Balunywa Fights to stay; Stellar Performance & Call for respect for laws

Mable Twegumye Zake - @MableTwegumye

Mable Twegumye Zake

30 years is enough for any leader in power to have groomed many others to succeed him and even do a better job. Actually, it is too much but if that is the case, then within those thirty years, a country would even expect thirty more people out of one person's service capable of excellent Servantry!

However, what kind of lessons is a President who has not voluntarily handed in instruments of power giving to public servants whose tenure has elapsed yet they also feel they are too good to leave?

This is not your father’s house!

It is no wonder that Prof. Wasswa Balunywa even after 30 years of service at Makerere University Business School could not humbly restrain himself from speaking against his leave of office in spite of his expired contract and to make it worse the age factor that barred the extension of his contract.

This is not your Father’s house!

Shame upon you! You whose greed to hold on to a position that is no longer deservedly yours because you showed egocentrism by insinuating that people were after “your” job yet existing evidence according to the stipulated regulations; age was not your side to continue on as Principal of the institution and you also knew it.

Let’s imagine that indeed a section of those that were opposed to your reappointment indeed wanted the position for themselves; were they wrong to use the age factor if indeed it were true? Wasn’t it time for you to leave?

Then secondly, shouldn’t they also get a chance to serve? Should we imagine that this position was created for only you and if you ever leave, MUBS will forever be doomed? If you actually care about MUBS, don’t you think there should be several figures you’ve groomed and trust will maintain its legacy?

This is not your father’s House!

Why stain your own legacy which you’d cemented for thirty years by playing the “witch hunting” card and writing letters of complaints of infighting that even raised issues of tribalism and politicking within the golden institution yet the issue was as basic as “letting go?”

This is not your Father’s House!

Even if you had just kept silent and pretended that you were actually ready for retirement and played the theatrics out of the public eye; by the time the President's directive of your re-appointment would’ve come through, probably the backlash on your continued stay in the position wouldn’t have been exaggerated.

This is not your father’s house!

It has become an identity for Uganda where public servants treat the positions of office they hold like their father’s residence or their own and look at retirement as a nightmare instead of grooming successors. Is this what the pearl of Africa has been reduced to? Where opinions have been channeled to someone’s excellence as the reason to keep them in office!

Let all those in public offices who have clocked retirement age think of building their own houses where no one will knock on the door to throw them out and spare this nation from fighting and using all “directives from above” to stay in office because until another person is given a chance to serve, we will not as a country grow into more excellent servants!

Therefore, where you stand in that public office right now just in case you need a fresh reminder; it is not your father’s house!

Dalton Kaweesa - @DaltonKaweesa

Dalton Kaweesa

A good south African friend invited me for lunch over the weekend and as we talked about the silly boy’s talk somehow our conversation contoured into the Makerere University business (MuBs) power struggle, or would one call it survival struggle on part of Prof Waswa balunywa.

He said , Ugandans have copied the worst behavour in management of public affairs, often running these institutions like personal homes or property.

I made strong arguments against his assertion saying Uganda wasn’t unique perhaps it is an African problem which can equally be seen down south of the continent. Thinking I had nailed him, I added that President Zuma in his own country had messed up unleashed tear gas onto legislators the chambers with reckless abandon. I giggled and intrinsically chest thumping with abandon that I had managed to get a chess fool’s mate.

As soon as my smile died away than , he pulled the master stroke, he said problem with Ugandans unlike other countries on the continent they have become so comfortable with the status quo. My heart sunk into silence that you hear a pin drop. My thoughts wondered as he continued, the words were distant but pounding hard in my ears. He said , President Museveni had institutionalized long stay in leadership by ordering his wife, education minster to reappoint Prof Balunywa. He said, unlike in South Africa where Citizens ensured the fall of Zuma , in Uganda , people who have institutionalized long stay cheered on. The words were heavy on me. We parted. Later in the night I reflected on and found half truth in his words.

Prof Balunywa there is no doubt has had challenges but he has nurtured this baby called Mubs right from when it was merged with the business faulty of Makerere university and National college of commerce nakawa.

He has ensured that staff are motivated to further their academic jopurney for the benefit of students they teach. Question has lingered in my head , should people be given position because they are women, youth or religious – the era of affirmative actions! I have debated with fellow youth like the 1986ers ( the crop that left for the bush in 1986) didn’t wait to be shown the opportunity but saw the need to fill a leadership gap that was created. In he same breath these moniorites should not just fold their hands and wait to be handed everytbingh on a silver platter.

The work of leadership is extremely important for the success of a any business. At the end of the day, without strong leaders we cannot reach the achievements we hope for.

Every organization, company or business and even a community all need a strong leader to succeed.

Leaders make an impact every day. They drive people to build something that will last.

There are many important leadership and management skills that would help a leader to succeed. Here we give you a list of 5 of these skills you need to develop.

I can comfortably say Balunywa fills some of these billing. Unlike other organizations, the world of academia is as peculiar as the books that are needed to be authoritative in it.

In the academia experience is more important than anything. At the helm of such an isntituton you are dealing with people that have reached the pinnacle of excellence, you don’t just want every tom dick and harry at its helm.’

This is the problem I have had with my cherished alma mater Makerere University; it can not continue losing professors in the name of reaching retirement age. Many of the retired professors end up in private institutes. By the way on a broader perspective, the country stands out to lose more with these professors who are let go by public institution because the private ones lack the capacity to finance their academic research which produces new knowledge.

For Balunywa to be reappointed should be a starting point for the amendment of the law that seeks professors to leave universities after attaining 65 years. A recent chat with one of the professor at the college of humanities and social sciences of Makerere university exposed the education abyss we are getting our country into. He pointed it out to me that many Makerere top cream of professors are crossing over to other countries that value their knowledge rather than the retirement age. Many of them are in United States distributed in different states. During my post graduate studies , I interfaced with one who teaches at N. Carolina in the department of media and communication. Boy oh Boy , you don’t know how he moved our class with the vast knowledge he shared with us. We need to this whole retirement frenzy.