to encourage others.
Build classrooms to reduce congestion and provide hostel facilities to cater for students from a distance. Prioritise physical education for physical fitness and mental relaxation for the students; reintroduce civic education and political education in primary schools and secondary schools respectively to inculcate values of patriotism, democracy and human rights and fight ills such as corruption. It’s amazing that schools teach more about North America and too little about their motherland Uganda and Africa.
Improve sanitation by introducing water-harvesting systems – build tanks to forestall the fetching of water full of impurities from the valleys and encourage projects for community participation such as field work and burungi bwansi. This will help students mingle with the public hence stopping them from being hostile to the public.
Increase vocational schools. With technical schools even a person who leaves school with 9 throughout is capable of getting skills. Finally, while planning, stakeholders should be involved so that views flow from below and not be imposed from above. He who wears the shoe knows how it pinches. The schools should be allowed the latitude to draw budgets and government should fund budgets. Short of that, USE is destined to remain a pipedream.
Vincent Nuwagaba is a human rights defender
+256702843552
President Museveni promised to introduce Universal Secondary Education (USE) during the 2001 campaigns. His initial promise was that USE was to begin in 2003. However, it was promised again during the 2006 campaigns as he was facing his stiffest challenge from Dr Kizza Besigye for the second time. In 2007, “USE” began albeit without proper preparation by the government.
If one hears the term, they think, it is secondary education for all. This however, is a fallacy. Recently, I took time to interview staff and parents of Kigarama Secondary School in Bitereko Sub County, Mitooma District about USE. The findings are appalling.
Kigarama SS is a government-aided school implementing USE. It has 28 staff members comprising 18 teachers and 10 non-teaching staff. None of the support staff is on the government payroll and only 9 of the 18 teaching staff members are on government payroll. The school, I was told, should ordinarily have a lab attendant, librarian, matron, nurse, messenger, security guards, cooks, store keeper and at least two secretaries. The school has 1 secretary, 1 storekeeper, 1 laboratory assistant and 1 librarian all of whom are paid by the parents.
What I found revealing is that the government disburses a paltry 41,000 on each USE student. Yet feeding alone, if a meal is estimated at Sh 1000 costs 65,000 in a term. There are 13 weeks in a term and each week comprises of 5 days which is 1000 multiplied by 5 times 13 which makes a sum of 65000. Both the teachers and parents revealed to me that government reimbursement is less than 10% of the school’s basic needs per term. In fact, some schools have withdrawn from USE and many others had applied for withdrawal but the government refused because the number of the applicants was enormous. While the government occasionally gives boom for laboratory equipment (which it only did last year worth 4m) – the school spends so much on laboratory equipment – 10 million at a minimum annually this is only when the school does fewer practicals otherwise the school spends Shs 15m annually.
As for the salaries, the school pays 3.2m monthly to staff members that are not on the government payroll. Since USE started in 2007, it is only in 2010 that the school got a textbook and laboratory equipment boom of 7m and 4m respectively. This raises a question as to whether or not this government works in the interest of the masses. This is a party which says is a mass party.
The non-USE schools are often granted huge sums of money from the government budgetary allocations. The reason given is that the people dividing the national cake are products of such topnotch schools. The solution to that should be for the down-trodden schools to demand for affirmative action in the allocation of jobs to their alumni. Shockingly, the school has less than five alumni positioned in influential government departments and most of those there are underdogs.
As for textbook, I was told that government gave textbook boom worth Sh 7million to the school only in 2010 yet the school spends 12 million annually on textbooks. The school also spends on sports – taking students for interschool matches, uniform, coaches, etc. Term one has sports gala while term two has athletics. The annual school vote for sports alone is Sh 4million.
In all the school, I was told spends 120,000/= on each student yet students pay Sh 70,000 and government remits only Shillings 41,000 per student. This means the school operates in losses. Schools being church-founded have to remit certain funds to the diocese – chaplaincy funds at 1000 per student, education fund at 2000 each student, church projects -1000 for the hospital and 1000 for the university project. It is vital to note that government owns very few schools as most schools are church-founded and are on church land and the church built structures. In fact, many church-founded schools applied to withdraw from USE but were denied because the applicants became too many.
What do stakeholders suggest?
The stakeholders suggest that government must employ more teachers; build libraries, laboratories, staff houses; recruit more support staff –librarians, security guards, lab attendants. They also suggest that the curriculum shouldn’t be book-centred but should reflect societal needs. They also suggest that the government should appoint school administration. Many Head Teachers and Deputies are in the acting capacity and they cannot give all to the school because like Nikita Krushchev said, “incentives are what get people work harder”.
Motivate workers by raising their pay and other fringe benefits such as medical insurance, housing allowances and prioritise career development through scholarships for upgrading and promote those who upgrade to encourage others.
Build classrooms to reduce congestion and provide hostel facilities to cater for students from a distance. Prioritise physical education for physical fitness and mental relaxation for the students; reintroduce civic education and political education in primary schools and secondary schools respectively to inculcate values of patriotism, democracy and human rights and fight ills such as corruption. It’s amazing that schools teach more about North America and too little about their motherland Uganda and Africa.
Improve sanitation by introducing water-harvesting systems – build tanks to forestall the fetching of water full of impurities from the valleys and encourage projects for community participation such as field work and burungi bwansi. This will help students mingle with the public hence stopping them from being hostile to the public.
Increase vocational schools. With technical schools even a person who leaves school with 9 throughout is capable of getting skills. Finally, while planning, stakeholders should be involved so that views flow from below and not be imposed from above. He who wears the shoe knows how it pinches. The schools should be allowed the latitude to draw budgets and government should fund budgets. Short of that, USE is destined to remain a pipedream.
Vincent Nuwagaba is a human rights defender
+256702843552
Mr President, please expedite the student s' loan scheme
Vincent Nuwagaba
First published by The Razor Newspaper on Tuesday, June 14, 2011
I read with concern the press reports attributed to Mr. Mwesigwa Rukutana that government has postponed the student loan scheme. This is a scheme that is long overdue; I guess President Museveni never promised the loan scheme for purposes of winning votes and nothing more than that. The loan scheme if implemented would be the only tangible contribution the National Resistance Movement government has made to the education sector. I know very many would rush to ask, what about the Universal Primary Education (UPE) and Universal Secondary Education (USE). These are just in name but practically we don’t have any scheme known as UPE or USE.
With UPE, the government remits less than 2000 shillings for each pupil under UPE. In fact, in many schools that I have visited, parents pay at least Sh 10,000 and the government pays between 650 – 2,000 per pupil.
This surely is mocking the parents and pupils that the government introduced UPE. If the government was not aware that that is the situation, then let me inform them of the situation on the ground. A friend of mine is a head master of a certain primary school in Mitooma District. He revealed to me that for this term, the government disbursed Sh 1,010,000 (one million ten thousand shillings). When we divided that amount by the number of pupils which stands at 615, we got 1570 per pupil. This is the money that is supposed to run the school through co-curricular activities, administration, buying chalk and other scholastic materials.
As for USE, the government remits only 41,000 per student. This money is too little to even provide for a student’s meals. In fact, many schools have applied to withdraw from USE but the government has refused. Ultimately, because of USE some schools end up making losses. What is surprising is that topnotch schools that are not implementing USE get lots of funding from government. Thus, one may ask, were UPE and USE introduced to widen the already wide gaps between the third world and the first class schools?
I would challenge anybody in government to show me a student with a UPE and USE background in the university pursuing a medicine or law course on government sponsorship.
I hear the government intends to introduce Universal A level education. What for? How much is it going to pay for each student under the scheme? In what schools is the scheme going to be implemented? The only viable scheme the government can talk of is a student loan scheme at the university. Not these other schemes which sound like lullabies intended to make the poor sleep.
In the 1996 Museveni’s manifesto, he promised to start a community polytechnic for each sub county. To date, I am yet to see the promised community polytechnics or maybe the only place that never got is my district. I am shocked that the government even after realizing that Advanced Level is not a shortcut to success is encouraging every Tom, Dick and Harry to join Advanced level. Look at the number of universities we have and compare them with technical colleges.
Universities are meant to train thinkers, planners and leaders not manual labourers. People who could best provide manual labour are those trained by technical schools.
Now turning to the university student loan scheme, the president made this promise while campaigning. He knows pretty well that university education has become a preserve of the rich. In August 2009, public universities hiked fees up to 126%. That year alone many students who had been admitted pulled out of the courses to which they had been admitted. It is clear that the news that the government was introducing the student loan scheme was welcome to many – students and parents alike. What pains is that there are students on statehouse scholarship scheme who are paid for by taxpayers’ money to pursue their studies. Accordingly, a student loan scheme would help the president fulfill his oath he undertook to promote the welfare of all Ugandans. It would promote social justice which many are yearning for. Dear Mr President, please expedite the student loan scheme.
Vincent Nuwagaba is a human rights defender
vnuwagaba@gmail.com
First published by The Razor Newspaper on Tuesday, June 14, 2011
I read with concern the press reports attributed to Mr. Mwesigwa Rukutana that government has postponed the student loan scheme. This is a scheme that is long overdue; I guess President Museveni never promised the loan scheme for purposes of winning votes and nothing more than that. The loan scheme if implemented would be the only tangible contribution the National Resistance Movement government has made to the education sector. I know very many would rush to ask, what about the Universal Primary Education (UPE) and Universal Secondary Education (USE). These are just in name but practically we don’t have any scheme known as UPE or USE.
With UPE, the government remits less than 2000 shillings for each pupil under UPE. In fact, in many schools that I have visited, parents pay at least Sh 10,000 and the government pays between 650 – 2,000 per pupil.
This surely is mocking the parents and pupils that the government introduced UPE. If the government was not aware that that is the situation, then let me inform them of the situation on the ground. A friend of mine is a head master of a certain primary school in Mitooma District. He revealed to me that for this term, the government disbursed Sh 1,010,000 (one million ten thousand shillings). When we divided that amount by the number of pupils which stands at 615, we got 1570 per pupil. This is the money that is supposed to run the school through co-curricular activities, administration, buying chalk and other scholastic materials.
As for USE, the government remits only 41,000 per student. This money is too little to even provide for a student’s meals. In fact, many schools have applied to withdraw from USE but the government has refused. Ultimately, because of USE some schools end up making losses. What is surprising is that topnotch schools that are not implementing USE get lots of funding from government. Thus, one may ask, were UPE and USE introduced to widen the already wide gaps between the third world and the first class schools?
I would challenge anybody in government to show me a student with a UPE and USE background in the university pursuing a medicine or law course on government sponsorship.
I hear the government intends to introduce Universal A level education. What for? How much is it going to pay for each student under the scheme? In what schools is the scheme going to be implemented? The only viable scheme the government can talk of is a student loan scheme at the university. Not these other schemes which sound like lullabies intended to make the poor sleep.
In the 1996 Museveni’s manifesto, he promised to start a community polytechnic for each sub county. To date, I am yet to see the promised community polytechnics or maybe the only place that never got is my district. I am shocked that the government even after realizing that Advanced Level is not a shortcut to success is encouraging every Tom, Dick and Harry to join Advanced level. Look at the number of universities we have and compare them with technical colleges.
Universities are meant to train thinkers, planners and leaders not manual labourers. People who could best provide manual labour are those trained by technical schools.
Now turning to the university student loan scheme, the president made this promise while campaigning. He knows pretty well that university education has become a preserve of the rich. In August 2009, public universities hiked fees up to 126%. That year alone many students who had been admitted pulled out of the courses to which they had been admitted. It is clear that the news that the government was introducing the student loan scheme was welcome to many – students and parents alike. What pains is that there are students on statehouse scholarship scheme who are paid for by taxpayers’ money to pursue their studies. Accordingly, a student loan scheme would help the president fulfill his oath he undertook to promote the welfare of all Ugandans. It would promote social justice which many are yearning for. Dear Mr President, please expedite the student loan scheme.
Vincent Nuwagaba is a human rights defender
vnuwagaba@gmail.com
Sunday, June 5, 2011
THE ROLE OF THE ALUMNI IN GOVERNANCE AND INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Public Lecture by H.E. Benjamin William Mkapa at the Inaugural Makerere University Grand Alumni Re-Union, 28 November 2009
Honorable Prof. Gilbert Balibaseka Bukenya,
Vice-President of the Republic of Uganda;
Honorable Prof. Apolo Nsibambi,
Prime Minister of the Republic of Uganda;
Honorable Rebecca Kadaga,
Deputy Speaker of the Ugandan Parliament;
Honorable Ministers and Members of Parliament;
Excellencies High Commissioners and Ambassadors;
Prof. Mondo Kagonyera
Chancellor of Makerere University;
Prof. Venansius Baryamureeba,
Vice-Chancellor of Makerere University;
Faculty, Staff and Students of Makerere University;
Fellow Alumni;
Distinguished Guests;
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Let me begin by thanking the government of Uganda and the Makerere University community for welcoming me so warmly and for the honor you have bestowed upon me to speak on behalf of my fellow alumni on a very important subject, on a very important day and a very propitious occasion.
It is always a great pleasure to return to Makerere, and today is no exception. Indeed, today is an historical home-coming not only for me but I am sure for all my fellow alumni. Thank you for welcoming us back.
I want to thank and congratulate the University Convocation and authorities for the idea to convene this grand alumni re-union. With the support of all of us, which by being here we promise, I am sure this re-union will be a great success and a rewarding experience to everyone. Working together we can give our beloved Alma Mater new energy, new vision and new direction.
In a special way I want to thank the Vice-President for that most gracious oratory, which I am not sure if I entirely deserve. Thank you all the same, and thank you Mr. Chancellor as well for your very kind words.
As part of these celebrations I have been asked to speak on, “The Role of the Alumni in Governance and Institutional Development.”
But before I do so I want us to step back and look again at the context in which we assembled here, and others like us across sub-Saharan Africa, received the higher education that lies at the heart of who we have since become. It is a very profound thought.
I came to Makerere in the nineteen fifties aged 19. Makerere was at that time a University College affiliated to the University of London. It was a small institution then; enrollement was in the hundreds not thousands. There were four halls of residence, three for males and one for female students. Staff was predominantly British and a touch South African. Local, i.e. African, staff could be counted on the fingers of two hands.
Then graduating from Makerere was a great achievement. One felt immensely privileged not only because entry was acutely competitive, but also because jobs were assured. Employers would visit to sample prospective graduates. Remuneration for these jobs was quite high. But more importantly was the prospect of high standing in public office, in the professions and the administration. Being an ex-Makekererian gave one enormous social status. It may have bred a little Elitism but this was tempered by the call for social and political responsibility.
The University College had, for its Vision and Mission this statement on its Coat of Arms: “Pro Future Aedificamus,” which we translated into: “We are building for the future” I notice that the motto has been retained on Makerere University’s logo: “We Build for the Future. “Why the Latin text was abandoned I look forward to learning this afternoon.
Statistics from UNESCO show that in 2007, on average, only six percent of tertiary education cohort in sub-Saharan Africa was enrolled in colleges and universities. And this is considered a huge improvement considering where we came from.
In the time of my matriculation, I believe the ratio was less than one percent. In Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere’s time it was nothing short of scandalous, and our former colonial masters need to hang their heads in shame. In Mwalimu’s own words, when he sat for the then Makerere College entrance examination in the early 1940s, there were only three schools in the whole of the then Tanganyika which could send students here at Makerere, the only such institution of higher learning at that time in the whole of this region.
In 1949 and 1950, five, yes five only, African students from Tanganyika, Mwalimu Nyerere being one of them, received scholarships to study in the United Kingdom. According to him no other scholarships were given for more than five years.
What does this mean? It means two things. The first is that the former colonial powers did not consider it a priority to prepare Africans for leadership, for good governance and for institution building. And, as we all know, their own form of colonial administration was the antithesis of democratic good governance.
The second point is that the post independence alumni have a two-pronged responsibility beyond their own transformation through education. They have to realize that the responsibility to build democratic political dispensations, and to develop governance systems and build institutions of governance and regulation needed for economic and social transformation lies not with anyone else but with them. They cannot and must not have the luxury of being unaccountable spectators as the continent grapples with these profound challenges.
Their other responsibility is to be role models and positive mentors of new generations of educated Africans. Again, let us step back, and consider our ways, wherever we may be, and whatever we are doing. Have we been good role models, and have we mentored new generations of educated Africans in the right direction? What have they learnt from us--not from our words, but from our actions--and what will they learn from successive generations of alumni? Have we built the foundations of good governance and strong institutions that can outlive us, or are we passing on the buck to the next generation?
But above all, those proportionally very few of us who receive or have received higher education in postcolonial Africa have to realize how privileged we are, and that with that privilege comes responsibility.
