As tension between lecturers and the Makerere University administration shows no signs of abating, the Prime Minister has ordered the Minister of Education to meet the two parties and sort out their grievances.

On April 21, 2008, Prof. Apolo Nsibambi wrote to Namirembe Bitamazire, directing her to meet the university management to discuss MUASA’s grievances.
In the letter, Nsibambi, a former Chancellor and lecturer at the university, urged the minister to ensure that the feuding parties harmonise their positions on salary enhancement.

Namirembe is tasked to meet, among others, the Chancellor, Prof. Mondo Kagonyera, Council Chairman Mathew Rukikaire, Vice Chancellor Prof. Livingstone Luboobi, the Bursar, Academic Registrar, University Secretary, and MUASA chairman, Dr. Augustus Nuwagaba.

Nsibambi’s letter also urges the minister to consider Prof. Gordon MacGregor’s Visitation Committee report on public universities while trying to solve Makerere’s problems.

In the letter, Nsibambi orders Namirembe Bitamazire to submit a report on her efforts to Cabinet by May 23, 2008.
“I suggest that HE the President should preside over this Cabinet,” Nsibambi writes in the letter which is copied to both the President and Vice President.
Meanwhile, in an unprecedented move, the Makerere University Academic Staff Association – MUASA - plans to engage the public next month to explain their grievances.

The Weekly Observer has learnt that MUASA took this decision after failing to resolve its differences with the university administration.
At the heart of MUASA’s discontent is salary enhancement––a matter that caused a strike in 2006 but remains unresolved two years later.

The lecturers believe that the university generates enough money to meet their demands, arguing that this money is mismanaged.

Dr. Nuwagaba, MUASA’s chairman, told The Weekly Observer that the body would organise meetings to brief members of the public about their stand-off with the university administration.

“We resolved to tell them how their money is being mismanaged and turning Makerere into a university for [the] administration, excluding other staff,” he said. Also invited to the meetings will be donors, who fund several projects at the university.
According to Nuwagaba, invitation letters will go to NORAD, SIDA/SAREC, and IDRC-International Development and Research Centre.

Makerere University has not paid lecturers who taught evening students over the last year. As a result, the lecturers have resolved not to teach evening students until the arrears are settled. Nuwagaba says some faculties, such as that of Agriculture, have canceled field trips for their students because of lack of money.
“There is need to rescue the university from further decadence,” he said.

A lecturer in the faculty, who preferred anonymity, confirmed the development, saying the Faculty Dean, Prof. Bekunda Mateete, had in a circular to all heads of departments communicated the suspension of field trips because of lack of funds.
Besides remuneration, MUASA accuses the University Council, the highest decision making organ of the university, of failing to take action against errant members of the Makerere administration.

The relationship between MUASA and the university management has lately deteriorated, with the lecturers passing a vote of no confidence in the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Livingstone Luboobi.
Others MUASA has lost confidence in include, deputy Vice Chancellor, Prof. David Bakibinga, the University Bursar, Ben Byabambazi, and the University Secretary, Sam Akorimo.

The lecturers’ association accuses these officials of “incompetence and mismanagement.”