By Mulengera Reporters
At the beginning of this week, Makerere top bosses met for their management meeting. Top management comprises of AR, all Directors, Principals and their deputies. VC Prof Barnabas Nawangwe and his two deputies too sit in management which actually one of them chairs. And as the proceedings got under way during the Tuesday meeting, a group of the top bosses mooted a proposal that wasn’t even on the agenda. And this related on how to manage the leadership vacuum and ambiguity regarding the status of Makerere law school currently headed by amiable Christopher Mbaziira as its head or Principal.
The very intelligent and prudent Human Rights professor took over from Damalie Musoke Naggita; the no nonsense Muganda babe that is renowned for chasing students who come late or miss her law of evidence classes. Mbaziira, who is equally popular among students and staff alike, is still carrying on serving his 4-year mandate. But as that happens, the status of the law school (whose very assertive dons like Kakungulu Mayambala have been a thorn in Nawangwe’s flesh) remains unclear.
Whereas it’s supposed to be a College like the others, management has for an eternity been waiting for the guidance from the National Council of Higher Education (NCHE) which by law is supposed to guide and have the last word on such matters. And that’s why Mbaziira’s predecessors like Ben Twinomujuni carried the title of Dean and not Principal. The principal thing started during the days of flamboyant Naggita.
There is anger and dismay at Makerere that NCHE has been ambivalent on the issue even when Academic Registrar Alfred Namoa long paid the money to facilitate their visitations and inspections after which a report is supposed to be written advising on the law school’s suitability to become a fully-fledged College.
Makerere management bosses, said to resent Mbaziira as a person because of his liberal views regarding mistreatment of staff and students during the Nawangwe era, are now arguing that in absence of the NCHE certification, it must remain law school meaning it’s head Mbaziira, whose 4 year contract is soon ending, shouldn’t have any business calling himself Principal for a none-existent College.
Some argue that NCHE, which was paid and facilitated for the inspection visits in 2017 and hasn’t acted since, has nothing to do with deciding the fate for Makerere law school because their mandate is concerned with constituent colleges which the law school isn’t since it’s within campus and not off-campus. Some have attributed the delay by NCHE to get back to Makerere regarding the law school status on the fact that the law is vague and doesn’t clearly explain what comprises a constituent college and what doesn’t.