An alumnus of Makerere, Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere, put the expectations that society has in those privileged to be educated in the following terms:
“Those who receive this privilege, therefore, have a duty to repay the sacrifice which others have made. They are like the man who has been given all the food available in a starving village in order that he might have the strength to bring supplies from a distant place. If he takes this food and does not bring help to his brothers, he is a traitor. Similarly, if any of the young men and women who are given an education by the people of this republic adopt attitudes of superiority, or fail to use their knowledge to help the development of this country, then they are betraying our union.”
Mr Chancellor,
Ladies and Gentlemen:
These are without doubt very strong words; but they need to be said from time to time because they are a useful compass to all of us privileged to have had a good education at a critical time for the development of our countries, their governance systems and institutions.
In my time here we had a very friendly Catholic Chaplain, an English Dominican named Paul Foster O.P. It is not for his preaching, which was unquestionably inspiring and mercifully short, that I recall him now. Rather I recall him for a long and contentious conversation we had about that University College motto. What kind of future were we building? How were we building it? He thought it exemplified well the British penchant for obfuscation or equivocation in order to make everyone feel good!!
I have revisited Makerere a few times. It has grown a great deal in terms of physical intrastructures, academic disciplines and the sizes of the annual enrollment and graduands. There is a lot to be proud of and to congratulate ourselves upon. I hope that the reunion gives us the opportunity to look back, reflect and renew our spirits.
When I was given the invitation to make these remarks I decided to ask the alumni, but especially the graduating classes of the nineteen sixties, my contemporaries. What kind of a future have we built? How have we lived to our education motto’s injuction?
The independence movement was reaching its climax as we graduated. We entered the political and labour market. Thus we have helped build independence from colonial rule. Have we built a sense of nationhood? We have helped to build, indeed others would say to shape, the civil service. Is it a dedicated, faithful and loyal civil service? We have been instrumental in building up an array of professional associations. How professionally ethical are they?
The Alumni and Their Alma Mater:
But let me now turn to the relationship between the alumni and their Alma Mater, and the role that I see for the alumni in institutional governance and development. You see, the relationship between an alumnus or alumnae with his or her Alma Mater is kind of like the relationship between a child and its parents. We can grow up as children, and then move out to chart our own paths and begin our own families. Sometimes we may have strained relationships with our parents, some quite serious. But nothing on earth can change the fact that they are, and will forever remain, our parents.
In a family, what unites the offspring is their organic relationship with the parents. Likewise, what unites all of us in this alumni re-union is the relationship that each one of us has with Makerere. We have a duty to support our parents; and we have a duty to support our Alma Mater. Both made us what we are today, and both need and deserve our support. But just as they have the right to expect support, they equally have to be open to our views and opinions. As much as possible the alumni have to feel they are welcome to contribute to issues of governance and institution building in this university.
There is the story of an honest young boy and an old man:
Old gentleman: You’re an honest boy. But it was a ten dollar-note not ten ones that I lost.
Small boy: I know, mister, it was a ten-dollar note I picked up. But the last time I found one, the man who owned it didn’t have any change.
Sometimes it takes the wisdom of a child to get something out of a man!
If the alumni are remembered only for fundraising purposes, important as it is, the relationship will never be as strong and the role of the alumni never as robust as one would have liked. As alumni, we care deeply about this university. The collective professional and personal experiences we hold are a huge resource for the university. Keep the alumni informed and connected--with Makerere and with each other. And I truly appreciate what I have learnt since coming here about your commendable efforts in this very direction. Please keep it up; you have our support and encouragement. We are your product, we are the living proof of your excellence in learning, and we shall always be your loudest cheerleaders.
In that spirit, let me raise a few issues that I think are critical in the governance and institutional development of this and other institutions of higher learning in sub-Saharan Africa.
The Paradox of Scope: The African Scene:
A few years ago, Prof. David J. Collis of the Harvard Business School wrote a piece titled “The Paradox of Scope: A Challenge to the Governance of Higher Education”. Although the discourse clearly had in mind universities in the West, in particular the United States of America, some of his points are equally relevant to our circumstances in Africa and elsewhere and provide a good entry point for some of my arguments.
In short, the concept of “paradox of scope” refers to the inherent friction between the core (conservative, if you like) values and mission of an institution on the one hand, and the demands imposed on it by a kaleidoscopic (radical, if you like) periphery and external environment that can threaten the very relevance and sustainability of an institution. Universities are believed to be conservative in nature; but they now have to learn to adapt to new situations. In the words of Prof. Collis:
“Circumstances today are conspiring to expose the inherent weaknesses in the governance of higher education. The external environment of universities and colleges is undergoing profound change: globalization, technology, the massification of tertiary education, the emergence of the knowledge economy, and the intrusion of market forces into the sector, among other forces and trends, all threaten to disrupt the hallowed halls of academia in ways not experienced before. If universities and colleges are to successfully adapt to these unavoidable societal trends, they must develop, communicate, and implement clear and concise strategies. The hallmark of those strategies will be a willingness to make difficult choices among very different alternatives”
Across the world, the dynamics of social, economic and technological changes, and the demands placed on tertiary education institutions, require a continuous re-evaluation of academic governance and institutional building. For African universities the challenges are even more formidable. Makerere cannot be an exception.
My experience, not just as President of Tanzania, but immediately before that as Minister for Higher Education, Science and Technology, is that among the governance challenges that typically confront African universities are the following:
• Funding and Accountability.
• Student enrollment, retention and graduation rates.
• Responding to the special needs of “non-traditional” students, including distance and adult learning.
• The pressure to make governance more inclusive and responsive to the often competing needs of a much wider array of stakeholders, including alumni, business sector, parents, student bodies, government, and others, all of whom seek an opportunity to determine how tertiary education is designed and managed.
• Dealing with the high expectations and volatility of faculty, including issues of remuneration, tenure and career development, and hence the issue of brain drain;
• Working and interpersonal relationships between faculty and administrators, and hence the question whether traditional institutions of academic governance can resolve emerging frictions and chart a common vision and strategy;
• Curriculum development and adaptation;
• Relevance and competitiveness and hence issues of quality versus quantity of output.
I should like to address some of these issues in greater detail.
Enrolment, Retention and Graduation Rates:
We all know that education, and certainly higher education, is a sine qua non for personal and societal development and adaptability. That is why all countries, without exception, including the most advanced ones, invest more and more in increasing enrolment, retention and graduation rates in their tertiary education institutions. As H.G. Wells summed up the challenge ninety years ago, “Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe”.
The risk of such catastrophe in sub-Saharan Africa is real. Most of our countries have no more than 50 years of independence. Yet, we cannot escape from being held, by our own people and by the outside world, to the highest standards of governance and institutional competence, whether in government, in academia or in the private sector.
A recent UNESCO report captures four decades of “explosive growth” in tertiary enrolment in Africa. In 1970, it says, there were fewer than 200,000 students enrolled in tertiary institutions in sub-Saharan Africa. By 2007, this number had increased more than twenty-fold to 4 million. Enrolment over this period of time increased by 8.6 percent annually on average, compared to a global average of 4.6 percent over the same period. More recently, between 2000 and 2005, the average annual growth rate reached 10 percent.
Should we pat ourselves on the back? Definitely no!
On the one hand, this phenomenal growth has had huge implications for governance and institution-building in our colleges and universities. The political desire to expand enrolment was not always backed by a corresponding increase in budgetary allocation. As a result, over time, quality of instruction and output began to suffer, motivation declined and on campus tensions increased.
On the other hand, pressure for increased enrolment continues unabated, especially as secondary school expansion creates an ever-increasing wellspring of young men and women looking for matriculation in the few tertiary education institutions we have. And, at 3.1 percent, Africa has the fastest growth of the tertiary education cohort population, compared to a global average of only 1.7 percent.
We cannot, unfortunately, ignore or wish away this escalating demand for expansion of enrolment. I mentioned earlier that in 2007, only 6 percent of the tertiary education cohort in sub-Saharan Africa was enrolled in tertiary education institutions. This should be seen against a global average of 26 percent. In North America and Western Europe the rate was 71 percent that same year; in Central and Eastern Europe it was 62 percent; in Latin America and the Caribbean it was 34 percent; in Central Asia it was 31 percent; in East Asia and the Pacific it was 26 percent; in Arab States it was 23 percent; in South and West Asia it was 11 percent; and in sweet home sub-Saharan Africa it was only 6 percent. A huge improvement from where the colonialists left us, but still only 6 percent! Even South Africa, the best performer among us, had a gross enrolment ratio of only 15.4 percent.
So, much as I sympathize with our colleges and universities, there is no way the pressure to expand enrolment will abate for many years to come. These pressures also bring to the fore the challenges of retention and graduation rates. Some privately sponsored students drop out when poverty or bereavement disconnects the lifeline to continued university participation. Social tensions that can partly be explained by declining resources can also disrupt classes or precipitate rustication, temporarily or permanently.
Then, of course, there is the issue of gender parity in tertiary education that is becoming more involving with each passing year. Nobody believes these days the Hausa saying that, “the strength of woman is nothing but talk”. On average, sub-Saharan African counties have made commendable progress in, raising the ratio of women in tertiary education from 22 percent in 1970 to 40 percent in 2007. It should be noted, however, that the commendable achievement of a few African countries tend to obscure the serious challenges that remain in other countries. The leading success stories include Botswana (50%), Swaziland (50%), Mauritius (53%), Cape Verde (55%), Lesotho (55%), and South Africa (55%). But these should not eclipse the challenges in Chad (13%), Guinea (21%), Central African Republic (22%), Ethiopia (25%) and the Democratic Republic of Congo (26%).
A road accident involving a man and a woman occurred one day, and the ensuing conversation went as follows:
Female driver: But I insist it was all my fault.
Male driver: No, my lady, it WAS my fault. I could tell your car was driven by a woman at least half a mile away, and I could easily have driven into the field and avoided this!
Believe me; it will take some time to get rid of some of the outrageous prejudices against women.
Funding and Accountability:
Mr. Chancellor
Ladies and Gentlemen:
The persistent pressure for expansion of enrolment, retention and graduation comes against a background of shrinking resource envelops for tertiary education relative to the rate of expansion. This is so even when per capita expenditure per tertiary student relative to GDP is exceedingly high. According to UNESCO, Benin, Burundi, Ethiopia and Togo have per capita higher education expenditure levels in excess of 100 percent of GDP per capita. In Niger it is 371 percent!
Across the world, funding university education continues to be a major challenge, even among the wealthy countries. The challenge of governance in those countries, as in ours, is not simply to fold our arms and bemoan declining or inadequate public funding, but how to diversify sources of funding in a way that is consistent with our goals and strategies. This balancing act, however, becomes increasingly difficult to maintain especially as universities rely more and more on outside funding sources, each with its own interests, goals and strategies. Again this is a huge challenge of governance.
Among sources of funding that universities across the world have resorted to are the alumni, private sector, consultancy, partnerships with business, research funding, increasing tuition fees, various endowments, donations and grants, introduction of student loans, and in the case of developing countries, donor support. Others make businesslike investments, on their own or in joint venture with external entities. The University of Dar es Salaam, for instance, used part of their land to attract investors in shopping malls, hotels and apartments. I am sure Makerere and others do likewise.
But, again, I have to repeat. While new revenue streams can assuage the thirst for funding, they bring with them new demands on the governance of universities which may prove challenging. Managing and meeting the needs and standards of diverse sources of revenue is a sufficient challenge. But added to this is that each new player, some of them very peripheral to the core mission of the university, may want to play a part in setting the direction towards which the university will move.
Mr Chancellor
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Another way to deal with funding shortfalls is to downsize the wide array of activities that universities have to deal with. Increasingly, in business, in academia and even in government, the trend has been to outsource non-core, or even some core, functions to entities with greater capacity to deal with them at lower costs. These may include activities such as:
• academic services, such as admissions, media and video conferencing, and testing;
• administrative services;
• advertising and marketing;
• athletics/sports;
• auxiliary services such as bookstores, vending machines, laundry, and housing;
• computer facilities and information systems;
• development and public relations, including fundraising, printing, and institutional research; distributors and wholesalers for commercial and industrial equipment and supplies;
• financial aid-related services;
• accounting, financial and investment services;
• legal services;
• library resources;
• personnel services, including benefits administration, retirement programs, and executive recruitment; plant services, such as maintenance, building design, and security; and,
• student services, such as substance abuse programs and medical services.
Some of these measures could help save real money.
Let me now say a few words about tuition fees. Unfortunately, across the world, the trend has been to increase tuition and other fees that students are charged in an effort to balance the books. But for poor countries like ours this can be counterproductive if the fees are so high as to defeat the goal of increasing enrolment. That is why more African countries have to design and implement effective student loan programs. This is the only way to build capacity to expand enrolment, without turning universities into places for the elite in each society.
An idea worth pursuing is to ask the donor community to create a capital fund to underwrite student loans for needy students in sub-Saharan Africa.
Governments cannot totally abdicate responsibility to fund higher education. But, having been in government, I realize that people want to see more results for each shilling invested in higher education. Perhaps the time has come for institutions of higher learning to be asked to develop and sign performance contracts, with clear deliverables, quantitative and qualitative, in exchange for public funding.
Governments on their part must create mechanisms to provide incentives for private companies, individuals and charitable organizations to help finance higher education. An example that quickly comes to mind is the provision of some form of tax allowances for such donations.
To encourage research, governments could also create a legal framework that allows universities to own and, therefore, to earn money from intellectual property rights. Governments and the business sector could also be encouraged to outsource research and development activities to universities.
Mr. Chancellor,
Ladies and Gentlemen:
These ideas constitute a menu of some of the things that can be done to increase funding for higher education. The only problem is that this, in the end, complicates governance. The more the donors, the more complex the task of assuring everyone that funds are properly used for the intended purposes, that procurement regulations are followed and that value for money is attained. So, in terms of governance, universities have to get used to more evaluations, more financial audits, and more reports.
Issues of Quality, Relevance and Competitiveness:
As we enter into an increasingly knowledge-based economy and a regionally and globally more competitive environment, quality education becomes more important than ever. This poses a huge challenge to sub-Saharan African countries and their higher learning institutions.
Former President of Rice University in Houston, Texas, Prof. Malcolm Gillis, could not have described this challenge better than when, in February 1999, he opined as follows:
“Today, more than ever before in human history, the wealth – or poverty – of nations depends on the quality of higher education. Those with a larger repertoire of skills and a greater capacity for learning can look forward to lifetimes of unprecedented economic fulfillment. But in the coming decades the poorly educated face little better than the dreary prospects of lives of quiet desperation”.
So, where does Africa stand on this score? One indicator that can be used in measuring where we stand is the amount of new knowledge we create in our universities. Since researchers do conceive and create new knowledge, their numbers can be a useful indicator of our capacity to create a repertoire of competitive and skilled individuals who can lead us to economic fulfillment.
Estimates issued by UNESCO Institute for Statistics two months ago show that between 2002 and 2007 Asia as a whole increased its share of world researchers from 35.7 percent to 41.4 percent, mostly at the expense of Europe and North America. In 2002, Africa had only 2.3 percent of researchers, and that share had not changed in 2007. For sub-Saharan Africa, if we exclude South Africa, we had only 0.6 percent of researchers in 2002 and still the same 0.6 percent in 2007. The phenomenal increase in Asia is to a large extent accounted for by China which had its share of world researchers increase from 14.0 percent in 2002 to 20.1 percent in 2007, putting it almost at par with the United States of America. Between them, the United States, China, European Union and Japan have 70 percent of all researchers in the world.
So what does this tell us? It provides pointers as to who will dominate the 21st century, if not beyond. But it also shows how much we risk being completely irrelevant except for our oil, mineral resources and agricultural commodities they need from us. We veritably risk being irrelevant in determining the course of human history and achievement. And, as Prof. Gillis said, we risk facing “little better than the dreary prospects of lives of quiet desperation”.
I give these statistics not to lead us into despondence, but as a wakeup call for governments, and for tertiary education institutions. We just have to produce more people who generate more new knowledge, not just those who use and recycle existing knowledge.
We can no longer procrastinate on the question of relevance of African higher education to the challenges confronting Africa today, and the kind of challenges we can already foresee for the future. Higher education is an extremely expensive investment made by the present poor African generation for the future. Such an investment, and the opportunity cost it entails with regard to other pressing demands on national treasuries, can only be justified by equally robust returns in terms of quality and relevance of output from our universities. And there are, in my view, four aspects of such quality and relevance:
• First, our young people must get the kind of university education that enables them to understand the present and future challenges of our countries in their broadest sense. In Tanzania, when I listen to, or read what is written by some university students or even some dons, I do not get the comfort that they have such an understanding, grounded in reality.
• Second, our young people must get the kind of university education that prepares them attitudinally and professionally to integrate with their society, not to be alienated from it. An elitist education that becomes a vehicle for the alienation of those we prepare for leadership would be a waste of scarce resources against competing demands, and a great tragedy.
