Higher education chief warns students against greed for power

Bugema. 

National Council for Higher Education Executive Director, Opuda-Asibo, has told the youth to tame their greed for power. 

Additionally, he said, they should tamper down their love for money. 

“I want to congratulate you and to remind you to avoid drugs, corruption, theft, greed for money and the greed for power,” Prof. Opuda-Asibo told Bugema University graduands on Sunday in Bugema, 30 kilometres North of Kampala. 

He did not contextualise his advice. 

It is known though that unemployment and underemployment are driving many youth to elective politics.

Prof. Opuda-Asibo’s counsel also comes at a time when before Parliament is a Bill that seeks to lower from 30 the age at which one will be eligible to contest for a district chairperson’s seat.

The bill also proposes the deletion from the Constitution the 75 years old cap for presidential candidates, which some argue is discriminatory. 

Prof. Opuda-Asibo told the graduands to also ‘take charge of their hormones’.

“Those hormones, at this age, can be killer hormones. Please control them. Avoid AIDS,” he said. 

According to a February 2017 press release by the United Nations Uganda Country Office, Uganda registers 230 HIV new infections in a day. 

Furthermore, that despite widely available anti–retroviral therapy, 76 persons die of HIV/AIDS–related causes every single day. 

To check HIV/AIDS, President Museveni has for long been preaching abstinence from sex, until marriage.

When many finally decide to marry, many a religious group will ask the bachelors and spinsters to first undergo blood tests to establish their HIV/AIDS status. 

Having known their status, they can then make informed choices. 

In case one cannot control the urge to have sex, they are urged to use sheaths, which the government often distributes for free. 

And, many public facilities stock sheaths in their lavatories. 

Bugema University’s Vice Chancellor, Patrick Manu, urged the graduands to come up with new and great ideas to address societal problems. 

"The world is in need of people who can think through the social problems..." Prof.Manu said.