‘Why I Insisted My Son Must Study In Nigeria’ – Ex-Uganda Vice President, Bukenya

A son of a former Uganda Vice President, Gilbert Bukenya, recently graduated from the American University of Nigeria (AUN) owned by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.

Gilbert Bukenya in an interview with PREMIUM TIMES, says he insisted his son learn in Nigeria because of the uniqueness of AUN and also spoke on Africa’s leadership challenges among others..

Read excerpts below;

You are an advocate of other universities not only in Nigeria but in Africa, adopting the “development university” model. Knowing that funding has been a major challenge for education on the continent, how do we go about that?

I don’t think it’s a question of money for universities to participate in the population, no. In 1989, then I was still in the medical training, we started in Africa, public health training without walls. The concept was you can train doctors in communities without putting up a building and we applied this concept in Zambia, Cameroon, Uganda, and Malawi, it worked very successfully. We would have the doctors when they are doing public health, they would sit within the communities, they’ll help the communities to build sanitary systems. And it was much cheaper than the training programmes that are taking place here. Why did it fail? It only failed because our collaborating partners in the world made it sophisticated into needing the computer, into needing this transportation system, etc, and it failed. I still believe very strongly that universities in Africa must practice community-based education within where the buildings are. I mean, here in Yola, if you go to Jimeta and you see how people live…I thank the new governor because he has put up roads and really cleaned up the place. When I came here, first I said let’s put public health training in this university because I would go to the community here and see the problem they were in. Why has this university, AUN, managing….? It’s such a budget, it’s the conception, the teachers and students and it’s the concept of leadership that they have used to apply the methodology of teaching at a higher level to communities. So, for me I think it;s not a question of money, it is a question of mind change of people, it is a question of having a lecturer change his mind or her mind, that I’m so super, I cannot rub shoulders with the poor people.

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How do you feel having a son graduating from a university like the American University of Nigeria?

I’m very happy, extremely happy, not because my son graduated from AUN, happy because of the concept of bringing in Africa a development university. A university that does not become the ivory tower, I went to a university which was an ivory tower and beyond the compound, beyond the fences, I didn’t care what was happening there. Now this university here is unique for Africa, it’s a university which deals with excellence, at the same time a university which looks after the poor. In fact, that is why I brought my son here without taking him to these ivory towers but I prefer somebody to understand the development of people, at the same time applying the knowledge of advancement.

You have the means to send your son to school in any of the western countries or the US, but you sent him to Nigeria. Why?

Absolutely, I had the means, I had the contacts to send this young man to any American university or European university, why? I lectured at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland Ohio, which is a good university. I lectured at Tulane University in Louisiana, which is a good university. I was at the University of London but I didn’t want to send him there. Why? Because they train you in the traditional way. Someone will come, give you the knowledge, and leave you to take it or you don’t take it. Whereas when this university was being formulated, I happened to have known the vice president, Atiku. We’ve been friends for a long time and he was coining in this idea of bringing American University. My first question was, why are you bringing American University? We had a lot of arguments until the question of bringing in development, leadership, training within all the faculties of the university, it clicked on me. I said ‘wow!’ And then when they brought in the staff, the faculty members here who came, the president then of this university, Margie (Ensign) – we had known for quite a bit of time in America, I said no, this is something very unique. So the first year was very good, my son was not yet here. Second year I came, because I was a member of the Board of Trustees and I found there is something unique in Yola; that’s when I told my wife in Uganda, I’m taking this son of ours to Yola. There was a lot of arguments, she actually refused and even the son was influenced, the son had refused until I said ‘We part company,’ then the son, of course, fearing the father said ‘Well, I have to go where the father wants me to go.’ He came here, only two years of his stay here, when this man came back to Uganda, I saw a change. You know for me I was in politics, I was the vice president of the country, I used to go to communities, his mother would not allow me to go, you know chatting with these poor people because she thought I’m far above these poor people.

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Now, this young man, Conrad, would come with me to my programmes within the communities and would shake hands with the poor, shake hands with the disadvantaged. And then I said “Conrad, where did you pick this?” And this young man said “You know when we were in Yola, we go to communities, we go to see their sewage systems…’ I said fantastic and I told him to continue that, that is going to be the future of leadership in Africa. Because in Africa we have leaders who stay in the palaces and they don’t know, they have no communication between where they stay and where the poor live. They don’t know that some of these poor people may not even have a meal a day, they don’t know that these poor people may go to the hospital and they don’t even get a tablet. Unless we create leaders who can permeate within the population and understand the problems that they face, that’s when Africa will change.

One of the problems with Africa as far as leadership is concerned is the ‘sit-tight syndrome.’ Having once served as the vice president of your country, do you intend to return to partisan politics in Uganda?

(Laughs) No. I think every human being must have a journey. My journey started in my profession as a medical doctor, then my journey came into politics, and I did my part. Then my journey now is back into application of my profession and community service. Every politician and I appeal to politicians, they should never ever make politics a job. They must know that being a politician is a service to the community, but if they continue making it a job, that’s why they’re fighting, that’s why people don’t want to leave politics, that’s why they make a lot of money because they make it a job. I’m an example of those who say “You do your part, when you finish, quit and you do other things”.

 

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Source: Nigerian monitor
‘Why I Insisted My Son Must Study In Nigeria’ – Ex-Uganda Vice President, Bukenya

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