By John V Sserwaniko
National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) Executive Director Prof John Asibo Opuda has furiously responded to claims that he is deliberately frustrating Soroti University (SUN) urgent opening because in the long term he plans to become its Vice Chancellor after portraying the current leaders as incompetent. We had called Opuda to verify reports that a few days ago he was summoned to State House and rebuked by the President for sabotaging SUN’s opening initially planned for August/September 2018. “That is totally untrue. I haven’t been to State House in a while neither have I talked to the President lately,” said Opuda insisting that the governing council and management (respectively led by FX Lubanga and Prof Sunday Robert Ikoja) must do their work. “Those two organs are created by the law and it’s them to do what is required. We have given them the indicators and there will be no short cuts. The standards we enforce as NCHE are the same. They are known and aren’t going to be bent to favor Soroti University simply because Opuda who heads NCHE comes from Teso. That is not how it works. They must meet all the minimum requirements because there is nothing special or exceptional about Soroti University for them to be exonerated having to meet minimum qualification standards. ” There is frustration by the team running SUN with many feeling NCHE is unnecessarily being too hard on them regarding what must be in place for them to be authorized to open & start teaching engineering and medicine courses. Asked to respond to claims that he is conflicted because he too has ambitions to become SUN VC after exhausting his NCHE contract, Opuda furiously responded: “What would be wrong with me to do such a thing? I have been many big things at Makerere. Then I joined Kyambogo and served as both DVC and VC. What more would I be looking for that is so special and unique about Soroti University? I’m actually too big to scheme for any job at Soroti University. I head NCHE meaning I oversee all the Universities and is being VC bigger than that?” Urging the SUN management and council to do their work by putting the required facilities, personnel and infrastructure in place, Opuda warned that “deploying political tactics and threats won’t work because what is required now is for them to do the technical job and not the political game.” He said hiding behind the name of the President, who is understood to have directed SUN to run courses that are science-based, won’t help because “he [M7] only said go and open that University in Teso and preferably have medicine and engineering courses but he didn’t say go and circumvent the law and what it empowers NCHE to do.” “That is how the President Museveni that I know works. If he ever calls us we shall explain to him that sir we are doing our technical mandate and I’m sure he won’t have any problem with us.” Opuda said, as seen in the firmness they exhibited when dealing with Busoga University and other noncompliant institutions, NCHE has a long established history of operating independently “and that is not going to change; you either qualify and once they do, SUN can open even tomorrow.” It will be recalled that NCHE has always stood firm never yielding to political pressure as was seen in the case of St. Lawrence whose admissions and intake of students remained constrained until the required levels of staffing were in place. SLAU suffered this restraint because it had fewer PhDs than the NCHE required. This was at a time the President had just visited SLAU twice and praised its proprietor and his Vice President Sekandi was Chancellor SLAU.
WHAT MUST SUN DO?
Opuda says all stakeholders must know that the choice to teach science courses, especially engineering and medicine, is one that is expensive and calls for patience because the requisite personnel is ever scarce and always inadequate even for Mulago and Makerere Medical School. “To teach medicine, you must have well equipped Anatomy, Biochemistry and Physiology labs and equipment has to be procured very expensively. You must have technicians to operate those laboratories and especially Anatomy isn’t easy. Not every technician can handle dead bodies yet you must procure and have those dead bodies for training purposes. You must have technicians because it’s them to do most of the work and not the Professors. The Professors are senior people who just come, talk and go away. Much of the work is done by the technicians. It’s really a technical game and not a political game. There must be a dead body for every five medical students and it must be stored in a walk in fridge. You must have tanks full of formalin to be able to properly preserve those bodies for training purposes. You must have special tables on which the dissection of those bodies is done each time students are training. My friends at SUN don’t have all that and I don’t think they even know what they are supposed to have. All they consider is that the President directed and we must open because Prof Opuda is from Teso,” said Opuda himself a vet doctor. “Yes they have nice buildings but that is not enough. If everybody with a nice building was ready to open a medical school, we would be saying lets have one at Sheraton. You must have equipment and the necessary personnel. Yes you might say I have a computer lab. Very good but that alone doesn’t mean you are ready to open and begin teaching computer engineering. The law is very clear that when we are accrediting, professional schools of say vet, human medicine or even engineering we must work with professional bodies like the Nursing & Dental council. We don’t work alone meaning even if it was Opuda sabotaging SUN, I couldn’t have my way because I don’t work alone.” Opuda was also accused of depriving SUN its much desired accreditation without ever personally travelling there to assess the progress in place himself. “That is not true also. I have been there and in any case NCHE isn’t Opuda. It’s a team. There are teams and our people have visited them twice and my Deputy Rev Canon Dr. Bagume has been there more times. It’s them to invite us to inspect when they feel ready. First time there was nothing and 2nd time, they had things which hadn’t even been installed,” Opuda said. We asked him to assess SUN’s readiness in terms of a percentage and he said “that would be too early because I can’t just assess them so simply like that.” He added: “We made it simpler and listed for them indicators. They can give themselves marks. But they don’t want to learn and listen to our advice. We have advised them time and again. Yes you have Prof Ikoja as the VC but he isn’t a Professor of Medicine. When you are starting such a highly specialized University, you go out and head hunt for staff. You get a Professor of Medicine from Makerere and hire him for two years. He becomes the Dean and helps you to start the Medical School. He can be on secondment and can gradually pull out after helping you start. All that they don’t want to hear and they want us to accredit them under pressure. That won’t happen because we are doing our job independently under the law and the President can’t fault us for that. We are ready to defend ourselves as to why we haven’t accredited them to start than be reprimanded in Parliament for accrediting something that isn’t ready. Even if they [MPs] call us tomorrow we shall be glad to explain why we haven’t accredited Soroti University programs.” Opuda said in his possession are correspondences SUN VC Prof Ikoja has been writing to his superiors in the Ministry of Education clearly indicating they aren’t ready. “In most of his communications, he says we have ordered for that one. We are going to install which clearly shows they are not ready even if you go on the ground. You will see for yourself most of these requisite requirements are not in place. If its staff recruitment, let them go head hunting and they say they have the money. Let them hire the requisite staff and call us to accredit. It’s that simple. If they don’t have the money that’s their business with government and let them sort it out. For us our parameters are clear. Meet the minimum requirements and we flag you off.” Asked if he realizes the political significance Museveni’s State House attaches to SUN being the first of its kind in the whole of Teso, Prof Opuda said: “Yes every University is politically significant and there is nothing special about Soroti University. It’s like any other: having to comply with all the requirements.” But our sources maintained the political leadership of this country remains dismayed with what was termed as “dragging of the feet by Opuda and other NCHE bosses” regarding SUN opening. It was revealed that the President had dispatched Dr. JC Muyingo (Higher Education Minister) to drive to Soroti next week, inspect and write for him a comprehensive report regarding why SUN can’t open this academic year. For comments, call/text/whatsapp us on 0703164755.
