Dr Stella Nyanzi, a research fellow at Makerere University Institute of Social Research (MISR), kicked up a storm. She stripped to her knickers protesting the decision by Prof Mahmood Mamdani, the director of MISR, to lock her out of the office.
Mamdani accused her of refusing to teach on a five-year PhD programme. Nyanzi claimed she was contracted to research and not research and teach. Mamdani further alleged that Nyanzi was being used by some senior university officials to destroy this new programme that he initiated. From this saga, we focus on four parties to give us some perspective. First is Dr Nyanzi, a PhD holder with a signed contract.
Among other attributes (from her training and qualifications), presumably has the capacity to generate new thinking and ideas, find alternatives and solve problems for society. But in her judgment, opts to strip to her black underwear as she lets off a volley of profanities portraying herself as a hapless woman who has reached the end of the road. Does this say anything about her competence and that of people of her ilk or is the situation at MISR out of control?
But in the midst of all this unbelievable drama, Dr Nyanzi asks if those who evict and mock her in her words, ‘will pay the rent, school fees for the children in their private school and fuel their car?’
This flows straight into Mamdani’s demand that research fellows at MISR research and teach at the same time. Mamdani is bringing in a new order. In the old order, MISR was a consultancy and many of those who held offices there, researched, taught at times but paid their rent, children’s school fees and fuelled their cars from taking off time to do (paid) private research.
MISR ‘provided’ them free office space, and an address which eased their work. Mamdani’s current dispensation leaves a research fellow little or no time to do ‘something on the side’ for a fee. This is because teaching at that level requires that one is well grounded (like Mamdani is) in a vast range of issues in the whole length and breadth of the social sciences to enable them critique and guide students. It is back-breaking work. It is a full time job.
The world of pure academia is very tasking but unfortunately, not as financially rewarding. If one ‘drops everything’ and concentrates on work at MISR will they make ends meet depending solely on the salary? Isn’t this one of the major sticking points unsettling the Nyanzis who view the insistence of Mamdani on teaching and researching as a threat to their livelihood?
Mamdani’s other issue of not being supported by people within the university is a point of discussion. He particularly names the Vice Chancellor, Prof John Ddumba Sentamu, who is allegedly a relative of Nyanzi. He claims Nyanzi is Ddumba’s proxy bent on disorganising MISR’s five-year PhD programme. Mamdani on several occasions has made the allegation that the VC once told him thus “do you think you can stay at MISR and raise funds and you give part of the funds to us and you keep the rest?” (New Vision April 21).
To appreciate this position one has to look at what modern Uganda has adopted from its ancient self. In the days of old, a chief allowed a subject to hunt on his land and the subject brought back some the choicest parts of the prey to the chief in appreciation. In contemporary Uganda, it is the norm for one who has been ‘granted an opportunity to make money,’ to give ‘enjawulo’ (a kick back to the one who granted the opportunity.)
Mamdani, an old fashioned academic who between 2010 and 2015 has fundraised for the PhD programme about $7.2 million (shs 23.7 Billion.) Is there a possibility that turning MISR into a training unit as opposed to a consultancy is blocking a lucrative avenue for money at the university to flow into ‘several directions.’ Is it agitating some quarters that the facility is generating and using funds strictly for MISR’s academic purposes and thus the opposition to the programme?
As an afterthought, is it possible to have MISR serve as both a training unit with a consultancy wing to placate and facilitate its research fellows and other interested parties to earn an extra buck as long as they satisfy the need to teach and research on the PhD programme?
This brings us to Makerere University. Isn’t it a serious comment (if it is true) that the institution which trains mangers has failed to solve this impasse for the last six years? Does it not raise questions about competence and inability by the university’s administrators to apply the knowledge they disseminate to others for their own good?
Is it not reminiscent of the Shs2 billion fence that collapsed at the hands of the highest institution charged with training Uganda’s engineers?
Lastly, that the government, which owns Makerere has not shown any serious interest in this matter is a point to ponder. Makerere plays a vital role in government policy and programme implementation in health, engineering, agriculture, law and education, among others. Social research informs and impacts considerably on the political, social and economic agenda.
Taxes are being collected from the $7.2 million raised by MISR and more revenue may come to Uganda with the growth of such programmes. Does the drama at MISR dominating both social and traditional media deflect scrutiny from the government as it recovers from the recent shambolic violent election of February 2016?
Mr Sengoba is a commentator on political and social issues. nicholassengoba@yahoo.com
Twitter:@nsengoba
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