• Third, the university education we give our young people must prepare them – again intellectually, attitudinally and professionally – to be agents and catalysts for positive change. We want them to graduate with inquiring sharpened minds, minds that thrive in original thinking, not ones that simply recycle western notions, ideas and prejudices.
• Fourth, university education must prepare our youth to be innovative and competitive, whether in public service or private sector – nationally, regionally and internationally – in a globalizing and competitive market for skills and jobs.
This brings me to the question of curricula. I have the hunch that our curricula are still too academic, too theoretical, with minimal applied science. Change has begun to come, it needs to come faster.
Textbooks are outdated, and we cannot always afford new editions or new publications. One way around this problem is to make increasing use of free but trusted online educational resources. Computing and internet access can provide relevant and current course material. In East Africa, we have just launched the first submarine optical fiber cable providing international bandwidth along the East Coast of Africa linking Southern and East Africa, Europe and South Asia.
As a matter of priority, African universities have to hook up to the global learning community. We should also now ask our development partners to support the infrastructural investment needed to make full use of the optic fiber bandwidth for research and learning, among other things. We on the African continent should also increase pressure to have more knowledge in the public domain through open access to research, including scientific, medical and engineering journals and data bases.
Alumni members of professional bodies have a unique opportunity to contibute to corriculum development at the University. Our world is witnessing vast and fast changes. Their own practice in the professions, in medicine or law, in agricultural extension or public policy research, in political governnance or social welfare delivery, uncovers new areas of interest and concern lacking in existing manuals and ways of doing things. Through dialogue and exchanges they can input into remarkable curriculum improvements that will strengthen academic competitiveness and raise international image.
But practicing professionals can also provide for short term or part time staff needs, just as academics can benefit from brief attachments to ongoing successful enterprises. This is the practice overseas; it is seldom if ever seen here. Yet the benefits that can accrue are worth the money they would cost. More importantly such exchanges would go a long way to nurture the town-grown partnership in learning and working. Theory is moderated by practice, and excessive industriousness is restrained by theorty. Let us give it a try.
African universities also have to learn how to cope with non-traditional students. Lifelong learning is the best way to prepare people for the increasing vagaries of the labor market, and ensure they remain employable and competitive. Universities must increasingly position themselves to meet their needs.
Coping with Brain Drain:
Many graduates emigrate. More than ten percent of African graduates overall emigrate. In technical and medical fields, the rate is much higher. It is said that 90 percent of all Zambian doctors trained in the last 30 years work abroad. It is also estimated that such brain drain costs sub-Saharan Africa close to $ 1 billion a year in educational investment made in their people. This is twice the amount of U.S. aid to the continent.
In the context of universal human rights and freedoms, it is difficult to issue a fiat against emigration. However, brain drain need not be a total loss. With more aggressiveness in the African side, and more understanding in richer countries, it is possible to turn brain drain into some kind of brain gain.
If Western countries are as concerned about brain drain in Africa as they claim to be, let them agree to put in place mechanisms to compensate Africa for this huge loss. With the advent and march of technology, solutions are now available to engage the African Diaspora, including alumni of African universities, in continuing to make contributions to capacity building and institutional development in Africa. Through telemedicine, African doctors in Western countries can take part in diagnosis, prescription and even surgery of patients in Africa. Through e-learning and the leveraging of the wide array of ICT capabilities and tools including things like tele-presence and other video capabilities, African academics in Western countries can continue to have classes in their Alma Mater or other universities, and they can continue to set and mark exams, or supervise the theses of post-graduate students from wherever they are. If they really want to, and if we on the African side press them, Western countries can make the resources available to get all this and more done.
Thanks to the presence of two formidable Nigerian ladies at the World Bank, Managing Director Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Vice-President for Africa Obiageli Ezekwesili, a program to engage the Diaspora in African development has been established in the Bank. The challenge now is for African governments, and specifically African universities, to engage the World Bank early on with clear strategies and plans on engaging the Diaspora in governance, institution building and service delivery for Africa’s social and economic development.
Another way to ensure the brain drain in Africa is not a total loss for the continent is to proceed from a simple logic. One of the reasons African graduates end up working in developed countries is that employers in western countries need and value them. The solution to brain drain, therefore, is not to try to stop Africans from going to work abroad, but to give African universities and governments the capacity to train more people. One mechanism is to ask employers in the west to reimburse the costs incurred by African countries to train every one of those alumni of our universities working abroad. And, for them, this will be quite a steal. In most African countries, it would take less than $50,000 to train a medical doctor, assuming 5 years of instruction and one year of internship. In a place like the United States, that amount is enough for only one academic year! By employing our alumni, they concede that we trained them well, and cost-effectively. We can do it repeatedly. Why do they not give African universities the capacity to train more, and better, and we can share the output?
Western employers, and even other employers in developing countries can in the very least, pay back the outstanding student loans owed by those they employ.
Engage, not Disengage:
One request I have for the alumni, especially those in the Diaspora, is for them to do much more to promote and encourage faculty and student exchanges with colleges and universities in the countries they reside in.
One of the most memorable characteristic of the Makerere of my time was its East Africanness. At that time it was the only university college in the four East African countries. Kenya, Uganda, Zanzibar and Tanzania were administered by the British, even if they were titularly identified as a colony, a protectorate and a trust territory respecitvely. The student community was a variety of tribal ethnicities and racial make up. There were a few students from Malawi and Zambia and from abroad.
Despite this wide diversity of origins we were a pretty united student community. We were united in our common aspiration to see our countries independent of British rule. There were individual country political groupings. But were reached to each other during important events in the political agenda of transition. We recognised the diversity of cultural traditions, but we were possionately East African. Happenings at East Africa House in London where diaspora fellow students would gather to discuss our region’s future strengthened or embrace at home.
At independence we had the East African High Commission which we later turned into the East African Community. It represented for many of us the precursor of what should have been an integrated East Africa, politically and economically. We decided to part ways in 1977. The rest is history, and in particular the harmful impact the breakdown has had on regional development.
But now a spirit of integration is resurging, and I would like to see Makerere alumni drive this surge. I ask that they renew the East Africanness which historically and inherently characterizes Makerere, to step up the momentum towards East African integration.
When four years ago the leaders of the re-born East African Community agreed on a Common Customs Union the defeatists loudly forecast sharp declines on state revenues. The opposite has traspired and they have been proven wrong. Revenues went up in all three states.
Last week, in Arusha, the five leaders of an enlarged East African Community signed the Protocol for the establishment of an East African Common Market, a great economic leap forward. Again the decision has not lacked its detractors. I ask alumni to take up the cudgels in defense of the Protocol. The Secretariat has illustrated how member states stand to gain with the Common Market. I must ask alumni again to be upfront in advocating its establishment. It is incredible and inexcusable that, in the midst of a global economic crtisis, while developed countries move faster towards their own integration, such as in the EU, poor countries, such as those in our community, should prevaricate and equivocate!!.
International Cooperation in Education
Most western countries have reduced their support to African higher education, including scholarship programs for post-graduate studies abroad on the pretext that they wanted to help us meet the MDG target for basic education. This is a fallacy. No country was ever built by people with only basic education. Governance and institution building, and even entrepreneurship, requires people with higher education and specialized knowledge and skills.
A study conducted to show cross-country correlations between higher education and good governance showed a clear positive and significant correlation between higher education and each of the following indicators of good governance: corruption in government; rule of law; bureaucratic quality; ethnic tensions; repudiation of contracts by government; and risk of expropriation.
Furthermore, the study showed a clear correlation between higher education and entrepreneurial activity. Individuals with higher levels of education have higher levels of entrepreneurial activity.
There is no doubt, therefore, that higher education is absolutely necessary in building strong and capable institutions in our countries, in developing the capacity to compete in the global knowledge economy, and in meeting our development goals. Knowledge has, and will continue to surpass physical capital as a source of wealth. As the 1998-99 World Development Report put it:
“Knowledge is like light. Weightless and intangible, it can
easily travel the world, enlightening the lives of people
everywhere. Yet billions of people still live in the darkness
of poverty-- unnecessarily”.
Education at all levels, including higher education, is the switch to turn on the light. People talk of the “green revolution”. The time has come to talk about an “intellectual revolution”. Our universities must not only develop capacity to deliver relevant curricula to more traditional and non-traditional students, but they have to be strong enough financially and in terms of faculty to do more research, and to develop capacity to acquire, absorb and internalize knowledge from the rest of the world.
It is our educated young people who will provide the capacity “to run more effective governments, develop the business of the future, and build the health and educational systems that make such a difference to the quality of life”.
We may not all be like Stanford University in California that developed the series of technology and entrepreneurship mentoring that produced the Silicon Valley, transforming the world. Nevertheless, we can, still make our own small contribution.
Conclusion:
Mr Chancellor
Ladies and Gentlemen:
There is a Yoruba proverb: “However far the stream flows, it never forgets its source”. So it is with us, alumni. The education we were privileged to get here launched us into various orbits of life experiences and achievement. But we cannot forget Makerere. Today we have the opportunity to show—in both word and deed--that we have not forgotten you, Makerere.
I came here to provoke a debate, not to provide readymade solutions to governance and institutional challenges that Makerere and other universities in Africa face. And having hopefully provoked you sufficiently, I will leave you with the ten most powerful two-letter words in the English language: IF IT IS TO BE, IT IS UP TO ME.
From our diverse origins we have converged here to pay homage and to support our Alma Mater. Together we can do it, and it is up to us. For, as the Archbishop of Canterbury said in Shakespeare’s King Henry V, Act I, sc. 2:
As many arrows, loosed several ways,
Come to one mark; as many ways meet in one town;
As many fresh streams meet in one salt sea;
As many lines close in the dial's centre;
So may a thousand actions, once afoot.
End in one purpose, and be all well borne
Without defeat…
One purpose, well borne, without defeat.
May fortune recover her eyesight and be just in the distribution of her favours.
I thank you for your kind attention.
Honorable Prof. Gilbert Balibaseka Bukenya,
Vice-President of the Republic of Uganda;
Honorable Prof. Apolo Nsibambi,
Prime Minister of the Republic of Uganda;
Honorable Rebecca Kadaga,
Deputy Speaker of the Ugandan Parliament;
Honorable Ministers and Members of Parliament;
Excellencies High Commissioners and Ambassadors;
Prof. Mondo Kagonyera
Chancellor of Makerere University;
Prof. Venansius Baryamureeba,
Vice-Chancellor of Makerere University;
Faculty, Staff and Students of Makerere University;
Fellow Alumni;
Distinguished Guests;
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Let me begin by thanking the government of Uganda and the Makerere University community for welcoming me so warmly and for the honor you have bestowed upon me to speak on behalf of my fellow alumni on a very important subject, on a very important day and a very propitious occasion.
It is always a great pleasure to return to Makerere, and today is no exception. Indeed, today is an historical home-coming not only for me but I am sure for all my fellow alumni. Thank you for welcoming us back.
I want to thank and congratulate the University Convocation and authorities for the idea to convene this grand alumni re-union. With the support of all of us, which by being here we promise, I am sure this re-union will be a great success and a rewarding experience to everyone. Working together we can give our beloved Alma Mater new energy, new vision and new direction.
In a special way I want to thank the Vice-President for that most gracious oratory, which I am not sure if I entirely deserve. Thank you all the same, and thank you Mr. Chancellor as well for your very kind words.
As part of these celebrations I have been asked to speak on, “The Role of the Alumni in Governance and Institutional Development.”
But before I do so I want us to step back and look again at the context in which we assembled here, and others like us across sub-Saharan Africa, received the higher education that lies at the heart of who we have since become. It is a very profound thought.
I came to Makerere in the nineteen fifties aged 19. Makerere was at that time a University College affiliated to the University of London. It was a small institution then; enrollement was in the hundreds not thousands. There were four halls of residence, three for males and one for female students. Staff was predominantly British and a touch South African. Local, i.e. African, staff could be counted on the fingers of two hands.
Then graduating from Makerere was a great achievement. One felt immensely privileged not only because entry was acutely competitive, but also because jobs were assured. Employers would visit to sample prospective graduates. Remuneration for these jobs was quite high. But more importantly was the prospect of high standing in public office, in the professions and the administration. Being an ex-Makekererian gave one enormous social status. It may have bred a little Elitism but this was tempered by the call for social and political responsibility.
The University College had, for its Vision and Mission this statement on its Coat of Arms: “Pro Future Aedificamus,” which we translated into: “We are building for the future” I notice that the motto has been retained on Makerere University’s logo: “We Build for the Future. “Why the Latin text was abandoned I look forward to learning this afternoon.
Statistics from UNESCO show that in 2007, on average, only six percent of tertiary education cohort in sub-Saharan Africa was enrolled in colleges and universities. And this is considered a huge improvement considering where we came from.
In the time of my matriculation, I believe the ratio was less than one percent. In Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere’s time it was nothing short of scandalous, and our former colonial masters need to hang their heads in shame. In Mwalimu’s own words, when he sat for the then Makerere College entrance examination in the early 1940s, there were only three schools in the whole of the then Tanganyika which could send students here at Makerere, the only such institution of higher learning at that time in the whole of this region.
In 1949 and 1950, five, yes five only, African students from Tanganyika, Mwalimu Nyerere being one of them, received scholarships to study in the United Kingdom. According to him no other scholarships were given for more than five years.
What does this mean? It means two things. The first is that the former colonial powers did not consider it a priority to prepare Africans for leadership, for good governance and for institution building. And, as we all know, their own form of colonial administration was the antithesis of democratic good governance.
The second point is that the post independence alumni have a two-pronged responsibility beyond their own transformation through education. They have to realize that the responsibility to build democratic political dispensations, and to develop governance systems and build institutions of governance and regulation needed for economic and social transformation lies not with anyone else but with them. They cannot and must not have the luxury of being unaccountable spectators as the continent grapples with these profound challenges.
Their other responsibility is to be role models and positive mentors of new generations of educated Africans. Again, let us step back, and consider our ways, wherever we may be, and whatever we are doing. Have we been good role models, and have we mentored new generations of educated Africans in the right direction? What have they learnt from us--not from our words, but from our actions--and what will they learn from successive generations of alumni? Have we built the foundations of good governance and strong institutions that can outlive us, or are we passing on the buck to the next generation?
But above all, those proportionally very few of us who receive or have received higher education in postcolonial Africa have to realize how privileged we are, and that with that privilege comes responsibility.
An alumnus of Makerere, Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere, put the expectations that society has in those privileged to be educated in the following terms:
“Those who receive this privilege, therefore, have a duty to repay the sacrifice which others have made. They are like the man who has been given all the food available in a starving village in order that he might have the strength to bring supplies from a distant place. If he takes this food and does not bring help to his brothers, he is a traitor. Similarly, if any of the young men and women who are given an education by the people of this republic adopt attitudes of superiority, or fail to use their knowledge to help the development of this country, then they are betraying our union.”
Mr Chancellor,
Ladies and Gentlemen:
These are without doubt very strong words; but they need to be said from time to time because they are a useful compass to all of us privileged to have had a good education at a critical time for the development of our countries, their governance systems and institutions.
In my time here we had a very friendly Catholic Chaplain, an English Dominican named Paul Foster O.P. It is not for his preaching, which was unquestionably inspiring and mercifully short, that I recall him now. Rather I recall him for a long and contentious conversation we had about that University College motto. What kind of future were we building? How were we building it? He thought it exemplified well the British penchant for obfuscation or equivocation in order to make everyone feel good!!
I have revisited Makerere a few times. It has grown a great deal in terms of physical intrastructures, academic disciplines and the sizes of the annual enrollment and graduands. There is a lot to be proud of and to congratulate ourselves upon. I hope that the reunion gives us the opportunity to look back, reflect and renew our spirits.
When I was given the invitation to make these remarks I decided to ask the alumni, but especially the graduating classes of the nineteen sixties, my contemporaries. What kind of a future have we built? How have we lived to our education motto’s injuction?
The independence movement was reaching its climax as we graduated. We entered the political and labour market. Thus we have helped build independence from colonial rule. Have we built a sense of nationhood? We have helped to build, indeed others would say to shape, the civil service. Is it a dedicated, faithful and loyal civil service? We have been instrumental in building up an array of professional associations. How professionally ethical are they?
The Alumni and Their Alma Mater:
But let me now turn to the relationship between the alumni and their Alma Mater, and the role that I see for the alumni in institutional governance and development. You see, the relationship between an alumnus or alumnae with his or her Alma Mater is kind of like the relationship between a child and its parents. We can grow up as children, and then move out to chart our own paths and begin our own families. Sometimes we may have strained relationships with our parents, some quite serious. But nothing on earth can change the fact that they are, and will forever remain, our parents.
In a family, what unites the offspring is their organic relationship with the parents. Likewise, what unites all of us in this alumni re-union is the relationship that each one of us has with Makerere. We have a duty to support our parents; and we have a duty to support our Alma Mater. Both made us what we are today, and both need and deserve our support. But just as they have the right to expect support, they equally have to be open to our views and opinions. As much as possible the alumni have to feel they are welcome to contribute to issues of governance and institution building in this university.
