Nawangwe’s Makerere mess

Many lecturers who felt some of their colleagues, including Muhwezi, were unfairly fired from the university resolved not to return to class on Jan.19 when the university re-opened for the second semester unless their grievances are heard by management.

Muhwezi who lectures in the Department of Forestry, Biodiversity and Tourism had given an interview to The Independent in which he referred to Nawangwe’s new rules as draconian. He said Makerere University was now presided over by demi gods who use draconian rule other than systems under the pretext of causing discipline.

For him, universities should be places where free speech thrives and people are accommodative of others views. He said Intellectuals debate and disagree to generate knowledge and progress. When this is branded indiscipline, he warned knowledge generation dies.

He told The Independent on Jan.20 that he was not surprised when, a week later, he was fired. He said he knew his time was coming when, in April 2018, he was warned to desist from talking about the problems at Uganda’s oldest institution; especially about the disrespect of their employment terms by the Chairman of the Appointments Board.

“The letter suspending me was very vague, harsh, in bad faith and against all laws of this country. It even undermines my rights as a citizen to have access to my official home, public buildings and related services. It portrays me as a criminal” he said. He refused to hand over as the letter instructed him because, he said, it was illegal. Instead he said he was going to court.

If he goes to court, this will be the 5th case in court against the university and its administrators. Already, four cases have been filed in the High Court since 2016. Two have been settled out of court.

Now, pressure seems to be piling on the 63-year old professor of architecture who has only been at the helm of the institution since September 2017. His denial hasn’t lasted long. Demands for explanations intensified, not just from his students and staff but the public too that’s why on Jan.22, Nawangwe again took to his Facebook wall.

“It is interesting to see so many people jumping up to shed crocodile tears about the suspension of Deus Kamunyu. Deus was suspended for his personal transgressions and not as Chair of MUASA. Where were you all when Deus was busy damaging the reputation of council, management and many colleagues who have worked for long to build their reputation?”

“Appropriate measures have to be taken to restore sanity when aggravated indiscipline sets in,” he said in a post.

Now, the feeling is that Makerere’s problems may not be about to end under Nawangwe.  They might worsen. And, the administration seems to be realising this. This could be why he has set up a full directorate to manage communications, away from the Public Relations office which is being run by Rita Namisango. He announced on Jan.21, that the new directorate would also handle the institution’s international relations and is to be manned by Muhwezi’s predecessor in MUASA, Muhammad Kiggundu.

In an interview on Jan.24, Kiggundu said he plans to build a system that ensures that the administration works well with the university associations. He spoke of reconciliation. But the sweet talk comes at a time when all leaders of associations – Bennet Magara of the Administrative Staff Association, his General Secretary Joseph Kalema, and MUASA’s Muhwezi have been suspended.

When asked about Nawangwe’s approach of firing, Kiggundu was cagey.

“Tempers might have flared because he (Nawangwe) felt juniors were climbing on his table,” he said, “Every human being errors but management is coming up with an agenda to calm this show down that has been on for long”.

Without divulging into details, he said already the chairperson of University Council; the governing body had scheduled meetings with various stakeholders to find a way out.

CEO Vs Vice Chancellor

But, education policy experts like Morrison Rwakakamba say, meetings such as proposed rarely provide a permanent fix to the institution’s problems.

Rwakakamba faulted Nawangwe’s top heavy mechanistic approach to administration but, he said, the problem at Makerere might be bigger than Nawangwe himself.

“What we are seeing is a collapse of a proper management system which has been further aggravated by an approach of firing lecturers and expelling students,” he said.

“I am not saying that he shouldn’t crack the whip. He should do this after all the others have failed.  Even when firing is decided clear process should be followed involving giving the culprit a chance to be heard”.

Considering that issues of strikes always came up even with previous administrations, including Ddumba who came off soft spoken, calm, and accommodative, Rwakakamba says it’s time to rethink who should preside over such institutions.

To him universities in Africa and Uganda should now look beyond the requirement for one to be leader of the university being a professor or to have supervised a certain number of graduate students. The leader of a university should be a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) with clear Key Performance Indicators.  “If a professor also has managerial competencies that would be fine but the requirements such as one has to have taught at the institution for a certain period, a professor has ended. Big universities all over the world are now considering CEOs,” he said.

He said the current method of choosing top leaders at Makerere is archaic and will kill the university. He said appointing a CEO would signal a new direction; that it is an institution of higher learning determined to become a top center for research, innovation and driver of the national economy.