A fierce governance dispute has erupted at Lira University over the reappointment of Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic Affairs) Prof. Okaka Opio Dokotum, triggering a leadership standoff among key university organs — the appointments board, the legal department, and the university council.
At the centre of the conflict is a deceptively simple question with enormous implications: should Okaka, whose current term expires on June 30, be reappointed directly for a second term based on performance appraisal, or should the position be declared vacant and subjected to a fresh competitive recruitment process through senate and council?
The dispute has now escalated to the point where the President’s Office has had to intervene.
The conflict escalated after the university’s legal department issued an April 10, 2026 opinion in reply to a letter from the chairperson of the Lira University Academic Staff Association.
In a memorandum signed by senior legal officer Daniel Evans Olwoch, it was concluded that the law requires the same procedure for both appointment and reappointment of a deputy vice-chancellor. “The procedure for appointment is the same procedure required for reappointment,” the legal team said — arguing that senate must identify suitable candidates, council must approve them, and the chancellor must make the appointment.
The opinion further advised that the appointments board declares the position vacant and triggers the recruitment process.
On May 4, Okaka wrote a lengthy protest letter to the university secretary, challenging the legal opinion and insisting he was entitled to automatic reappointment upon satisfactory appraisal.
Okaka said he had been properly appointed by the chancellor in 2021 and was, therefore, eligible for one renewal term under the Universities and Other Tertiary Institutions Act.
“I am the substantively appointed and serving deputy vice-chancellor [academic affairs] of Lira University, a public, having been appointed in 2021. I am now seeking a statutory reappointment under Section 32 of the Universities and Other Tertiary Institutions Act through a service evaluation process without recourse to competition from new applicants,” Okaka wrote.
He went further, accusing the legal department of selectively interpreting the law and alleging a conflict of interest involving senior legal officer Olwoch — whose sister, Prof. Judith Abal, had allegedly been positioned to take over the office during a proposed transition.
“It mirrored kangaroo court methodology, especially since there was now an open attempt to push for Judith Abal, a known biological sister of counsel Olwoch, to take over my position during the planned ‘transition’ period,” Okaka said.
He also said the legal opinion had been rejected by members of the appointments board because of the perceived conflict of interest.
On April 28, the chairperson of the appointments board, Bosco Onyik Ogwal, wrote to the chairperson of the university council complaining about Okaka’s conduct during the board meeting of April 15.
Onyik said Okaka had challenged the authority of the chair, disrupted proceedings, objected to discussion of tenure issues in which he had a direct interest, and opposed a resolution to declare the position vacant.
“The DVC, academic affairs, an ex-officio member of the board, appeared to have attended the meeting with the intent to challenge the authority of the chair and to disrupt the orderly conduct of board business,” Onyik wrote.
The board also accused Okaka of refusing to participate in mandatory staff appraisal, and of making personal attacks on the chairperson.
Among the remedies proposed were a formal apology, a written declaration of conflict of interest before attending future meetings, and temporary exemption from appointments board meetings.
The conflict took another turn when David Geoffrey Opiokello, chairperson of the university council, responded to Onyik in a detailed May 11, 2026 letter.
Opiokello said he did not remember the appointments board adopting the resolutions that Onyik claimed to be communicating, and suggested that several of the positions expressed were personal views rather than board decisions.
“To say the board made a decision to declare the position of DVC-AA vacant is to state the direct opposite of the position of the board,” Opiokello wrote.
He said the board had previously resolved that Okaka was eligible for reappointment upon appraisal and that the correction of Okaka’s original appointment instrument had been recommended through the same appointments board and council processes.
On the appraisal issue, Opiokello rejected the claim that Okaka had declined appraisal. “The DVC-AA wants to be appraised. This is demonstrated by the fact that he formally expressed his desire to be appraised in his communication to the vice-chancellor dated April 13, 2026,” Opiokello wrote.
He also questioned the fairness of requiring Okaka to declare a conflict of interest in advance, and criticised the proposal to exclude him from future meetings. “Requiring a specific member to declare such conflict prior to the meeting may be perceived as inconsistent with the established procedure and could raise concerns about fairness,” Opiokello said.
In one of the strongest passages, the council chairperson accused Onyik of acting beyond his mandate. “You are now creating a whole power centre for yourself and operating without submission to council,” Opiokello wrote.
Documents attached to the correspondence reveal an unusual twist that sits at the heart of the entire dispute.
One instrument, signed by the Lira University Chancellor, Justice Benjamin Odoki, states that Prof. Okaka Opio Dokotum was appointed as deputy vice-chancellor effective July 1, 2021, for five years, renewable once. Another instrument states that he was reappointed effective the same date.
Okaka says the original use of the word “reappointed” was a clerical error, because the chancellor had not previously appointed him. He says the instrument was later corrected to “appointment,” thereby preserving his eligibility for a statutory second term.
Whether that correction was procedurally valid — and whether it was made through proper channels or represents exactly the kind of after-the-fact manoeuvring his critics on the appointments board allege — is now central to the entire dispute.
In a phone interaction with New Vision, Opiokello said a few individuals had been trying to bring the conflicting parties together, but little progress had been made so far.
“The university secretary informed me that a team from the President’s office visited the institution last Monday to assess the issues at the centre of the dispute. However, we have not yet received any feedback or report from the team regarding its findings,” Opiokello said.
He said they are still waiting for feedback from the team that came from the Office of the President.
Okaka’s term expires on June 30 — weeks away. Two governing bodies of the same university are now publicly accusing each other of overreach, selective legal interpretation, and personal vendettas, while the President’s Office quietly assesses a dispute that has already produced two competing instruments, two competing legal interpretations, and zero resolution.
For students and staff at Lira University, the practical consequence of an unresolved deputy vice-chancellor position heading into a new academic period is the kind of administrative uncertainty that universities can ill afford — particularly one whose Faculty of Public Health features prominently in the very image attached to this dispute.
The clock is ticking toward June 30. Whoever holds the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic Affairs) office on July 1 will be determined by how this standoff resolves — and right now, nobody seems to agree on who has the authority to make that call.