There is the story of an honest young boy and an old man:
Old gentleman: You’re an honest boy. But it was a ten dollar-note not ten ones that I lost.
Small boy: I know, mister, it was a ten-dollar note I picked up. But the last time I found one, the man who owned it didn’t have any change.
Sometimes it takes the wisdom of a child to get something out of a man!
If the alumni are remembered only for fundraising purposes, important as it is, the relationship will never be as strong and the role of the alumni never as robust as one would have liked. As alumni, we care deeply about this university. The collective professional and personal experiences we hold are a huge resource for the university. Keep the alumni informed and connected--with Makerere and with each other. And I truly appreciate what I have learnt since coming here about your commendable efforts in this very direction. Please keep it up; you have our support and encouragement. We are your product, we are the living proof of your excellence in learning, and we shall always be your loudest cheerleaders.
In that spirit, let me raise a few issues that I think are critical in the governance and institutional development of this and other institutions of higher learning in sub-Saharan Africa.
The Paradox of Scope: The African Scene:
A few years ago, Prof. David J. Collis of the Harvard Business School wrote a piece titled “The Paradox of Scope: A Challenge to the Governance of Higher Education”. Although the discourse clearly had in mind universities in the West, in particular the United States of America, some of his points are equally relevant to our circumstances in Africa and elsewhere and provide a good entry point for some of my arguments.
In short, the concept of “paradox of scope” refers to the inherent friction between the core (conservative, if you like) values and mission of an institution on the one hand, and the demands imposed on it by a kaleidoscopic (radical, if you like) periphery and external environment that can threaten the very relevance and sustainability of an institution. Universities are believed to be conservative in nature; but they now have to learn to adapt to new situations. In the words of Prof. Collis:
“Circumstances today are conspiring to expose the inherent weaknesses in the governance of higher education. The external environment of universities and colleges is undergoing profound change: globalization, technology, the massification of tertiary education, the emergence of the knowledge economy, and the intrusion of market forces into the sector, among other forces and trends, all threaten to disrupt the hallowed halls of academia in ways not experienced before. If universities and colleges are to successfully adapt to these unavoidable societal trends, they must develop, communicate, and implement clear and concise strategies. The hallmark of those strategies will be a willingness to make difficult choices among very different alternatives”
Across the world, the dynamics of social, economic and technological changes, and the demands placed on tertiary education institutions, require a continuous re-evaluation of academic governance and institutional building. For African universities the challenges are even more formidable. Makerere cannot be an exception.
My experience, not just as President of Tanzania, but immediately before that as Minister for Higher Education, Science and Technology, is that among the governance challenges that typically confront African universities are the following:
• Funding and Accountability.
• Student enrollment, retention and graduation rates.
• Responding to the special needs of “non-traditional” students, including distance and adult learning.
• The pressure to make governance more inclusive and responsive to the often competing needs of a much wider array of stakeholders, including alumni, business sector, parents, student bodies, government, and others, all of whom seek an opportunity to determine how tertiary education is designed and managed.
• Dealing with the high expectations and volatility of faculty, including issues of remuneration, tenure and career development, and hence the issue of brain drain;
• Working and interpersonal relationships between faculty and administrators, and hence the question whether traditional institutions of academic governance can resolve emerging frictions and chart a common vision and strategy;
• Curriculum development and adaptation;
• Relevance and competitiveness and hence issues of quality versus quantity of output.
I should like to address some of these issues in greater detail.
Enrolment, Retention and Graduation Rates:
We all know that education, and certainly higher education, is a sine qua non for personal and societal development and adaptability. That is why all countries, without exception, including the most advanced ones, invest more and more in increasing enrolment, retention and graduation rates in their tertiary education institutions. As H.G. Wells summed up the challenge ninety years ago, “Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe”.
The risk of such catastrophe in sub-Saharan Africa is real. Most of our countries have no more than 50 years of independence. Yet, we cannot escape from being held, by our own people and by the outside world, to the highest standards of governance and institutional competence, whether in government, in academia or in the private sector.
A recent UNESCO report captures four decades of “explosive growth” in tertiary enrolment in Africa. In 1970, it says, there were fewer than 200,000 students enrolled in tertiary institutions in sub-Saharan Africa. By 2007, this number had increased more than twenty-fold to 4 million. Enrolment over this period of time increased by 8.6 percent annually on average, compared to a global average of 4.6 percent over the same period. More recently, between 2000 and 2005, the average annual growth rate reached 10 percent.
Should we pat ourselves on the back? Definitely no!
On the one hand, this phenomenal growth has had huge implications for governance and institution-building in our colleges and universities. The political desire to expand enrolment was not always backed by a corresponding increase in budgetary allocation. As a result, over time, quality of instruction and output began to suffer, motivation declined and on campus tensions increased.
On the other hand, pressure for increased enrolment continues unabated, especially as secondary school expansion creates an ever-increasing wellspring of young men and women looking for matriculation in the few tertiary education institutions we have. And, at 3.1 percent, Africa has the fastest growth of the tertiary education cohort population, compared to a global average of only 1.7 percent.
We cannot, unfortunately, ignore or wish away this escalating demand for expansion of enrolment. I mentioned earlier that in 2007, only 6 percent of the tertiary education cohort in sub-Saharan Africa was enrolled in tertiary education institutions. This should be seen against a global average of 26 percent. In North America and Western Europe the rate was 71 percent that same year; in Central and Eastern Europe it was 62 percent; in Latin America and the Caribbean it was 34 percent; in Central Asia it was 31 percent; in East Asia and the Pacific it was 26 percent; in Arab States it was 23 percent; in South and West Asia it was 11 percent; and in sweet home sub-Saharan Africa it was only 6 percent. A huge improvement from where the colonialists left us, but still only 6 percent! Even South Africa, the best performer among us, had a gross enrolment ratio of only 15.4 percent.
So, much as I sympathize with our colleges and universities, there is no way the pressure to expand enrolment will abate for many years to come. These pressures also bring to the fore the challenges of retention and graduation rates. Some privately sponsored students drop out when poverty or bereavement disconnects the lifeline to continued university participation. Social tensions that can partly be explained by declining resources can also disrupt classes or precipitate rustication, temporarily or permanently.
Then, of course, there is the issue of gender parity in tertiary education that is becoming more involving with each passing year. Nobody believes these days the Hausa saying that, “the strength of woman is nothing but talk”. On average, sub-Saharan African counties have made commendable progress in, raising the ratio of women in tertiary education from 22 percent in 1970 to 40 percent in 2007. It should be noted, however, that the commendable achievement of a few African countries tend to obscure the serious challenges that remain in other countries. The leading success stories include Botswana (50%), Swaziland (50%), Mauritius (53%), Cape Verde (55%), Lesotho (55%), and South Africa (55%). But these should not eclipse the challenges in Chad (13%), Guinea (21%), Central African Republic (22%), Ethiopia (25%) and the Democratic Republic of Congo (26%).
A road accident involving a man and a woman occurred one day, and the ensuing conversation went as follows:
Female driver: But I insist it was all my fault.
Male driver: No, my lady, it WAS my fault. I could tell your car was driven by a woman at least half a mile away, and I could easily have driven into the field and avoided this!
Believe me; it will take some time to get rid of some of the outrageous prejudices against women.
Funding and Accountability:
Mr. Chancellor
Ladies and Gentlemen:
The persistent pressure for expansion of enrolment, retention and graduation comes against a background of shrinking resource envelops for tertiary education relative to the rate of expansion. This is so even when per capita expenditure per tertiary student relative to GDP is exceedingly high. According to UNESCO, Benin, Burundi, Ethiopia and Togo have per capita higher education expenditure levels in excess of 100 percent of GDP per capita. In Niger it is 371 percent!
Across the world, funding university education continues to be a major challenge, even among the wealthy countries. The challenge of governance in those countries, as in ours, is not simply to fold our arms and bemoan declining or inadequate public funding, but how to diversify sources of funding in a way that is consistent with our goals and strategies. This balancing act, however, becomes increasingly difficult to maintain especially as universities rely more and more on outside funding sources, each with its own interests, goals and strategies. Again this is a huge challenge of governance.
Among sources of funding that universities across the world have resorted to are the alumni, private sector, consultancy, partnerships with business, research funding, increasing tuition fees, various endowments, donations and grants, introduction of student loans, and in the case of developing countries, donor support. Others make businesslike investments, on their own or in joint venture with external entities. The University of Dar es Salaam, for instance, used part of their land to attract investors in shopping malls, hotels and apartments. I am sure Makerere and others do likewise.
But, again, I have to repeat. While new revenue streams can assuage the thirst for funding, they bring with them new demands on the governance of universities which may prove challenging. Managing and meeting the needs and standards of diverse sources of revenue is a sufficient challenge. But added to this is that each new player, some of them very peripheral to the core mission of the university, may want to play a part in setting the direction towards which the university will move.
Mr Chancellor
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Another way to deal with funding shortfalls is to downsize the wide array of activities that universities have to deal with. Increasingly, in business, in academia and even in government, the trend has been to outsource non-core, or even some core, functions to entities with greater capacity to deal with them at lower costs. These may include activities such as:
• academic services, such as admissions, media and video conferencing, and testing;
• administrative services;
• advertising and marketing;
• athletics/sports;
• auxiliary services such as bookstores, vending machines, laundry, and housing;
• computer facilities and information systems;
• development and public relations, including fundraising, printing, and institutional research; distributors and wholesalers for commercial and industrial equipment and supplies;
• financial aid-related services;
• accounting, financial and investment services;
• legal services;
• library resources;
• personnel services, including benefits administration, retirement programs, and executive recruitment; plant services, such as maintenance, building design, and security; and,
• student services, such as substance abuse programs and medical services.
Some of these measures could help save real money.
Let me now say a few words about tuition fees. Unfortunately, across the world, the trend has been to increase tuition and other fees that students are charged in an effort to balance the books. But for poor countries like ours this can be counterproductive if the fees are so high as to defeat the goal of increasing enrolment. That is why more African countries have to design and implement effective student loan programs. This is the only way to build capacity to expand enrolment, without turning universities into places for the elite in each society.
An idea worth pursuing is to ask the donor community to create a capital fund to underwrite student loans for needy students in sub-Saharan Africa.
Governments cannot totally abdicate responsibility to fund higher education. But, having been in government, I realize that people want to see more results for each shilling invested in higher education. Perhaps the time has come for institutions of higher learning to be asked to develop and sign performance contracts, with clear deliverables, quantitative and qualitative, in exchange for public funding.
Governments on their part must create mechanisms to provide incentives for private companies, individuals and charitable organizations to help finance higher education. An example that quickly comes to mind is the provision of some form of tax allowances for such donations.
To encourage research, governments could also create a legal framework that allows universities to own and, therefore, to earn money from intellectual property rights. Governments and the business sector could also be encouraged to outsource research and development activities to universities.
Mr. Chancellor,
Ladies and Gentlemen:
These ideas constitute a menu of some of the things that can be done to increase funding for higher education. The only problem is that this, in the end, complicates governance. The more the donors, the more complex the task of assuring everyone that funds are properly used for the intended purposes, that procurement regulations are followed and that value for money is attained. So, in terms of governance, universities have to get used to more evaluations, more financial audits, and more reports.
Issues of Quality, Relevance and Competitiveness:
As we enter into an increasingly knowledge-based economy and a regionally and globally more competitive environment, quality education becomes more important than ever. This poses a huge challenge to sub-Saharan African countries and their higher learning institutions.
Former President of Rice University in Houston, Texas, Prof. Malcolm Gillis, could not have described this challenge better than when, in February 1999, he opined as follows:
“Today, more than ever before in human history, the wealth – or poverty – of nations depends on the quality of higher education. Those with a larger repertoire of skills and a greater capacity for learning can look forward to lifetimes of unprecedented economic fulfillment. But in the coming decades the poorly educated face little better than the dreary prospects of lives of quiet desperation”.
So, where does Africa stand on this score? One indicator that can be used in measuring where we stand is the amount of new knowledge we create in our universities. Since researchers do conceive and create new knowledge, their numbers can be a useful indicator of our capacity to create a repertoire of competitive and skilled individuals who can lead us to economic fulfillment.
Estimates issued by UNESCO Institute for Statistics two months ago show that between 2002 and 2007 Asia as a whole increased its share of world researchers from 35.7 percent to 41.4 percent, mostly at the expense of Europe and North America. In 2002, Africa had only 2.3 percent of researchers, and that share had not changed in 2007. For sub-Saharan Africa, if we exclude South Africa, we had only 0.6 percent of researchers in 2002 and still the same 0.6 percent in 2007. The phenomenal increase in Asia is to a large extent accounted for by China which had its share of world researchers increase from 14.0 percent in 2002 to 20.1 percent in 2007, putting it almost at par with the United States of America. Between them, the United States, China, European Union and Japan have 70 percent of all researchers in the world.
So what does this tell us? It provides pointers as to who will dominate the 21st century, if not beyond. But it also shows how much we risk being completely irrelevant except for our oil, mineral resources and agricultural commodities they need from us. We veritably risk being irrelevant in determining the course of human history and achievement. And, as Prof. Gillis said, we risk facing “little better than the dreary prospects of lives of quiet desperation”.
I give these statistics not to lead us into despondence, but as a wakeup call for governments, and for tertiary education institutions. We just have to produce more people who generate more new knowledge, not just those who use and recycle existing knowledge.
We can no longer procrastinate on the question of relevance of African higher education to the challenges confronting Africa today, and the kind of challenges we can already foresee for the future. Higher education is an extremely expensive investment made by the present poor African generation for the future. Such an investment, and the opportunity cost it entails with regard to other pressing demands on national treasuries, can only be justified by equally robust returns in terms of quality and relevance of output from our universities. And there are, in my view, four aspects of such quality and relevance:
• First, our young people must get the kind of university education that enables them to understand the present and future challenges of our countries in their broadest sense. In Tanzania, when I listen to, or read what is written by some university students or even some dons, I do not get the comfort that they have such an understanding, grounded in reality.
• Second, our young people must get the kind of university education that prepares them attitudinally and professionally to integrate with their society, not to be alienated from it. An elitist education that becomes a vehicle for the alienation of those we prepare for leadership would be a waste of scarce resources against competing demands, and a great tragedy.
• Third, the university education we give our young people must prepare them – again intellectually, attitudinally and professionally – to be agents and catalysts for positive change. We want them to graduate with inquiring sharpened minds, minds that thrive in original thinking, not ones that simply recycle western notions, ideas and prejudices.
• Fourth, university education must prepare our youth to be innovative and competitive, whether in public service or private sector – nationally, regionally and internationally – in a globalizing and competitive market for skills and jobs.
This brings me to the question of curricula. I have the hunch that our curricula are still too academic, too theoretical, with minimal applied science. Change has begun to come, it needs to come faster.
Textbooks are outdated, and we cannot always afford new editions or new publications. One way around this problem is to make increasing use of free but trusted online educational resources. Computing and internet access can provide relevant and current course material. In East Africa, we have just launched the first submarine optical fiber cable providing international bandwidth along the East Coast of Africa linking Southern and East Africa, Europe and South Asia.
As a matter of priority, African universities have to hook up to the global learning community. We should also now ask our development partners to support the infrastructural investment needed to make full use of the optic fiber bandwidth for research and learning, among other things. We on the African continent should also increase pressure to have more knowledge in the public domain through open access to research, including scientific, medical and engineering journals and data bases.
Alumni members of professional bodies have a unique opportunity to contibute to corriculum development at the University. Our world is witnessing vast and fast changes. Their own practice in the professions, in medicine or law, in agricultural extension or public policy research, in political governnance or social welfare delivery, uncovers new areas of interest and concern lacking in existing manuals and ways of doing things. Through dialogue and exchanges they can input into remarkable curriculum improvements that will strengthen academic competitiveness and raise international image.
But practicing professionals can also provide for short term or part time staff needs, just as academics can benefit from brief attachments to ongoing successful enterprises. This is the practice overseas; it is seldom if ever seen here. Yet the benefits that can accrue are worth the money they would cost. More importantly such exchanges would go a long way to nurture the town-grown partnership in learning and working. Theory is moderated by practice, and excessive industriousness is restrained by theorty. Let us give it a try.
African universities also have to learn how to cope with non-traditional students. Lifelong learning is the best way to prepare people for the increasing vagaries of the labor market, and ensure they remain employable and competitive. Universities must increasingly position themselves to meet their needs.
Coping with Brain Drain:
Many graduates emigrate. More than ten percent of African graduates overall emigrate. In technical and medical fields, the rate is much higher. It is said that 90 percent of all Zambian doctors trained in the last 30 years work abroad. It is also estimated that such brain drain costs sub-Saharan Africa close to $ 1 billion a year in educational investment made in their people. This is twice the amount of U.S. aid to the continent.
