BUSOGA UNIVERSITY: Kenyans mine 'Gold' as Basoga harvest sugar canes.

BUSOGA UNIVERSITY:  Kenyans mine 'Gold' as Basoga harvest sugar canes.

By Ssebandeke Ashiraf

I spent the whole of last weekend in Busoga. On Saturday I was at Busoga University in Iganga a Christian founded institution. On my way to Iganga I was looking at a number of development initiatives. Few activities could be spotted a number of them on the roadside were boda bodas, hanged clothes for sale mostly second hand. I saw a number of Lorries filled more than to capacity ferrying sugarcanes. At Bulanga I saw cassava spread on the road – pedestrian walkway to dry on the major highway which transports most of Uganda’s imports and exports.

In the afternoon I attended the launch of Kagoma Youth Leaders Forum at Kagoma county headquarters organized by Kagoma Constituency Youth Leaders Association. The youth had a good theme for the launch “Youth in leadership for developmental initiatives”. The youth leaders invited all categories of people to offer them guidance from politicians to academicians.

I saw youths who were zealous about causing development in their area, if it there intention is not to ‘con’ politicians Kagoma county shall be a model area in a few years to come.

One of the leaders told me that 60% of people in Busoga earn their income from sugarcane growing. It’s little wonder that the education sector in Busoga is on a steady decline and the poor performance in recently released primary leaving exam results was blamed on children who spend a lot of study time in sugarcane plantations.

Busoga region has for long been known for its undisputable contribution to education with a number of prominent schools like Busoga College Mwiri, Iganga S.S the second Anglican girls’ school after Gayaza High School. It’s not surprising that the Uganda Motto “For God and My Country” was derived from Mwiri’s motto “Kulwa Katonda N’egwanga lyaffe” (For God and Our Country).

It’s also from Busoga where a lot of first women in their fields are from, the first woman vice president in Africa Hon. Specioza Kazibwe, the first woman lawyer to open up a law chamber and first Uganda female speaker of Parliement Hon. Rebecca Kadaga among others.

This may be the reason why Busoga dominated the country for many decades conforming to the saying “Educate a woman, Educate a Nation”.

As other regions are still hit by this social media syndrome of Tusaba gavumenti etuyambe (We ask government to intervene) appealing to government to construct universities in their regions, 15 years back in 1999 Busoga region lead by the Diocese of Busoga established Busoga University. The University is located on the famous education hub of CMS village 35 kilometers from the former industrial city of Jinja.

Being located in one of the most populated areas in Busoga and Uganda one would think that it would have almost 80% of students from Busoga and neighboring regions.

If you walk around the campus you realize that almost Kiswahili and Lusoga have the same number of speakers.

The university main campus in Iganga has many foreigners from Kenya, South Sudan, Somalia. The university is one of the three universities headquartered in Busoga with Fairland and Nsaka Universities in Jinja.

The last time I was at Busoga university in April 2013 there was swearing ceremony of the current Guild leaders, the Guild President is a Kenyan and Kenyans have a lion share in the Guild Cabinet.

I do not think that these Kenyans leaders can push for reforms on behalf of Busoga, it really can not happen.

Leaders in Busoga should fight to ‘Busoganise’ the University which is falling in the hands of Kenyans and other foreigners. A region that has dominated education for many years should not waste the golden opportunity. One of the unique things about education in Busoga, its where in Uganda you can find a public library in a village at Igombe in Buwenge sub county.

On Saturday 15^th February, Saturday Vision ran a story titled ‘Nabwiso new Busoga varsity vice chancellor”.  

Dr. Frank Nabwiso is taking on from Prof. Christopher Bakwesegha and he becomes the 2^nd vice chancellor in 15 years. The newspaper quoted him saying “Why should we have many Kenyans, Somalis, Sudanese enrolling at the university while our own are not?”

I think his initiative of attracting more local students to the university should be welcomed with open hands by all.

All leaders in Busoga region, political, religion and opinion should come together and identify the challenges facing the education sector, rank them and find best possible solutions to them.

One academician from Busoga told me that he was invited as chief guest by one of small schools in Jinja when they were celebrating their 2013 PLE performance. They narrated to him how ‘big’ people in Busoga have neglected them and the only person who helped them was the former vice president Hon. Specioza who donated to them 780,000 shillings in 1996 to roof their building which has now dilapidated.

He asked them whether they can not arise bags of cement, bricks, sand, nails. They answered him that they can mobilize the resources by themselves. So he advised them to stop being lazy and mobilize resources to construct their own school.

Leaders in Busoga should encourage their people to embrace their own and start mining ‘gold’ instead of concentrating of sugar cane harvest.