By Patrick Jaramogi
KAMPALA, Uganda: As thousands of graduands continue to get their degrees during day two of the 69th Makerere University Graduation currently going on at Makerere, scores have hailed President Museveni for coming out boldly to support the Vice Chancellor’s action of dismissing errant staff.
“I highly commend President Museveni for coming out to support VC for his actions. This will make him even more stronger,” said Prof Opio, a don at MUK. President Museveni, who was honored with MUK Outstanding Scholarly Authorship Award for his writing of Katondoozi, the first ever Thesaurus in Sub Saharan Africa, hailed the Vice Chancellor Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe for dismissing undisciplined staff. “Sometimes I hear people blaming the Vice Chancellor for taking drastic decisions to sack lectures who engage in sexual acts with students. I support you for dismissing such staff,” said Museveni, who was accompanied by the First Lady and Minister for Education Janet Kataha Museveni. The president, who is also known as the “Visitor’ at Makerere, urged the lecturers and Makerere staff to desist from industrial action, that, he said, destabilizes the activities of the university. He said government is doing all it can to ensure that salary issues are handled amicably. The Chancellor Prof. Ezra Suruma urged the new graduates to fight for and strongly defend the dignity of the African nations and the African people in particular from being openly attacked and abused in the name of searching for employment opportunities overseas.
Presiding over the first session of the 68th Makerere University Graduation Ceremony on Tuesday 16th January 2018, the Chancellor revealed that Africans who cannot find jobs at home have been facing inhumane conditions and death in their attempts to migrate to other continents while looking for greener pastures. “The time for complacency in Africa is over. Every African has the duty to fight slavery, colonialism and neocolonialism. No one should think that these are just words. They are real forces that threaten the present and future of the African people. Everyone, without exception, has the duty to protect the dignity and life of our country and our continent,” said Prof. Suruma. This year 2018, a total of fourteen thousand, eighty five (14,085) students will be awarded degrees and diplomas of Makerere in various disciplines. Of these, 71 will receive PhDs, 996 Masters Degrees, 96 Postgraduate Diplomas, 144 undergraduate diplomas and 12,778 Bachelor’s Degrees with a total of 403 students attaining First Class Degrees in the respective disciplines.
A total of 2, 425 students from the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES), College of Natural Sciences (CoNAS) and the College of Education and External Studies (CEES) were conferred upon degrees and others awarded diplomas.
