By Dr. Julius Babyetsiza (PhD)
In a monumental moral clarity and civic courage, the Bishop of Masaka Catholic Diocese, Rt. Rev. Serverus Jjumba, recently issued a powerful appeal to Uganda’s President and other holders of public office: that the time has come to deliberately listen to Uganda’s young people. Not to patronize them. Not to bark at them. Not to threaten, coerce, or brutalize them. But to listen to them sincerely and respectfully, because they now constitute the majority of the population, the energy of the present, and the custodians of the nation’s future.
This appeal speaks directly into one of Uganda’s deepest and most persistent national wounds: graduate unemployment. It is a crisis this writer has come of age researching and writing about under the auspices of the Global University Business Club Limited (GUBCCo). For years, Ugandan students are admitted into universities without honest national planning for their absorption. Then, at graduation, they are abruptly told that “there are no jobs” and are advised to “go and create their own.” This contradiction is not only intellectual bankruptcy, but it is also structurally cruel.
As a result, graduates are often framed as impatient, indisciplined, or troublesome when they demand opportunity, rather than recognized as thinkers, innovators, and problem-solvers. Yet demographically, socially, and economically, they remain the backbone of the nation.
Bishop Jjumba’s submission is therefore not merely pastoral in nature; it is scientifically rational and civic-minded. It calls leaders back to moral responsibility and reminds them that leadership divorced from listening eventually collapses under the weight of its own arrogance.
This moment also exposes a deeper contradiction in Uganda’s public life: while many who are already empowered struggle to translate privilege into innovation, countless young Ugandans, operating with almost nothing, are quietly building solutions of national relevance.
Here, the words of Prof. PLO Lumumba resonate sharply: that some fail to achieve meaningful outcomes even while standing on top of tall trees, while others, standing firmly on the ground, manage to see farther. Achievement, he reminds us, is not a function of elevation but of vision, critical thinking and courage.
Indeed, one might add, borrowing from Scripture: “they want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm” (1 Timothy 1:7, NIV). Too often, those who claim mastery of policy language lack experiential understanding of the problems they address.
The founding of GUBCCo stands as a living illustration of this paradox. Established from the ground up — without state patronage, political godfathers, or inherited capital — GUBCCo demonstrates what deliberate graduate agency can achieve when matched with ideas, critical thinking, and persistence. Emerging from an action-research PhD “living laboratory,” GUBCCo was conceived to articulate and test a systems-oriented response to graduate unemployment, innovation financing and youth enterprise development.
Chinua Achebe captured this spirit memorably in Things Fall Apart: “The lizard that jumped from the high iroko tree to the ground said he would praise himself if no one else did.” Achebe was not glorifying arrogance; he was affirming the necessity of self-recognition in the absence of applause. When systems consistently fail to acknowledge merit, self-affirmation becomes an act of survival and integrity. In Uganda’s context — where graduate innovations are often ignored until they fail or are politically captured — such self-affirmation becomes an act of persistence.
GUBCCo’s journey reflects this Achebean wisdom. Its concept has not merely been proclaimed; it has been demonstrated, documented, and subjected to public scrutiny through a growing body of proof-of-concept articles and implementation logic. The initiative proposes a digital and institutional ecosystem in which university graduates and innovators support one another through structured visibility, ranking, collaboration, and shared ownership. In doing so, it seeks to reverse the isolation that destroys most youth enterprises, transforming competition into cooperation and replacing begging with structured co-creation.
The “Proof of GUBCCo Concept” series shows clearly that graduates are not short of ideas. What they lack are listening leaders, patient capital, and enabling policy environments. This insight directly echoes Bishop Jjumba’s plea. When leaders dismiss young people with contempt or coercion, they do not suppress disorder, rather they suppress possibility. And suppressed possibility has a way of resurfacing in destructive or destabilizing forms.
Uganda now stands at a demographic crossroads. The youth bulge can become either a dividend or a disaster. The difference lies in whether leaders choose dialogue over domination, inclusion over intimidation, and partnership over paternalism. Listening, as Bishop Jjumba urges, is not weakness; it is strategic wisdom.
GUBCCo’s emergence also challenges a dangerous myth: that meaningful transformation must always come from the top. History teaches otherwise. Many of the world’s most impactful initiatives began as fragile ideas carried by determined individuals who refused to wait for permission. When such initiatives survive conceptual testing, public critique, and operational experimentation, they deserve engagement — not dismissal.
In the end, Uganda does not suffer from a shortage of graduate creativity. It suffers from a listening deficit. Bishop Jjumba has named the moral failure. Thinkers like PLO Lumumba have exposed the irony. Achebe has offered the philosophy of self-affirmation. And initiatives like GUBCCo provide empirical proof that when graduates are trusted, they can build frameworks of genuine national relevance.
If those in authority truly desire stability, prosperity, and continuity, the path forward is clear: listen to university and college graduates, engage their ideas seriously, and allow their homegrown solutions to breathe. For history is watching — and so is a generation that has already begun to stand, even from the ground.
Dr. Julius Babyetsiza (PhD)
Founder GUBCCo
Tel: +256782188904
Email: info@gubcco.ug / bbytsz@gmail.com. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