In the context of universal human rights and freedoms, it is difficult to issue a fiat against emigration. However, brain drain need not be a total loss. With more aggressiveness in the African side, and more understanding in richer countries, it is possible to turn brain drain into some kind of brain gain.
If Western countries are as concerned about brain drain in Africa as they claim to be, let them agree to put in place mechanisms to compensate Africa for this huge loss. With the advent and march of technology, solutions are now available to engage the African Diaspora, including alumni of African universities, in continuing to make contributions to capacity building and institutional development in Africa. Through telemedicine, African doctors in Western countries can take part in diagnosis, prescription and even surgery of patients in Africa. Through e-learning and the leveraging of the wide array of ICT capabilities and tools including things like tele-presence and other video capabilities, African academics in Western countries can continue to have classes in their Alma Mater or other universities, and they can continue to set and mark exams, or supervise the theses of post-graduate students from wherever they are. If they really want to, and if we on the African side press them, Western countries can make the resources available to get all this and more done.
Thanks to the presence of two formidable Nigerian ladies at the World Bank, Managing Director Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Vice-President for Africa Obiageli Ezekwesili, a program to engage the Diaspora in African development has been established in the Bank. The challenge now is for African governments, and specifically African universities, to engage the World Bank early on with clear strategies and plans on engaging the Diaspora in governance, institution building and service delivery for Africa’s social and economic development.
Another way to ensure the brain drain in Africa is not a total loss for the continent is to proceed from a simple logic. One of the reasons African graduates end up working in developed countries is that employers in western countries need and value them. The solution to brain drain, therefore, is not to try to stop Africans from going to work abroad, but to give African universities and governments the capacity to train more people. One mechanism is to ask employers in the west to reimburse the costs incurred by African countries to train every one of those alumni of our universities working abroad. And, for them, this will be quite a steal. In most African countries, it would take less than $50,000 to train a medical doctor, assuming 5 years of instruction and one year of internship. In a place like the United States, that amount is enough for only one academic year! By employing our alumni, they concede that we trained them well, and cost-effectively. We can do it repeatedly. Why do they not give African universities the capacity to train more, and better, and we can share the output?
Western employers, and even other employers in developing countries can in the very least, pay back the outstanding student loans owed by those they employ.
Engage, not Disengage:
One request I have for the alumni, especially those in the Diaspora, is for them to do much more to promote and encourage faculty and student exchanges with colleges and universities in the countries they reside in.
One of the most memorable characteristic of the Makerere of my time was its East Africanness. At that time it was the only university college in the four East African countries. Kenya, Uganda, Zanzibar and Tanzania were administered by the British, even if they were titularly identified as a colony, a protectorate and a trust territory respecitvely. The student community was a variety of tribal ethnicities and racial make up. There were a few students from Malawi and Zambia and from abroad.
Despite this wide diversity of origins we were a pretty united student community. We were united in our common aspiration to see our countries independent of British rule. There were individual country political groupings. But were reached to each other during important events in the political agenda of transition. We recognised the diversity of cultural traditions, but we were possionately East African. Happenings at East Africa House in London where diaspora fellow students would gather to discuss our region’s future strengthened or embrace at home.
At independence we had the East African High Commission which we later turned into the East African Community. It represented for many of us the precursor of what should have been an integrated East Africa, politically and economically. We decided to part ways in 1977. The rest is history, and in particular the harmful impact the breakdown has had on regional development.
But now a spirit of integration is resurging, and I would like to see Makerere alumni drive this surge. I ask that they renew the East Africanness which historically and inherently characterizes Makerere, to step up the momentum towards East African integration.
When four years ago the leaders of the re-born East African Community agreed on a Common Customs Union the defeatists loudly forecast sharp declines on state revenues. The opposite has traspired and they have been proven wrong. Revenues went up in all three states.
Last week, in Arusha, the five leaders of an enlarged East African Community signed the Protocol for the establishment of an East African Common Market, a great economic leap forward. Again the decision has not lacked its detractors. I ask alumni to take up the cudgels in defense of the Protocol. The Secretariat has illustrated how member states stand to gain with the Common Market. I must ask alumni again to be upfront in advocating its establishment. It is incredible and inexcusable that, in the midst of a global economic crtisis, while developed countries move faster towards their own integration, such as in the EU, poor countries, such as those in our community, should prevaricate and equivocate!!.
International Cooperation in Education
Most western countries have reduced their support to African higher education, including scholarship programs for post-graduate studies abroad on the pretext that they wanted to help us meet the MDG target for basic education. This is a fallacy. No country was ever built by people with only basic education. Governance and institution building, and even entrepreneurship, requires people with higher education and specialized knowledge and skills.
A study conducted to show cross-country correlations between higher education and good governance showed a clear positive and significant correlation between higher education and each of the following indicators of good governance: corruption in government; rule of law; bureaucratic quality; ethnic tensions; repudiation of contracts by government; and risk of expropriation.
Furthermore, the study showed a clear correlation between higher education and entrepreneurial activity. Individuals with higher levels of education have higher levels of entrepreneurial activity.
There is no doubt, therefore, that higher education is absolutely necessary in building strong and capable institutions in our countries, in developing the capacity to compete in the global knowledge economy, and in meeting our development goals. Knowledge has, and will continue to surpass physical capital as a source of wealth. As the 1998-99 World Development Report put it:
“Knowledge is like light. Weightless and intangible, it can
easily travel the world, enlightening the lives of people
everywhere. Yet billions of people still live in the darkness
of poverty-- unnecessarily”.
Education at all levels, including higher education, is the switch to turn on the light. People talk of the “green revolution”. The time has come to talk about an “intellectual revolution”. Our universities must not only develop capacity to deliver relevant curricula to more traditional and non-traditional students, but they have to be strong enough financially and in terms of faculty to do more research, and to develop capacity to acquire, absorb and internalize knowledge from the rest of the world.
It is our educated young people who will provide the capacity “to run more effective governments, develop the business of the future, and build the health and educational systems that make such a difference to the quality of life”.
We may not all be like Stanford University in California that developed the series of technology and entrepreneurship mentoring that produced the Silicon Valley, transforming the world. Nevertheless, we can, still make our own small contribution.
Conclusion:
Mr Chancellor
Ladies and Gentlemen:
There is a Yoruba proverb: “However far the stream flows, it never forgets its source”. So it is with us, alumni. The education we were privileged to get here launched us into various orbits of life experiences and achievement. But we cannot forget Makerere. Today we have the opportunity to show—in both word and deed--that we have not forgotten you, Makerere.
I came here to provoke a debate, not to provide readymade solutions to governance and institutional challenges that Makerere and other universities in Africa face. And having hopefully provoked you sufficiently, I will leave you with the ten most powerful two-letter words in the English language: IF IT IS TO BE, IT IS UP TO ME.
From our diverse origins we have converged here to pay homage and to support our Alma Mater. Together we can do it, and it is up to us. For, as the Archbishop of Canterbury said in Shakespeare’s King Henry V, Act I, sc. 2:
As many arrows, loosed several ways,
Come to one mark; as many ways meet in one town;
As many fresh streams meet in one salt sea;
As many lines close in the dial's centre;
So may a thousand actions, once afoot.
End in one purpose, and be all well borne
Without defeat…
One purpose, well borne, without defeat.
May fortune recover her eyesight and be just in the distribution of her favours.
I thank you for your kind attention.
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Home >>> Speech by H.E. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni President-Elect of the Republic of Uganda At the swearing in Speech by H.E. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni President-Elect of the Republic of Uganda At the swearing in Mon, 2011-05-16 First of all, I congratulate all the Ugandans for the peaceful elections held on the 18th of February, 2011 and other elections held since that date. Secondly, I thank the Ugandans for overwhelmingly voting for me with 68.3%, the NRM Members of Parliament with 73%, District Leaders (LCV) with 79% Sub-County leaders (LCIII) with 71%. I also congratulate the opposition parties on the seats they got in Parliament, the District Council seats they got and the Sub-County positions they won. The landslide win by the NRM should inform all and sundry that the people of Uganda are, politically, mature people. They are able to disregard lies put out by opportunists and stand on the truth. In the last 45 years, the NRM position is well known. We reject reactionary ideology and stand for progressive ideas. We reject sectarianism as well as parochialism and stand for nationalism. We reject puppetry and stand for the genuine independence of Uganda and other African countries. We reject stagnation of the Ugandan society and stand for its rapid transformation into a modern society. In spite of the initial scarce resources, we have made huge advances in the last 25 years. We now have 8 million children in the primary schools, 1.5 million children in the secondary schools, 120,000 students in the universities and 53,729 in tertiary institutions. In 1986, the comparable figures were: 2.5 million children in the primary schools, 190,000 children in the secondary schools, 5,000 students in the university and 27,205 in tertiary institutions. We only had one university. We now have 28 universities (both public and private). In a period of almost 90 years, between 1894 when the British colonized Uganda and 1986 when the NRM took over Government, we had only 28,000 telephone lines. We now have over 14 million telephone lines. I can continue to bring out the NRM achievements in every sector. However, these examples suffice to highlight this point. The NRM stands for Pan-Africanism, which translates into economic and political integration. We are very happy with the market of 130 million people of the East African Community. We are happy with the COMESA market of over 400 million people. We are also working for the political integration of East Africa together with our partners of Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi. The massive victory by the NRM in the February 2011 elections, therefore, was a triumph of progress and even revolutionary ideology over reactionary ideology. It was a triumph of Uganda’s patriotism over sectarianism and opportunism. We won overwhelming victory in all the regions of Uganda. Since creation, this is the first time Ugandans have coalesced into such a consensus. I would, therefore, call upon those who have been pushing sectarian ideas and pushing opportunism to join the national consensus instead of being desperate and embarking on disruptive schemes. Those disruptive schemes will be defeated just like the previous opportunistic schemes have been defeated. Uganda is now on the verge of take-off to become a middle income country by 2016. In order for Uganda to accelerate her speed to a middle income status, we need to resolve one issue. Just as you cannot build a house without a foundation (musingyi, oruhazo), you cannot build a modern economy without modern infrastructure. By this, we mean: electricity, roads, the railway, piped water, telephones, ICT network, media, as well as social infrastructure in the form of schools, colleges, health units, etc. The importance of these elements of infrastructure is two fold. Social infrastructure produces healthy, educated and skilled human resource. The economic infrastructure, on the other hand, is very useful for the economy because it lowers the costs of doing business in the economy and, therefore, enterprises become more profitable. This, in turn, attracts more enterprises to Uganda which create more jobs, widens the tax base, etc. The area of telephone infrastructure has been catered for by the private sector as already indicated above. In the area of piped water, at least, all the major towns are properly served now. We need to expand piped water to the trading centres and the villages. Using a Chinese loan, we have built the fibre optic cable for ICT network. The private sector and, to some extent the Government, are handling well the issue of media infrastructure. The Government has long handled the issue of the education infrastructure. We now have 148,720 classrooms, built with permanent materials, compared to 21,959 classrooms in 1986. Similarly, the Government has been handling the issue of health infrastructure. There are now, for instance, 166 Health Centre IVs compared to1986 when there was nothing. It is, therefore, the main cost pushers in the economy that need to be addressed. These are electricity, roads and the railways. These have been badly addressed, not only here in Uganda, but also in other African countries. There is a useful measurement I have been using to highlight the big mistake Africa has been finding itself in. This is kilo watt hour (kWh) per capita. Countries like the USA have got a kWh per capita of 12,500. Uganda, on the other hand, has got a kWh per capita of only 70. In 1986, it was 21 kWh per capita. Many African countries have, similarly, very low kWh per capita, even those that have been peaceful all the time since independence. I blame the technocratic staff for this mistake. I also blame the 6th Parliament for part of this mistake. Since I discovered this mistake, I have pushed for fast movement on this issue. By next year, when Bujagali and other mini-hydro stations are finished, Uganda’s kWh per capita will be 100. By 2016, when Karuma, Ayago and Isimba are ready, our kWh per capita will be 500. To be sure that we do not waste any more time, we are going to use our own money for much of this work. If private capital is available on terms that will ensure low tariffs for consumers and there will be no delays in the execution of projects, then, we shall welcome it. You can see what a big struggle we have to make up for lost time. Using largely our own money, we shall also work on the roads, on the railway, on A’ level free education, university student loans as well as on scientific innovations and research as per our manifesto. To achieve these goals we need discipline and the rule of law. Regarding the current short term problems of increased fuel prices and increased food prices, we are looking at the option of buying in fuel bulk and also the option of approaching the Government of Southern Sudan. I am told that buying in bulk lowers prices. I am also told that fuel in Juba is cheaper. In fact, some of our people from West Nile are already using that fuel, especially diesel. I intend to approach the Government of Southern Sudan to see the possibilities. In the next 3 years, we shall be using our own fuel after the building of the Refinery is finished. We are also analyzing the price of fuel up to Eldoret. Is it all justified? On the issue of food, predictions are showing that this is a temporary problem. We are likely to have a bumper harvest. The prices will normalize. In the short run we are going to encourage micro-irrigation based on individual farms. The Ministry of Finance will encourage the importation of the necessary equipment for micro-irrigation – sprinklers, hoses, etc., or making them here, locally. Farmers can, however, use very simple methods, such as the plastic water bottles. You fill a bottle with water, make a small hole in the bottle and put it next to the plant. The plant will grow very well. We also need to emphasize the use of fertilizers. All these harvests we achieve, we attain without the use of fertilizers – 10 million metric tones of bananas, 4 million bags of coffee, etc. With fertilizers, we are going to produce much more. I am, however, told that fertilizers should be used carefully because they can also spoil the soils. The increased demand for food in the world and the region is good for the farmers of Uganda and for the economy of our country. We, however, need to work out mechanism of stabilizing food prices for the urban-dwellers and salary-earners in towns. All this should be done without interfering with the foundation projects I have talked about above – electricity, roads, the railway, education and health. Our research scientists are struggling with solutions for the banana and coffee wilt. I demand that the scientists put out a programme of action through the Ministry of Agriculture. On the issue of mega-irrigations in Karamoja, the Mount Elgon area, the Rwenzori area, the plan is that the programmes will be handled in the 3rd or 4th year of this Government. Our emphasis, for the first two years, will be on electricity, roads, the railway, scientific research and innovation, A’ level education for free and the student loans for universities. The Minister of Finance is also working on the question of the issue of silos for storage. In all these projects, we are going to use our own money. If we can secure a soft loan from the funding Agencies, we would start on the mega-irrigation schemes soon. On the health, we are continuing to crack down on the theft of drugs from health centres by health workers. In the medium term, we shall look at the question of salaries for doctors and health workers. Again, without interfering with the foundation activities, we will be happy to raise the salaries of health workers and other scientists. I thank all the Ugandans who supported us in the last elections. Continue to support the NRM. My Government will, however, serve all Ugandans as always including those who did not support us. I thank you very much. Kololo - 12th May 2011 Related Image Galleries: President Museveni swears for the forth elective term of Office President Yoweri K. Museveni swears for the forth elective term of Office on 12 May 2011 at Kololo. Home >>> Speech by H.E. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni President-Elect of the Republic of Uganda At the swearing in Speech by H.E. