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Makerere VC should resign for disgracing university, says MUASA boss

Our Reporter
 
The chairman of the Makerere University Academic Staff Association has asked Prof. Venansius Baryamureeba to step down as Acting Vice Chancellor and save the nine-decade-old institution from further embarrassment.

In an email sent out to staff members Tuesday, Dr. Tanga Odoi requested senior professors to help persuade Prof. Baryamureeba to resign for engaging in practices that are “so shaming” to one of Africa’s famous institutions of higher learning.

“As VC, one is expected to be a clean leader and not black paint on the institution,” wrote Dr. Tanga in an email that The Campus Journal News Website has seen. “Where VBs (Venansius Baryamureeba’s) case has reached is so shaming to this institution. The choice VB has of now is to either throw in the towel or keep fighting till the gates of Luzira Prison closes in with him.”

Dr. Tanga’s call comes as Prof. Baryamureeba faces probe after probe for allegedly masterminding fraud after fraud, including mismanaging donor funds meant for postgraduate students and forging some of his academic qualifications. The embattled VC has also been accused of rape in the recent past.

This record of alleged of awful behavior, Dr. Tanga says, does not give Makerere a good image. Prof. Baryamureeba didn’t respond to repeated calls and an email by this news website. His office, instead, refereed us to the University Public Relations Officer, Ms. Ritah Namisango, who said, “No comment from the VC. But at the institutional level, the University Council which is the supreme governing body of the university has not asked him to resign. Prof. Baryamureeba is still the Acting Vice Chancellor.”


Origin of Barya’s troubles
Our investigation suggests that the professor’s troubles trace origin in the Faculty of Computing and Information Technology which he transformed into a modern and lucrative institute and which he headed until he became VC in 2009.

As Barya left for the topmost office, he was determined to retain total control over Makerere’s wealthiest faculty.  In an election whose results were predetermined, Barya managed to have Dr. Josephine Nabukenya as Dean of the faculty, sidelining and indeed annoying more experienced and more qualified members of staff, including Prof. Edris Rai who eventually left to head the State University of Zanzibar. But even Dr. Nabukenya wasn’t ready to dance to Barya’s tune.

Disappointed and infuriated by her commitment to self-determination, Barya slashed Josephine's deanship allowance from sh.7 million to 3 million, sparking off a cold war that has so far shown no sign of ending in Barya’s triumph.

Barya and Josephine, once close and probably intimate friends, started conflicting bitterly until they could not talk to each other anymore.


Transition to college system
The introduction of the college system last year, which saw related faculties merge to form colleges, gave the VC the opportunity to reward loyalists and punish traitors. Barya appointed his loyalists to head the colleges as principals and deputy principals, rendering faculty deans, including Josephine, practically redundant and virtually ceremonial.

Josephine watched helplessly as Dr. John Ngubiri, whom she considered her junior both in experience and in competence, was being elevated to the post of deputy principal of the college of computing. This was too much to endure.

It is this frustration that drove Josephine to team up with other academics who saw in Baryamureeba their formidable competitor who had risen to prominence in such a short time and who was bent on dominating the university for some good time. Our investigation suggests it is Josephine providing Barya’s opponents, including Tanga Odoi, with information about the vice chancellor’s past vices, including his mismanagement of funds from the Netherlands Masters Scholarships for Developing Countries.

Dr. Josephine’s information has strengthened Byramureeba’s adversaries, including influential professors whom Dr. Tanga is now mobilizing to deal a final blow to the weakened VC.

“l request senior Professors like Profs Sabiti, Ndolerire, Jjuko, Ben, Kyamanywa, Tickodri, Kabasa, Kirumira, Lonzy, Ddumba, Keremire, etc to try and talk [to] him (Prof. Baryamureeba) to see reason and step aside. The Chancellor and Chair Council would listen to these wise Professors more than listening to a small but weird Tanga,” Dr. Tanga’s email reads.