What is Makerere’s real problem?

Since assuming the reigns of Makerere University’s top job last year, Prof Barnabas Nawangwe has attempted to stamp his authority with sweeping reforms to the never ending list of Makerere’s problems.
Like his predecessors, however, Prof Nawangwe is already facing criticism with some of his reforms and radical proposals turning him into the main focus of not only the usual critics, but even politicians.
Makerere has perennially referred to inadequate financing, saying the government financial allocation to the institution is too small and intermittent. But the way the institution is managed has also been queried on a number of occasions.
A committee President Museveni tasked to investigate Makerere’s problems issued a report but it appears consensus has not yet been fully built, and some say Prof Nawangwe and the university council are ahead of themselves in implementing some of the report’s recommendations.
Controversial decisions on hiking fees for postgraduate courses, phasing out evening programmes in some colleges are two of the so many. Questions have been asked, including how such decisions are reached. Is Prof Nawangwe’s diagnosis of the problem accurate?

Money issues
From the proposals Prof Nawangwe and his team have put forward, it looks like the university’s problems are all financial and, if by some luck or benevolence hundreds of billions of shillings are pumped into the university coffers, everything will return to normal.
In interviews with people privy to how the university operates, it becomes apparent that money can change a lot of things at Makerere, but up to a certain extent. Makerere’s problems are both internal (within the university) and external (mainly politics of the day) outside the institution.
Sources at the university point to what they term as a culture of abuse of authority and misuse of the university’s resources with impunity.
The abuse, sources say, starts at the helm—the university council—which is the supreme governing body of the university and one that ideally is supposed to curb on the excesses at the institution.
One official told Sunday Monitor that powers of the human resource department have been usurped and when they are exercised, the same is also done unprofessionally. There are allegations, for example, that a section of the university council has not only taken over the recruitment function, but that the same is heavily biased.
Dr Deus Muhwezi Kamunyu, the Makerere University Academic Staff Association (Muasa) chairperson confirms the allegations, saying he too has received complaints from administrative staff.
He, for example, says the university council should be empowered to perform its duty as the policy organ by government, reforming the same and giving it necessary autonomy to work. Other allegations point to “conflict of interest” and “insider trading” being rampantly practiced in the university.
“You cannot have a meaningful fiscal reform with such outlawed practices in management. Such practices and many others demoralise staff and promote impunity in processes. You cannot be an auditor or an accountant in an organisation, for example, and then be its pre-qualified supplier of goods. You cannot be a council member or a member of management and at then have personal business interests in the same organisation,” a top official who did not want to be named told Sunday Monitor.
“This cannot work and Prof Nawangwe must confront this first. The support function is somehow dead and it does not flow without pushing anymore. To get your voucher raised and paid on time, you must follow it up like crazy. Otherwise you would never be paid or meet deadlines,” the official added.
To sort out the mess, Dr Kamunyu says it will, in the end, be a question of leadership.
“It is important to introduce reforms, but like I have always said before, Makerere University needs a practical leader with a grip on management, one who deeply appreciates priorities of a university. Corrupt leaders who are less interested in the good governance of the university and tranquillity can never reform it even if they have a thousand ideas,” he said.
After various probes and hundreds of pages in reports since the early 90s, it is no longer an issue of what, but how, to implement any supposed reform. Makerere University, insiders says, has all it takes to be financially healthy and run as a best practice university, but its management must get committed to best practices.
To do this, the university has to deal with the elephant in the room which is value for money. To achieve this, the university will have to optimally deploy both its financial resources and human resources being the most critical.
“Makerere University is and has for long been sustained by its robust human capital amidst all difficulties and any manager who undermines this with swiping statements like ‘go if you want’ instead of motivating and harnessing them to be more productive would fail it straight away,” a top university official who did not want to be named told Sunday Monitor.
The “go if you want” statement is attributed to Prof Nawangwe, a claim he denies. “I didn’t say anything like that. I work with everybody and everybody must do their work,” he says.
But Dr Kamunyu says: “I know Prof Nawangwe has best intentions for Makerere but this cannot be a statement to show optimism. It is right analysis, mobilisation of effort and action [that is needed]. He can never do it alone without his fellow academic and non-academic staff.”