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni President-Elect of the Republic of Uganda At the swearing in Mon, 2011-05-16 First of all, I congratulate all the Ugandans for the peaceful elections held on the 18th of February, 2011 and other elections held since that date. Secondly, I thank the Ugandans for overwhelmingly voting for me with 68.3%, the NRM Members of Parliament with 73%, District Leaders (LCV) with 79% Sub-County leaders (LCIII) with 71%. I also congratulate the opposition parties on the seats they got in Parliament, the District Council seats they got and the Sub-County positions they won. The landslide win by the NRM should inform all and sundry that the people of Uganda are, politically, mature people. They are able to disregard lies put out by opportunists and stand on the truth. In the last 45 years, the NRM position is well known. We reject reactionary ideology and stand for progressive ideas. We reject sectarianism as well as parochialism and stand for nationalism. We reject puppetry and stand for the genuine independence of Uganda and other African countries. We reject stagnation of the Ugandan society and stand for its rapid transformation into a modern society. In spite of the initial scarce resources, we have made huge advances in the last 25 years. We now have 8 million children in the primary schools, 1.5 million children in the secondary schools, 120,000 students in the universities and 53,729 in tertiary institutions. In 1986, the comparable figures were: 2.5 million children in the primary schools, 190,000 children in the secondary schools, 5,000 students in the university and 27,205 in tertiary institutions. We only had one university. We now have 28 universities (both public and private). In a period of almost 90 years, between 1894 when the British colonized Uganda and 1986 when the NRM took over Government, we had only 28,000 telephone lines. We now have over 14 million telephone lines. I can continue to bring out the NRM achievements in every sector. However, these examples suffice to highlight this point. The NRM stands for Pan-Africanism, which translates into economic and political integration. We are very happy with the market of 130 million people of the East African Community. We are happy with the COMESA market of over 400 million people. We are also working for the political integration of East Africa together with our partners of Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi. The massive victory by the NRM in the February 2011 elections, therefore, was a triumph of progress and even revolutionary ideology over reactionary ideology. It was a triumph of Uganda’s patriotism over sectarianism and opportunism. We won overwhelming victory in all the regions of Uganda. Since creation, this is the first time Ugandans have coalesced into such a consensus. I would, therefore, call upon those who have been pushing sectarian ideas and pushing opportunism to join the national consensus instead of being desperate and embarking on disruptive schemes. Those disruptive schemes will be defeated just like the previous opportunistic schemes have been defeated. Uganda is now on the verge of take-off to become a middle income country by 2016. In order for Uganda to accelerate her speed to a middle income status, we need to resolve one issue. Just as you cannot build a house without a foundation (musingyi, oruhazo), you cannot build a modern economy without modern infrastructure. By this, we mean: electricity, roads, the railway, piped water, telephones, ICT network, media, as well as social infrastructure in the form of schools, colleges, health units, etc. The importance of these elements of infrastructure is two fold. Social infrastructure produces healthy, educated and skilled human resource. The economic infrastructure, on the other hand, is very useful for the economy because it lowers the costs of doing business in the economy and, therefore, enterprises become more profitable. This, in turn, attracts more enterprises to Uganda which create more jobs, widens the tax base, etc. The area of telephone infrastructure has been catered for by the private sector as already indicated above. In the area of piped water, at least, all the major towns are properly served now. We need to expand piped water to the trading centres and the villages. Using a Chinese loan, we have built the fibre optic cable for ICT network. The private sector and, to some extent the Government, are handling well the issue of media infrastructure. The Government has long handled the issue of the education infrastructure. We now have 148,720 classrooms, built with permanent materials, compared to 21,959 classrooms in 1986. Similarly, the Government has been handling the issue of health infrastructure. There are now, for instance, 166 Health Centre IVs compared to1986 when there was nothing. It is, therefore, the main cost pushers in the economy that need to be addressed. These are electricity, roads and the railways. These have been badly addressed, not only here in Uganda, but also in other African countries. There is a useful measurement I have been using to highlight the big mistake Africa has been finding itself in. This is kilo watt hour (kWh) per capita. Countries like the USA have got a kWh per capita of 12,500. Uganda, on the other hand, has got a kWh per capita of only 70. In 1986, it was 21 kWh per capita. Many African countries have, similarly, very low kWh per capita, even those that have been peaceful all the time since independence. I blame the technocratic staff for this mistake. I also blame the 6th Parliament for part of this mistake. Since I discovered this mistake, I have pushed for fast movement on this issue. By next year, when Bujagali and other mini-hydro stations are finished, Uganda’s kWh per capita will be 100. By 2016, when Karuma, Ayago and Isimba are ready, our kWh per capita will be 500. To be sure that we do not waste any more time, we are going to use our own money for much of this work. If private capital is available on terms that will ensure low tariffs for consumers and there will be no delays in the execution of projects, then, we shall welcome it. You can see what a big struggle we have to make up for lost time. Using largely our own money, we shall also work on the roads, on the railway, on A’ level free education, university student loans as well as on scientific innovations and research as per our manifesto. To achieve these goals we need discipline and the rule of law. Regarding the current short term problems of increased fuel prices and increased food prices, we are looking at the option of buying in fuel bulk and also the option of approaching the Government of Southern Sudan. I am told that buying in bulk lowers prices. I am also told that fuel in Juba is cheaper. In fact, some of our people from West Nile are already using that fuel, especially diesel. I intend to approach the Government of Southern Sudan to see the possibilities. In the next 3 years, we shall be using our own fuel after the building of the Refinery is finished. We are also analyzing the price of fuel up to Eldoret. Is it all justified? On the issue of food, predictions are showing that this is a temporary problem. We are likely to have a bumper harvest. The prices will normalize. In the short run we are going to encourage micro-irrigation based on individual farms. The Ministry of Finance will encourage the importation of the necessary equipment for micro-irrigation – sprinklers, hoses, etc., or making them here, locally. Farmers can, however, use very simple methods, such as the plastic water bottles. You fill a bottle with water, make a small hole in the bottle and put it next to the plant. The plant will grow very well. We also need to emphasize the use of fertilizers. All these harvests we achieve, we attain without the use of fertilizers – 10 million metric tones of bananas, 4 million bags of coffee, etc. With fertilizers, we are going to produce much more. I am, however, told that fertilizers should be used carefully because they can also spoil the soils. The increased demand for food in the world and the region is good for the farmers of Uganda and for the economy of our country. We, however, need to work out mechanism of stabilizing food prices for the urban-dwellers and salary-earners in towns. All this should be done without interfering with the foundation projects I have talked about above – electricity, roads, the railway, education and health. Our research scientists are struggling with solutions for the banana and coffee wilt. I demand that the scientists put out a programme of action through the Ministry of Agriculture. On the issue of mega-irrigations in Karamoja, the Mount Elgon area, the Rwenzori area, the plan is that the programmes will be handled in the 3rd or 4th year of this Government. Our emphasis, for the first two years, will be on electricity, roads, the railway, scientific research and innovation, A’ level education for free and the student loans for universities. The Minister of Finance is also working on the question of the issue of silos for storage. In all these projects, we are going to use our own money. If we can secure a soft loan from the funding Agencies, we would start on the mega-irrigation schemes soon. On the health, we are continuing to crack down on the theft of drugs from health centres by health workers. In the medium term, we shall look at the question of salaries for doctors and health workers. Again, without interfering with the foundation activities, we will be happy to raise the salaries of health workers and other scientists. I thank all the Ugandans who supported us in the last elections. Continue to support the NRM. My Government will, however, serve all Ugandans as always including those who did not support us. I thank you very much. Kololo - 12th May 2011 Related Image Galleries: President Museveni swears for the forth elective term of Office President Yoweri K. Museveni swears for the forth elective term of Office on 12 May 2011 at Kololo.
Home >>> Speech by H.E. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni President-Elect of the Republic of Uganda At the swearing in
Speech by H.E. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni President-Elect of the Republic of Uganda At the swearing in
Mon, 2011-05-16
First of all, I congratulate all the Ugandans for the peaceful elections held on the 18th of February, 2011 and other elections held since that date. Secondly, I thank the Ugandans for overwhelmingly voting for me with 68.3%, the NRM Members of Parliament with 73%, District Leaders (LCV) with 79% Sub-County leaders (LCIII) with 71%. I also congratulate the opposition parties on the seats they got in Parliament, the District Council seats they got and the Sub-County positions they won.
The landslide win by the NRM should inform all and sundry that the people of Uganda are, politically, mature people. They are able to disregard lies put out by opportunists and stand on the truth. In the last 45 years, the NRM position is well known. We reject reactionary ideology and stand for progressive ideas. We reject sectarianism as well as parochialism and stand for nationalism. We reject puppetry and stand for the genuine independence of Uganda and other African countries. We reject stagnation of the Ugandan society and stand for its rapid transformation into a modern society. In spite of the initial scarce resources, we have made huge advances in the last 25 years.
We now have 8 million children in the primary schools, 1.5 million children in the secondary schools, 120,000 students in the universities and 53,729 in tertiary institutions. In 1986, the comparable figures were: 2.5 million children in the primary schools, 190,000 children in the secondary schools, 5,000 students in the university and 27,205 in tertiary institutions. We only had one university. We now have 28 universities (both public and private). In a period of almost 90 years, between 1894 when the British colonized Uganda and 1986 when the NRM took over Government, we had only 28,000 telephone lines. We now have over 14 million telephone lines.
I can continue to bring out the NRM achievements in every sector. However, these examples suffice to highlight this point. The NRM stands for Pan-Africanism, which translates into economic and political integration. We are very happy with the market of 130 million people of the East African Community. We are happy with the COMESA market of over 400 million people. We are also working for the political integration of East Africa together with our partners of Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi. The massive victory by the NRM in the February 2011 elections, therefore, was a triumph of progress and even revolutionary ideology over reactionary ideology.
It was a triumph of Uganda’s patriotism over sectarianism and opportunism. We won overwhelming victory in all the regions of Uganda. Since creation, this is the first time Ugandans have coalesced into such a consensus. I would, therefore, call upon those who have been pushing sectarian ideas and pushing opportunism to join the national consensus instead of being desperate and embarking on disruptive schemes. Those disruptive schemes will be defeated just like the previous opportunistic schemes have been defeated. Uganda is now on the verge of take-off to become a middle income country by 2016. In order for Uganda to accelerate her speed to a middle income status, we need to resolve one issue. Just as you cannot build a house without a foundation (musingyi, oruhazo), you cannot build a modern economy without modern infrastructure. By this, we mean: electricity, roads, the railway, piped water, telephones, ICT network, media, as well as social infrastructure in the form of schools, colleges, health units, etc.
The importance of these elements of infrastructure is two fold. Social infrastructure produces healthy, educated and skilled human resource. The economic infrastructure, on the other hand, is very useful for the economy because it lowers the costs of doing business in the economy and, therefore, enterprises become more profitable. This, in turn, attracts more enterprises to Uganda which create more jobs, widens the tax base, etc. The area of telephone infrastructure has been catered for by the private sector as already indicated above. In the area of piped water, at least, all the major towns are properly served now. We need to expand piped water to the trading centres and the villages. Using a Chinese loan, we have built the fibre optic cable for ICT network. The private sector and, to some extent the Government, are handling well the issue of media infrastructure.
The Government has long handled the issue of the education infrastructure. We now have 148,720 classrooms, built with permanent materials, compared to 21,959 classrooms in 1986. Similarly, the Government has been handling the issue of health infrastructure. There are now, for instance, 166 Health Centre IVs compared to1986 when there was nothing. It is, therefore, the main cost pushers in the economy that need to be addressed. These are electricity, roads and the railways. These have been badly addressed, not only here in Uganda, but also in other African countries.
There is a useful measurement I have been using to highlight the big mistake Africa has been finding itself in. This is kilo watt hour (kWh) per capita. Countries like the USA have got a kWh per capita of 12,500. Uganda, on the other hand, has got a kWh per capita of only 70. In 1986, it was 21 kWh per capita. Many African countries have, similarly, very low kWh per capita, even those that have been peaceful all the time since independence. I blame the technocratic staff for this mistake. I also blame the 6th Parliament for part of this mistake. Since I discovered this mistake, I have pushed for fast movement on this issue. By next year, when Bujagali and other mini-hydro stations are finished, Uganda’s kWh per capita will be 100. By 2016, when Karuma, Ayago and Isimba are ready, our kWh per capita will be 500. To be sure that we do not waste any more time, we are going to use our own money for much of this work. If private capital is available on terms that will ensure low tariffs for consumers and there will be no delays in the execution of projects, then, we shall welcome it. You can see what a big struggle we have to make up for lost time. Using largely our own money, we shall also work on the roads, on the railway, on A’ level free education, university student loans as well as on scientific innovations and research as per our manifesto.
To achieve these goals we need discipline and the rule of law. Regarding the current short term problems of increased fuel prices and increased food prices, we are looking at the option of buying in fuel bulk and also the option of approaching the Government of Southern Sudan. I am told that buying in bulk lowers prices. I am also told that fuel in Juba is cheaper. In fact, some of our people from West Nile are already using that fuel, especially diesel. I intend to approach the Government of Southern Sudan to see the possibilities. In the next 3 years, we shall be using our own fuel after the building of the Refinery is finished. We are also analyzing the price of fuel up to Eldoret. Is it all justified? On the issue of food, predictions are showing that this is a temporary problem. We are likely to have a bumper harvest. The prices will normalize. In the short run we are going to encourage micro-irrigation based on individual farms. The Ministry of Finance will encourage the importation of the necessary equipment for micro-irrigation – sprinklers, hoses, etc., or making them here, locally.
Farmers can, however, use very simple methods, such as the plastic water bottles. You fill a bottle with water, make a small hole in the bottle and put it next to the plant. The plant will grow very well. We also need to emphasize the use of fertilizers. All these harvests we achieve, we attain without the use of fertilizers – 10 million metric tones of bananas, 4 million bags of coffee, etc. With fertilizers, we are going to produce much more. I am, however, told that fertilizers should be used carefully because they can also spoil the soils. The increased demand for food in the world and the region is good for the farmers of Uganda and for the economy of our country. We, however, need to work out mechanism of stabilizing food prices for the urban-dwellers and salary-earners in towns. All this should be done without interfering with the foundation projects I have talked about above – electricity, roads, the railway, education and health.
Our research scientists are struggling with solutions for the banana and coffee wilt. I demand that the scientists put out a programme of action through the Ministry of Agriculture. On the issue of mega-irrigations in Karamoja, the Mount Elgon area, the Rwenzori area, the plan is that the programmes will be handled in the 3rd or 4th year of this Government. Our emphasis, for the first two years, will be on electricity, roads, the railway, scientific research and innovation, A’ level education for free and the student loans for universities. The Minister of Finance is also working on the question of the issue of silos for storage.
In all these projects, we are going to use our own money. If we can secure a soft loan from the funding Agencies, we would start on the mega-irrigation schemes soon. On the health, we are continuing to crack down on the theft of drugs from health centres by health workers. In the medium term, we shall look at the question of salaries for doctors and health workers. Again, without interfering with the foundation activities, we will be happy to raise the salaries of health workers and other scientists. I thank all the Ugandans who supported us in the last elections. Continue to support the NRM. My Government will, however, serve all Ugandans as always including those who did not support us.
I thank you very much.
Kololo - 12th May 2011
Related Image Galleries:
President Museveni swears for the forth elective term of Office
President Yoweri K. Museveni swears for the forth elective term of Office on 12 May 2011 at Kololo.
Speech by H.E. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni President-Elect of the Republic of Uganda At the swearing in
Mon, 2011-05-16
First of all, I congratulate all the Ugandans for the peaceful elections held on the 18th of February, 2011 and other elections held since that date. Secondly, I thank the Ugandans for overwhelmingly voting for me with 68.3%, the NRM Members of Parliament with 73%, District Leaders (LCV) with 79% Sub-County leaders (LCIII) with 71%. I also congratulate the opposition parties on the seats they got in Parliament, the District Council seats they got and the Sub-County positions they won.
The landslide win by the NRM should inform all and sundry that the people of Uganda are, politically, mature people. They are able to disregard lies put out by opportunists and stand on the truth. In the last 45 years, the NRM position is well known. We reject reactionary ideology and stand for progressive ideas. We reject sectarianism as well as parochialism and stand for nationalism. We reject puppetry and stand for the genuine independence of Uganda and other African countries. We reject stagnation of the Ugandan society and stand for its rapid transformation into a modern society. In spite of the initial scarce resources, we have made huge advances in the last 25 years.
We now have 8 million children in the primary schools, 1.5 million children in the secondary schools, 120,000 students in the universities and 53,729 in tertiary institutions. In 1986, the comparable figures were: 2.5 million children in the primary schools, 190,000 children in the secondary schools, 5,000 students in the university and 27,205 in tertiary institutions. We only had one university. We now have 28 universities (both public and private). In a period of almost 90 years, between 1894 when the British colonized Uganda and 1986 when the NRM took over Government, we had only 28,000 telephone lines. We now have over 14 million telephone lines.
I can continue to bring out the NRM achievements in every sector. However, these examples suffice to highlight this point. The NRM stands for Pan-Africanism, which translates into economic and political integration. We are very happy with the market of 130 million people of the East African Community. We are happy with the COMESA market of over 400 million people. We are also working for the political integration of East Africa together with our partners of Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi. The massive victory by the NRM in the February 2011 elections, therefore, was a triumph of progress and even revolutionary ideology over reactionary ideology.
It was a triumph of Uganda’s patriotism over sectarianism and opportunism. We won overwhelming victory in all the regions of Uganda. Since creation, this is the first time Ugandans have coalesced into such a consensus. I would, therefore, call upon those who have been pushing sectarian ideas and pushing opportunism to join the national consensus instead of being desperate and embarking on disruptive schemes. Those disruptive schemes will be defeated just like the previous opportunistic schemes have been defeated. Uganda is now on the verge of take-off to become a middle income country by 2016. In order for Uganda to accelerate her speed to a middle income status, we need to resolve one issue. Just as you cannot build a house without a foundation (musingyi, oruhazo), you cannot build a modern economy without modern infrastructure. By this, we mean: electricity, roads, the railway, piped water, telephones, ICT network, media, as well as social infrastructure in the form of schools, colleges, health units, etc.
