I hope that you are still interested in the issues of the Busoga University. You should be because the University hasn’t yet commenced. The process has been embroiled in lies, grandstanding, fraud, criminality and machinations.
There is a common adage that goes “Lies travel fast while Truth travel slowly, but when eventually the truth arrives, the lies freeze”. We are eventually getting to learn exactly of some of the unbelievable things that have embroiled and retarded the commencement of the Busoga Public University.
Since 2016, when it became apparent that the then Busoga University Ltd, a privately run institution had violated the core conditions of the Provisional Licence that the NCHE had issued to the University, NHCE issued a Notice of intention to cancel that license. Immediately, the proprietors and management of the University frantically went to the courts of law to challenge that notice.
Initially, the University succeeded in securing a temporary injuction issued by a single judge ruling by Judge Solome Bbosa. In effect, the order was stopping NHCE from going ahead with the revocation of the licence.
However, in February 2017, the Constructional Court in an order issued by Justice Kakuru rendered all orders given by any court decision of a single Judge null and of no effect. This effectively revoked the Judge Bbosa’s order of injuction. It meant that NHCE was right and was in order to go ahead with the revocation of the Provisional Licence to Busoga University Ltd.
Consequently, on 1st December, 2017, NHCE published in the Gazette the revocation notice of the licence and gave the reasons for doing so. This is the normal and legal way in which the public is duly informed of such positions by a regulatory body. The proprietors and the management of the university were duly informed and aware of this position.
The local leaders of Busoga were aware of this position. Now, by this account, Busoga’s University license was revoked and the University ceased to operate as a University on 1st December 2017. By this action, the management of the defunct university were ordered or were not supposed to admit any new students in the non-existent university.
They were supposed to coordinate with the NHCE to find ways of relocating the continuing students that had already been admitted to the university before the revocation of the licence. Apparently, due to the adamancy and impunity, they ignored the revocation and went ahead to recruit students while hoodwinking them to believe that the university had a valid license which wasn’t the case. These students who were admitted and purportedly taught on false pretences are the ones that wrote a petition seeking to challenge the authority of NHCE. Amazing!
It is evident that the unscrupulous owners and management of the defunct university are the ones behind this petition. They seem to have craftly deceived or hoodwinked their so called students in believing that the plight that those students currently find themselves in was caused by the “insensitive” NHCE.
Hopefully, the administrators Parliament will be able to see the deceit in this petition and be able to treat it with the highest contempt it deserves.
The Busoga Public University needs and must commence forthwith without any further delay. Let this saga be a lesson to all that not always those that want to be depicted as fighting for Busoga are actually doing so! It takes time to realize and most times it is just unbelievable to imagine that your enemy is from within!
Much appreciation to those few that still continue to stand steadfast in the goal to see that the dream for the university to commence comes true. Aluta Continua
The writer, Edward Baliddawa Kafufu, is a former legislator
