MAKERERE – The row between Makerere University Council and the lecturers has taken a new twist after the Vice-Chancellor, Prof Barnabas Nawangwe, asked the academic staff to apologize to the council for discrediting its work in a letter to Education Minister Janet Museveni.
Lecturers under their umbrella body, the Makerere University Academic Staff Association (MUASA), on August 15 wrote to Ms Museveni, asking her to dissolve the university council over underperformance.
And now Prof Nawangwe has said MUASA should withdraw their petition to the minister and apologize to the council members for damaging their respective reputation in the petition.
“…your petition, which was widely circulated in the mass media, was intended to discredit the current council and deny her of recognition for her tremendous contribution to the university and I would advise Ms Museveni to dismiss it with the contempt it deserves. I also advise you to withdraw your petition and apologize to the council,” the Vice Chancellor’s letter to MUASA reads in part.
In the letter to Ms Museveni, Dr Deus Kamunyu, the chairperson of MUASA, accused the council of, among others, financial mismanagement and blamed the declining student enrolment on its poor decisions.
However, Prof Nawangwe said the approach of confronting the stakeholders in the university will not work.
“Let me take this opportunity to call upon the MUASA leadership to abandon the course of confrontation with practically all stakeholders, which you have apparently adopted. This will not build our university,” he said.
The Vice Chancellor also revealed that only 15 MUASA members out of 2,500 academic staff passed the vote of no confidence which is procedurally wrong.
According to the Universities and Other Tertiary Tuition Act 2001, the university council is a supreme organ of the public university and it’s responsible for the overall administration of the objects and functions of the university and responsible for the direction of the administrative, financial and academic affairs of the university, among others.
In the letter to Ms Museveni, MUASA said: “In our recent general assembly of 3 August and adjourned, members observed with great concern the persistent decline in the overall performance of the university council in playing their oversight role. The assembly passed a vote of no confidence in the current university council and resolved that you should dissolve it with immediate effect.”