The importance of these elements of infrastructure is two fold. Social infrastructure produces healthy, educated and skilled human resource. The economic infrastructure, on the other hand, is very useful for the economy because it lowers the costs of doing business in the economy and, therefore, enterprises become more profitable. This, in turn, attracts more enterprises to Uganda which create more jobs, widens the tax base, etc. The area of telephone infrastructure has been catered for by the private sector as already indicated above. In the area of piped water, at least, all the major towns are properly served now. We need to expand piped water to the trading centres and the villages. Using a Chinese loan, we have built the fibre optic cable for ICT network. The private sector and, to some extent the Government, are handling well the issue of media infrastructure.
The Government has long handled the issue of the education infrastructure. We now have 148,720 classrooms, built with permanent materials, compared to 21,959 classrooms in 1986. Similarly, the Government has been handling the issue of health infrastructure. There are now, for instance, 166 Health Centre IVs compared to1986 when there was nothing. It is, therefore, the main cost pushers in the economy that need to be addressed. These are electricity, roads and the railways. These have been badly addressed, not only here in Uganda, but also in other African countries.
There is a useful measurement I have been using to highlight the big mistake Africa has been finding itself in. This is kilo watt hour (kWh) per capita. Countries like the USA have got a kWh per capita of 12,500. Uganda, on the other hand, has got a kWh per capita of only 70. In 1986, it was 21 kWh per capita. Many African countries have, similarly, very low kWh per capita, even those that have been peaceful all the time since independence. I blame the technocratic staff for this mistake. I also blame the 6th Parliament for part of this mistake. Since I discovered this mistake, I have pushed for fast movement on this issue. By next year, when Bujagali and other mini-hydro stations are finished, Uganda’s kWh per capita will be 100. By 2016, when Karuma, Ayago and Isimba are ready, our kWh per capita will be 500. To be sure that we do not waste any more time, we are going to use our own money for much of this work. If private capital is available on terms that will ensure low tariffs for consumers and there will be no delays in the execution of projects, then, we shall welcome it. You can see what a big struggle we have to make up for lost time. Using largely our own money, we shall also work on the roads, on the railway, on A’ level free education, university student loans as well as on scientific innovations and research as per our manifesto.
To achieve these goals we need discipline and the rule of law. Regarding the current short term problems of increased fuel prices and increased food prices, we are looking at the option of buying in fuel bulk and also the option of approaching the Government of Southern Sudan. I am told that buying in bulk lowers prices. I am also told that fuel in Juba is cheaper. In fact, some of our people from West Nile are already using that fuel, especially diesel. I intend to approach the Government of Southern Sudan to see the possibilities. In the next 3 years, we shall be using our own fuel after the building of the Refinery is finished. We are also analyzing the price of fuel up to Eldoret. Is it all justified? On the issue of food, predictions are showing that this is a temporary problem. We are likely to have a bumper harvest. The prices will normalize. In the short run we are going to encourage micro-irrigation based on individual farms. The Ministry of Finance will encourage the importation of the necessary equipment for micro-irrigation – sprinklers, hoses, etc., or making them here, locally.
Farmers can, however, use very simple methods, such as the plastic water bottles. You fill a bottle with water, make a small hole in the bottle and put it next to the plant. The plant will grow very well. We also need to emphasize the use of fertilizers. All these harvests we achieve, we attain without the use of fertilizers – 10 million metric tones of bananas, 4 million bags of coffee, etc. With fertilizers, we are going to produce much more. I am, however, told that fertilizers should be used carefully because they can also spoil the soils. The increased demand for food in the world and the region is good for the farmers of Uganda and for the economy of our country. We, however, need to work out mechanism of stabilizing food prices for the urban-dwellers and salary-earners in towns. All this should be done without interfering with the foundation projects I have talked about above – electricity, roads, the railway, education and health.
Our research scientists are struggling with solutions for the banana and coffee wilt. I demand that the scientists put out a programme of action through the Ministry of Agriculture. On the issue of mega-irrigations in Karamoja, the Mount Elgon area, the Rwenzori area, the plan is that the programmes will be handled in the 3rd or 4th year of this Government. Our emphasis, for the first two years, will be on electricity, roads, the railway, scientific research and innovation, A’ level education for free and the student loans for universities. The Minister of Finance is also working on the question of the issue of silos for storage.
In all these projects, we are going to use our own money. If we can secure a soft loan from the funding Agencies, we would start on the mega-irrigation schemes soon. On the health, we are continuing to crack down on the theft of drugs from health centres by health workers. In the medium term, we shall look at the question of salaries for doctors and health workers. Again, without interfering with the foundation activities, we will be happy to raise the salaries of health workers and other scientists. I thank all the Ugandans who supported us in the last elections. Continue to support the NRM. My Government will, however, serve all Ugandans as always including those who did not support us.
I thank you very much.
Kololo - 12th May 2011
Related Image Galleries:
President Museveni swears for the forth elective term of Office
President Yoweri K. Museveni swears for the forth elective term of Office on 12 May 2011 at Kololo.
Prof Joe Oloka-Onyango: Uganda - What needs undoing
Friday, 6 May 2011
Prof Joe Oloka-Onyango: Uganda - What needs undoing
Written by Joe Oloka-Onyango
Wednesday, 04 May 2011 18:56
No democracy relies so much on the military
Makerere University law professor, Joe Oloka-Onyango, made a presentation at the Inter-Religious Council of Uganda (IRCU) post-election 2011 conference in Kampala on April 27, 2011.
President Museveni, who closed the conference, was very critical of Prof Oloka’s presentation, accusing him of poisoning the minds of “our children”.
Below, the Observer Newspaper reproduced a slightly edited version of the paper that got Museveni so worked up.
Today my first message to you is: Pray for Uganda!
But as you pray, I urge you not only to think of matters spiritual. Rather, I ask you to think of religion today as a means through which we can correct the many ailments that afflict us, and for you to go back to the manner in which the founders of the world’s great religions used their power: not as a means to guarantee that their flock grow in number, but as a mechanism for enlightenment and caution.
Today I want to urge you to face the main challenges of governance confronting the country and to step out from your mosques, churches and temples and confront the evils we are facing head on. In other words, as you pray, please keep one eye open!
I have been asked to examine the key governance challenges we face in Uganda today. I want to focus on what needs to be undone. In other words, what things do we need to rid ourselves of in order to improve the state of governance as we approach the swearing-in ceremony of a new/old government and move into the next five years of NRM rule? In order to answer that question, it is necessary for us to take a small step back in history.
When 42-year-old guerilla leader Yoweri Kaguta Museveni emerged from the five-year bush war to claim the presidency of Uganda in 1986, he was proclaimed as a great redeemer. Although there were many questions as to whether he had the credentials to lead such a decimated and demoralized population out of the doldrums, there can be little doubt that Uganda has done fairly well under his steerage.
It is not for me to sing the praises of the government, but even the most ardent critic must admit that Uganda is no longer “the Sick Man of Africa” that it used to be in the 1980s. Twenty five years later, Museveni remains at the helm of Ugandan politics, and on February 18, 2011, he received yet another endorsement in an election that extends his term in power until 2016.
He has already entered the record books as East Africa’s longest-serving leader, outstripping both the late Julius Kambarage Nyerere of Tanzania and Kenyan ex-President Daniel arap Moi. By the end of this 6th term, Museveni will be 72 years old, and at 30 years in power will join the ranks of Africa’s longest, among them, Paul Biya of Cameroon, Angolan president Eduardo dos Santos and the beleaguered Muammar el Gaddafi.
But it will also be the time to ask whether Museveni’s legacy will be that of the former Tanzanian president, who left office still loved and revered, or a figure of tragedy and hatred like Moi? Indeed, as North Africa witnesses the nine-pin like collapse of long-term dictatorships starting with Tunisia and spreading like wildfire, it is necessary to inquire how it is that Museveni won the February 18 election, and what lessons this has for political struggle and freedom in Uganda.
Drawing on Libya for comparison is particularly apt since Museveni has long been an ally of Muammar Abu Minyar al Gaddafi. You will recall that on one of many trips to Kampala, the eccentric leader of the Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya urged Museveni to stay in office for life, arguing that revolutionaries are not like company Managing Directors.
The former do not retire from office! It is a lesson Museveni took to heart, removing presidential term limits from the constitution in 2005, and setting himself well on the way to a de facto life presidency.
But before we look to the future, we need to return to the past, especially to understand the recent election. What explains Museveni’s February victory, especially given that while largely predicted, the margin by which he won (68% of the presidential vote and 75% for his National Resistance Movement in the parliamentary poll) stunned many!
We need to compare this margin with the three previous elections in 1996 (when he won with 75%), in 2001 (69%) and in 2006 (59%). According to the pundits who filled the radio airwaves before the poll, while still popular and dominant and thus likely to win, the downward trend would continue. Some even predicted that there would be a run-off because the 50.1% margin would not be scaled in the first round. The other issue of surprise was the relative calm and lack of violence that attended the election.
Most foreign observers, from the European Union to the US government, described the vote as generally peaceful, free of bloodshed and largely a “free and genuine” expression of the wishes of the Ugandan people. It was only the African Union (AU) that declined outright to describe the poll as “free and fair”.
The local media described it as the “most boring” poll in recent history, lacking as it did much of the drama, intrigue and confrontation that Ugandans had become accustomed to. It is thus not surprising that Museveni’s rap ditty, ’Give Me My Stick/You Want Another Rap?’ garnered more attention than the substantive issues at stake.
Not yet multi-party
To fully comprehend the outcome of Uganda’s recent poll, it is necessary to understand a number of basic facts. The first is that Uganda is yet to become a functioning multiparty democracy. For the first nineteen years of Museveni rule, we operated under a “no-party” or “movement” system of government, which was little better than a single-party state.
Under that system, government and party institutions overlapped right from the lowest level (resistance or local councils) through to Parliament. Indeed, in many respects Museveni took a leaf from Gaddafi’s popular councils, creating these LCs as supposedly representative of grassroots democracy, but essentially a cover for single-party dominance.
Today, many of the no-party structures remain intact and operative. They function as the main conduits of political mobilisation and for the channeling of state resources, buttressed by a massive local bureaucracy of government agents and spies.
These include the Local Councils (especially 1 and 2), and although they may appear insignificant, they in fact play a crucial role in governance in the country. Indeed, that system remains intact, and only this week we were advised by the Electoral Commission that elections for the lower levels of local government would be postponed, yet again.
It is clear that not only is the postponement illegal, it also reflects a reluctance on the part of the ruling party to make the final necessary transition from the movement to a multi-party political system of governance.
Power of incumbency
We also need to recall that in most countries it is very difficult to remove incumbent governments through an electoral process. In the history of African electoral democracy, only a handful of ruling parties have lost a poll.
In Uganda, the fact of incumbency guaranteed President Museveni unfettered access to state coffers, such that the NRM reportedly spent $350 million in the campaign. Whether or not this is true, we have not yet received a proper accounting of how much the NRM [or indeed any other party] spent and from where they received this money; already, this means that we are being held hostage to the lack of transparency and the underhand nature of politics that we thought we had long left behind.
Indeed, the enduring image of the past several months has been that of the President handing out brown envelopes stashed with cash for various women, youth and other types of civic groupings. I don’t know if religious leaders were also beneficiaries of this largesse. If you were, then you must acknowledge that you have become part of the problem. For in those envelopes lies a key aspect of the problem: the phenomenon of institutionalized corruption that has become the hallmark of this regime.
Militarised context
The other reason for Museveni’s victory lies in the highly-militarised context within which politics and governance in Uganda is executed. We know that after five years of civil war (1981 to 1986), and twenty-plus years of insurgency in the north of the country, Uganda has virtually never been free from conflict. Unsurprisingly, the idea of peace and security occupy a very significant position within the national psyche.
For older Ugandans there is some fear of a reversion to earlier more chaotic times, while for the younger generation who have only experienced Museveni, the claim that he has restored peace has a particular resonance. Ironically, both groups also fear that if Museveni lost an election, he would never accept the result, and instead would either return to the bush or cause such great instability that it is not worth it to even think about an alternative candidate.
This explains what to many is the most surprising outcome of the election: Museveni’s victory in northern Uganda despite facing two sons-of-the-soil in ex-diplomat Olara Otunnu and the youthful Norbert Mao.
I believe that the looming presence of the military also explains why the turnout for the election at 59% was much lower than any of the previous three polls, where figures were closer to 70%. Many people simply stayed at home, partly out of apathy, but more on account of the fact that the streets of Kampala and other parts of the country were swamped with military personnel.
Any visitor to Uganda over the election period would not be wrong to question whether the country was not a military dictatorship. Moreover, and unfortunately, the Uganda Peoples Defence Forces (UPDF) is more akin to the army in Libya than that it is in Egypt.
UPDF is not well known for exercising restraint when dealing with civilian insurrection or politically-motivated opposition. Indeed, when the red berets and the green uniforms come out on the streets you know that there will be correspondingly higher casualties. That is why we should condemn the increased militarisation of the political context.
It is why we should demand that instead of spending on jets, tear gas and APCs, we need more [money] to be spent on roads, hospitals and our UPE schools.
No opposition parties
Museveni’s performance in the north reflects the other side to the story, and that is the fact that Museveni is only as good as the opposition he faces. The dismal performance of the opposition is attributable to a host of factors, not least of which is the fact that there are really no opposition parties in Uganda.
Rather, there are only opposition personalities epitomized by three-time presidential contender, Col. (rtd) Kizza Besigye of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) who have constructed around themselves weak or non-existent party structures that only come to life in the run up to the election.
During the election Uganda’s opposition seemed to lack a firm ideological position, and while the death of ideology is an ailment affecting the ruling NRM too, its absence among the opposition has proven particularly harmful as there is a lack of a central organizing message around which the opposition can translate obvious disgust and support against Museveni into electoral victory.
Thus, at the start of the election season, the opposition wavered between a united front against Museveni or a boycott, citing the bias of the Electoral Commission and the unlevel playing field.
As we are all aware, neither option was adopted, and at the end of the day all major opposition parties decided to field candidates in both the presidential and parliamentary elections, while decrying the inequality in the contest.
It is important and ironic to note that the opposition may have found a more united voice after the election. This is in the Walk-to-Work (W2W) protests. The fact that the government has failed to find a suitable response to this opposition unity speaks volumes of the foundations on which the February 18 victory rest.
Most importantly, the W2W protests demonstrate that Ugandans can be mobilized around issues as opposed to the mobilization of fear (“we brought you peace”), the mobilization of money (brown envelopes), or the mobilization of elite benefits (the promise of new ministries and the creation of more unviable districts).
At the end of the day, while President Museveni’s victory is not much of a surprise, and in the short run ensures the continued charade of economic and political stability that has characterized the last two decades, I would like to suggest that it portends considerable apprehension for the future of the country.
Museveni character
While the President has dismissed comparisons with the fallen dictators of north Africa, there are indeed many parallels. First of all, the state in Uganda has assumed what can only be described as a ‘Musevenist’ character, such that an election such as the recent one can only be an exercise in endorsement of the incumbent, complete with his iconized symbolic hat.
This is because the leadership of the state was afflicted with the disease I have described as ‘stayism’ for which the antidote has never been an election. Secondly, the Ugandan state has also devolved to a situation in which there is little to distinguish between the personal and the political, and where it is increasingly being marked by the growth of what can only be described as family or personal rule.
Thirdly, we are in very real danger of beginning an era of dynastic politics. While President Museveni has only one son (in comparison to Gaddafi’s seven), Muhoozi Kainerugaba is clearly being groomed for greater things. Thus, he has taken charge of the Presidential Guard Brigade, the elite force designed to guarantee his father’s personal security, and he recently wrote a book about the bush war, to burnish his credentials as an intellectual-cum-soldier able to fit into his father’s rather large shoes.
This is clearly the same path that Ben Ali, Mubarak and Gaddafi pursued, only to find themselves thwarted by the movement of the people. While it may be true that revolutionaries don’t retire, if there is no other lesson of the recent northern African upheavals, it is that revolutionaries can be forced to resign. It is all simply a matter of time.
It is important for us to underscore a number of lessons [from North Africa] that cannot be ignored:
1. Regardless of the size of the military apparatus one constructs, even the most powerful of regimes can be brought down;
2. Resistance and reaction to poor governance can come from anywhere, even from those who are weakest or most marginalized; it is not necessarily the elite or opposition political forces who lead movements for change, and
3. The terrorism of hunger is much more dangerous than the terrorism of so-called terrorists.
Finally, given all that we have seen above, how do we go about undoing the political damage and rebuilding Uganda’s democracy?
1. We need to begin by undoing the tendency towards political monopoly, and to tackle the desire to absolutely dominate the political arena to the exclusion of any contending force, and particularly the burning desire to try to eliminate all forms of opposition to the existing system of governance. In this regard we need to undo unlimited presidential terms and end the phenomenon of longevity in office;
2. We need to force the ruling party to accept that opposition in a multiparty system is a fact of life; the sooner the NRM learns to live with it the better; it thus needs to adapt its methods of response from coercion and abuse, to dialogue and compromise.
