When professors strike, what should villagers do?

I have always known the role of education as one to change decisions especially where matters of problem solving are concerned.

I must emphasize that for me, a problem is the distance between where one is and where they see themselves in the near future. So much do I believe in my understanding of education that I think that there ought to be a significant difference between the solutions to problems offered by the educated class from those offered by those who did not go through a mind-altering system that I just called education?

This is whyrnI strongly believe that it is very okay for “villagers” to use strikes as arnmeans of dealing with their grievances because that is all they know. After all,rnthey have not been through a system that teaches intricate, complex, effectivernand researched methods of problem solving that comes with the refinement of universityrneducation. When university professors, who are paid by the Ugandan farmers torninculcate problem-solving skills in their children, employ the same methodsrntheir unschooled contemporaries use, you are at pains to ask: what then is thernuse of education?

I am notrnsuggesting that the problems at Makerere University should remain unsolved. Farrnfrom it. In actual fact, I am one of those that think that Makerere has enoughrnproblems to question whether its professors do research at all. We are talkingrnabout a university that graduates administrators with its administrative issuesrnmaking it known to all and sundry that they are going away as soon as EnglishrnPremier League Club Arsenal wins the next league trophy. What I am suggesting isrnthat the solutions to Makerere’s problems should be taken very seriously by itsrneducated educators if that deliberate repetition for emphasis makes sense atrnall.

The reason Irnargue as I do here is that there is something called an implicit argument. Forrninstance, if you are in Kampala it means by implication that you are also notrnat home. You have no choice but to read both arguments. So I am sure that itrnmatters that professors also look at the implicit arguments their problemrnsolving method also known as industrial action means especially as read by thern“villagers” that pay them to educate their children.

My motherrnwho is not a professor taught me as a child that striking in principle wasrnunethical and wrong. If you chose for very good reason not to eat as a means ofrncommunicating any grievances then you got more than you bargained for so thatrnyou give up on that particular means of seeking redress. I also want to askrnwhen are we going to determine who ought to strike and who should not? What arernthe parameters of this enterprise? Should those who serve these professors alsornuse the same means? Is it ok for instance for the wife of a striking Universityrndon to deny him sex when she feels she bears a matter to bring to his attentionrnespecially when it has remained unattended to by the don? What moral ground hasrnthe don in such a case to cry foul? I thought education had taught me that whatrnwas good for the goose ought to good for the gander? Is striking a good ethicalrnmeans in all cases or is it only in some and who is to determine when it is andrnwhen it is not?

Clearly thenrnthese questions of a nature with an adjective rhetorical teach us that inrnseeking redress the University dons have turned a blind eye to something veryrnserious. Since they are moral exemplars they are by implication makingrnlegitimate a means that will sink us and a country…It is dangerous for us tornlive in a space where striking has become ethical and moral. I think thernprofessors have also failed to accept their primary responsibility of researchrnand finding more complex intricate ways of solving Makerere’s problems withoutrnthe intervention of a man whose education is far below their own. I also havernissues with a bachelor’s degree holder being the alpha and omega of problems belongingrnto professors of economics, conflict resolution and management to whom they runrnany and every day.

What I thinkrnis happening is that we are seeing a very bad advertisement to education eachrntime professors go on strike because we “villagers” continue to ask why do wernthen have to go to school to be taught by these who need the simplicity of arnstrike to solve a problem as complex as Makerere? Strikes are concealments ofrnthe bigger issues at Makerere and I think they are not the solution but part ofrnthe problem.

If I was a professor I would finish this off by striking but because I am a villager I shall not strike but will seek to be back here soon to pen another renegade view.