We need to undo the detention-without-trial of political opponents like Besigye and Mao and of all the other political activists who have been detained as a result of the W2W strikes, and of earlier events such as the September 2009 (pro-Kabaka) uprising.
3. We need to undo the links between the state and the ruling (NRM) party, first by undertaking a full audit of where and how the NRM raised the resources to finance the last election and secondly through establishing a permanent Political Party Oversight Commission made up of civil society actors, academicians, peasants, religious leaders, and other individuals and groups from all walks of life, with the goal of ensuring that all political parties adhere to the constitution and work towards the expansion of democratic space, rather than its contraction.
4. We need to undo the legal manipulation and the misuse and abuse of law and of the constitution in order to achieve sectarian political objectives. In particular, we need to condemn and combat the constant shifting of the goalposts when the existing ones do not suit the achievement of a particular political objective. We also need to undo the infrastructure of intolerance and exclusion that is manifest in the following laws:
a. The Institution of Cultural and Traditional Leaders Bill;
b. The NGO Act, HIV/AIDS Act, The Equal Opportunities Commission Act, The Anti-Homosexuality Bill, etc.
5. We need to undo the use of coercive (particularly militaristic) methods to achieve political objectives, of which we have seen numerous examples, culminating with the W2W shootings last week.
There is no other country in the world that lays claim to being a democracy which so extensively relies on the military. We are fed up of the notoriety of the Rapid Response Unit (RRU), the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI) and of para-military shadow militias like the Black Mamba; the PGB and the many Generals who have invaded political life. We need to remove the UPDF from directly involving itself in politics as is normally the case in a functioning multiparty system.
6. We need to undo the hypocrisy that claims the high moral ground when we are mired in CORRUPTION, a corruption which has become institutionalized and ‘normal’, and which begins and ends in state house.
7. We need to stop ignoring the youth and treating them like they are the ‘leaders of tomorrow’ or else they will take up arms against us today.
8. We need to undo the monopoly of political power that is exercised only by political actors. All of us have to become politicians; hence while the President’s call for talks with the opposition is welcome, it cannot be a discussion only between the NRM and opposition parties; we also want to be heard and to make sure that no deals are made behind our backs.
Hence, there is a need for a national convention of all civil and social groupings to decide on the future course of the country.
Ladies and gentlemen, we need to stop being complacent about our country. We will wake up and find it gone!
The author is professor of law at Makerere University and head of the Human Rights Peace Centre (HURIPEC).
Prof Joe Oloka-Onyango: Uganda - What needs undoing
Written by Joe Oloka-Onyango
Wednesday, 04 May 2011 18:56
No democracy relies so much on the military
Makerere University law professor, Joe Oloka-Onyango, made a presentation at the Inter-Religious Council of Uganda (IRCU) post-election 2011 conference in Kampala on April 27, 2011.
President Museveni, who closed the conference, was very critical of Prof Oloka’s presentation, accusing him of poisoning the minds of “our children”.
Below, the Observer Newspaper reproduced a slightly edited version of the paper that got Museveni so worked up.
Today my first message to you is: Pray for Uganda!
But as you pray, I urge you not only to think of matters spiritual. Rather, I ask you to think of religion today as a means through which we can correct the many ailments that afflict us, and for you to go back to the manner in which the founders of the world’s great religions used their power: not as a means to guarantee that their flock grow in number, but as a mechanism for enlightenment and caution.
Today I want to urge you to face the main challenges of governance confronting the country and to step out from your mosques, churches and temples and confront the evils we are facing head on. In other words, as you pray, please keep one eye open!
I have been asked to examine the key governance challenges we face in Uganda today. I want to focus on what needs to be undone. In other words, what things do we need to rid ourselves of in order to improve the state of governance as we approach the swearing-in ceremony of a new/old government and move into the next five years of NRM rule? In order to answer that question, it is necessary for us to take a small step back in history.
When 42-year-old guerilla leader Yoweri Kaguta Museveni emerged from the five-year bush war to claim the presidency of Uganda in 1986, he was proclaimed as a great redeemer. Although there were many questions as to whether he had the credentials to lead such a decimated and demoralized population out of the doldrums, there can be little doubt that Uganda has done fairly well under his steerage.
It is not for me to sing the praises of the government, but even the most ardent critic must admit that Uganda is no longer “the Sick Man of Africa” that it used to be in the 1980s. Twenty five years later, Museveni remains at the helm of Ugandan politics, and on February 18, 2011, he received yet another endorsement in an election that extends his term in power until 2016.
He has already entered the record books as East Africa’s longest-serving leader, outstripping both the late Julius Kambarage Nyerere of Tanzania and Kenyan ex-President Daniel arap Moi. By the end of this 6th term, Museveni will be 72 years old, and at 30 years in power will join the ranks of Africa’s longest, among them, Paul Biya of Cameroon, Angolan president Eduardo dos Santos and the beleaguered Muammar el Gaddafi.
But it will also be the time to ask whether Museveni’s legacy will be that of the former Tanzanian president, who left office still loved and revered, or a figure of tragedy and hatred like Moi? Indeed, as North Africa witnesses the nine-pin like collapse of long-term dictatorships starting with Tunisia and spreading like wildfire, it is necessary to inquire how it is that Museveni won the February 18 election, and what lessons this has for political struggle and freedom in Uganda.
Drawing on Libya for comparison is particularly apt since Museveni has long been an ally of Muammar Abu Minyar al Gaddafi. You will recall that on one of many trips to Kampala, the eccentric leader of the Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya urged Museveni to stay in office for life, arguing that revolutionaries are not like company Managing Directors.
The former do not retire from office! It is a lesson Museveni took to heart, removing presidential term limits from the constitution in 2005, and setting himself well on the way to a de facto life presidency.
But before we look to the future, we need to return to the past, especially to understand the recent election. What explains Museveni’s February victory, especially given that while largely predicted, the margin by which he won (68% of the presidential vote and 75% for his National Resistance Movement in the parliamentary poll) stunned many!
We need to compare this margin with the three previous elections in 1996 (when he won with 75%), in 2001 (69%) and in 2006 (59%). According to the pundits who filled the radio airwaves before the poll, while still popular and dominant and thus likely to win, the downward trend would continue. Some even predicted that there would be a run-off because the 50.1% margin would not be scaled in the first round. The other issue of surprise was the relative calm and lack of violence that attended the election.
Most foreign observers, from the European Union to the US government, described the vote as generally peaceful, free of bloodshed and largely a “free and genuine” expression of the wishes of the Ugandan people. It was only the African Union (AU) that declined outright to describe the poll as “free and fair”.
The local media described it as the “most boring” poll in recent history, lacking as it did much of the drama, intrigue and confrontation that Ugandans had become accustomed to. It is thus not surprising that Museveni’s rap ditty, ’Give Me My Stick/You Want Another Rap?’ garnered more attention than the substantive issues at stake.
Not yet multi-party
To fully comprehend the outcome of Uganda’s recent poll, it is necessary to understand a number of basic facts. The first is that Uganda is yet to become a functioning multiparty democracy. For the first nineteen years of Museveni rule, we operated under a “no-party” or “movement” system of government, which was little better than a single-party state.
Under that system, government and party institutions overlapped right from the lowest level (resistance or local councils) through to Parliament. Indeed, in many respects Museveni took a leaf from Gaddafi’s popular councils, creating these LCs as supposedly representative of grassroots democracy, but essentially a cover for single-party dominance.
Today, many of the no-party structures remain intact and operative. They function as the main conduits of political mobilisation and for the channeling of state resources, buttressed by a massive local bureaucracy of government agents and spies.
These include the Local Councils (especially 1 and 2), and although they may appear insignificant, they in fact play a crucial role in governance in the country. Indeed, that system remains intact, and only this week we were advised by the Electoral Commission that elections for the lower levels of local government would be postponed, yet again.
It is clear that not only is the postponement illegal, it also reflects a reluctance on the part of the ruling party to make the final necessary transition from the movement to a multi-party political system of governance.
Power of incumbency
We also need to recall that in most countries it is very difficult to remove incumbent governments through an electoral process. In the history of African electoral democracy, only a handful of ruling parties have lost a poll.
In Uganda, the fact of incumbency guaranteed President Museveni unfettered access to state coffers, such that the NRM reportedly spent $350 million in the campaign. Whether or not this is true, we have not yet received a proper accounting of how much the NRM [or indeed any other party] spent and from where they received this money; already, this means that we are being held hostage to the lack of transparency and the underhand nature of politics that we thought we had long left behind.
Indeed, the enduring image of the past several months has been that of the President handing out brown envelopes stashed with cash for various women, youth and other types of civic groupings. I don’t know if religious leaders were also beneficiaries of this largesse. If you were, then you must acknowledge that you have become part of the problem. For in those envelopes lies a key aspect of the problem: the phenomenon of institutionalized corruption that has become the hallmark of this regime.
Militarised context
The other reason for Museveni’s victory lies in the highly-militarised context within which politics and governance in Uganda is executed. We know that after five years of civil war (1981 to 1986), and twenty-plus years of insurgency in the north of the country, Uganda has virtually never been free from conflict. Unsurprisingly, the idea of peace and security occupy a very significant position within the national psyche.
For older Ugandans there is some fear of a reversion to earlier more chaotic times, while for the younger generation who have only experienced Museveni, the claim that he has restored peace has a particular resonance. Ironically, both groups also fear that if Museveni lost an election, he would never accept the result, and instead would either return to the bush or cause such great instability that it is not worth it to even think about an alternative candidate.
This explains what to many is the most surprising outcome of the election: Museveni’s victory in northern Uganda despite facing two sons-of-the-soil in ex-diplomat Olara Otunnu and the youthful Norbert Mao.
I believe that the looming presence of the military also explains why the turnout for the election at 59% was much lower than any of the previous three polls, where figures were closer to 70%. Many people simply stayed at home, partly out of apathy, but more on account of the fact that the streets of Kampala and other parts of the country were swamped with military personnel.
Any visitor to Uganda over the election period would not be wrong to question whether the country was not a military dictatorship. Moreover, and unfortunately, the Uganda Peoples Defence Forces (UPDF) is more akin to the army in Libya than that it is in Egypt.
UPDF is not well known for exercising restraint when dealing with civilian insurrection or politically-motivated opposition. Indeed, when the red berets and the green uniforms come out on the streets you know that there will be correspondingly higher casualties. That is why we should condemn the increased militarisation of the political context.
It is why we should demand that instead of spending on jets, tear gas and APCs, we need more [money] to be spent on roads, hospitals and our UPE schools.
No opposition parties
Museveni’s performance in the north reflects the other side to the story, and that is the fact that Museveni is only as good as the opposition he faces. The dismal performance of the opposition is attributable to a host of factors, not least of which is the fact that there are really no opposition parties in Uganda.
Rather, there are only opposition personalities epitomized by three-time presidential contender, Col. (rtd) Kizza Besigye of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) who have constructed around themselves weak or non-existent party structures that only come to life in the run up to the election.
During the election Uganda’s opposition seemed to lack a firm ideological position, and while the death of ideology is an ailment affecting the ruling NRM too, its absence among the opposition has proven particularly harmful as there is a lack of a central organizing message around which the opposition can translate obvious disgust and support against Museveni into electoral victory.
Thus, at the start of the election season, the opposition wavered between a united front against Museveni or a boycott, citing the bias of the Electoral Commission and the unlevel playing field.
As we are all aware, neither option was adopted, and at the end of the day all major opposition parties decided to field candidates in both the presidential and parliamentary elections, while decrying the inequality in the contest.
It is important and ironic to note that the opposition may have found a more united voice after the election. This is in the Walk-to-Work (W2W) protests. The fact that the government has failed to find a suitable response to this opposition unity speaks volumes of the foundations on which the February 18 victory rest.
Most importantly, the W2W protests demonstrate that Ugandans can be mobilized around issues as opposed to the mobilization of fear (“we brought you peace”), the mobilization of money (brown envelopes), or the mobilization of elite benefits (the promise of new ministries and the creation of more unviable districts).
At the end of the day, while President Museveni’s victory is not much of a surprise, and in the short run ensures the continued charade of economic and political stability that has characterized the last two decades, I would like to suggest that it portends considerable apprehension for the future of the country.
Museveni character
While the President has dismissed comparisons with the fallen dictators of north Africa, there are indeed many parallels. First of all, the state in Uganda has assumed what can only be described as a ‘Musevenist’ character, such that an election such as the recent one can only be an exercise in endorsement of the incumbent, complete with his iconized symbolic hat.
This is because the leadership of the state was afflicted with the disease I have described as ‘stayism’ for which the antidote has never been an election. Secondly, the Ugandan state has also devolved to a situation in which there is little to distinguish between the personal and the political, and where it is increasingly being marked by the growth of what can only be described as family or personal rule.
Thirdly, we are in very real danger of beginning an era of dynastic politics. While President Museveni has only one son (in comparison to Gaddafi’s seven), Muhoozi Kainerugaba is clearly being groomed for greater things. Thus, he has taken charge of the Presidential Guard Brigade, the elite force designed to guarantee his father’s personal security, and he recently wrote a book about the bush war, to burnish his credentials as an intellectual-cum-soldier able to fit into his father’s rather large shoes.
This is clearly the same path that Ben Ali, Mubarak and Gaddafi pursued, only to find themselves thwarted by the movement of the people. While it may be true that revolutionaries don’t retire, if there is no other lesson of the recent northern African upheavals, it is that revolutionaries can be forced to resign. It is all simply a matter of time.
It is important for us to underscore a number of lessons [from North Africa] that cannot be ignored:
1. Regardless of the size of the military apparatus one constructs, even the most powerful of regimes can be brought down;
2. Resistance and reaction to poor governance can come from anywhere, even from those who are weakest or most marginalized; it is not necessarily the elite or opposition political forces who lead movements for change, and
3. The terrorism of hunger is much more dangerous than the terrorism of so-called terrorists.
Finally, given all that we have seen above, how do we go about undoing the political damage and rebuilding Uganda’s democracy?
1. We need to begin by undoing the tendency towards political monopoly, and to tackle the desire to absolutely dominate the political arena to the exclusion of any contending force, and particularly the burning desire to try to eliminate all forms of opposition to the existing system of governance. In this regard we need to undo unlimited presidential terms and end the phenomenon of longevity in office;
2. We need to force the ruling party to accept that opposition in a multiparty system is a fact of life; the sooner the NRM learns to live with it the better; it thus needs to adapt its methods of response from coercion and abuse, to dialogue and compromise.
We need to undo the detention-without-trial of political opponents like Besigye and Mao and of all the other political activists who have been detained as a result of the W2W strikes, and of earlier events such as the September 2009 (pro-Kabaka) uprising.
3. We need to undo the links between the state and the ruling (NRM) party, first by undertaking a full audit of where and how the NRM raised the resources to finance the last election and secondly through establishing a permanent Political Party Oversight Commission made up of civil society actors, academicians, peasants, religious leaders, and other individuals and groups from all walks of life, with the goal of ensuring that all political parties adhere to the constitution and work towards the expansion of democratic space, rather than its contraction.
4. We need to undo the legal manipulation and the misuse and abuse of law and of the constitution in order to achieve sectarian political objectives. In particular, we need to condemn and combat the constant shifting of the goalposts when the existing ones do not suit the achievement of a particular political objective. We also need to undo the infrastructure of intolerance and exclusion that is manifest in the following laws:
a. The Institution of Cultural and Traditional Leaders Bill;
b. The NGO Act, HIV/AIDS Act, The Equal Opportunities Commission Act, The Anti-Homosexuality Bill, etc.
5. We need to undo the use of coercive (particularly militaristic) methods to achieve political objectives, of which we have seen numerous examples, culminating with the W2W shootings last week.
There is no other country in the world that lays claim to being a democracy which so extensively relies on the military. We are fed up of the notoriety of the Rapid Response Unit (RRU), the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI) and of para-military shadow militias like the Black Mamba; the PGB and the many Generals who have invaded political life. We need to remove the UPDF from directly involving itself in politics as is normally the case in a functioning multiparty system.
6. We need to undo the hypocrisy that claims the high moral ground when we are mired in CORRUPTION, a corruption which has become institutionalized and ‘normal’, and which begins and ends in state house.
7. We need to stop ignoring the youth and treating them like they are the ‘leaders of tomorrow’ or else they will take up arms against us today.
8. We need to undo the monopoly of political power that is exercised only by political actors. All of us have to become politicians; hence while the President’s call for talks with the opposition is welcome, it cannot be a discussion only between the NRM and opposition parties; we also want to be heard and to make sure that no deals are made behind our backs.
Hence, there is a need for a national convention of all civil and social groupings to decide on the future course of the country.
Ladies and gentlemen, we need to stop being complacent about our country. We will wake up and find it gone!
The author is professor of law at Makerere University and head of the Human Rights Peace Centre (HURIPEC).
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