Do good grades make good leaders? That is the question the 81st Guild Cabinet at Makerere University seems to have wanted to answer in the affirmative when, during a closed door meeting, they unanimously agreed on even more stringent electoral guidelines for intending contestants to be included in the amended Guild Constitution.
According to a well placed source privy to the meeting, the cabinet sat to debate the proposals contained in a report prepared by an ad hoc guild constitutional review commission chaired by Wankandya Simon Peter, a 4th year student of law who also doubles as the guild constitutional affairs minister.
It is said that the issue of reviewing the constitution particularly arose from the legal challenges mounted by some guild presidential aspirants who had been excluded from the race because of having had retakes and as such considered to not be on “normal progress”. The students who included Kayondo Latima and Bala David successfully sought the High Court’s intervention, which each arguing that as per the guild Constitution they were on normal progress, among other things.
They were later put back in the race and Bala went on to win the race. These legal battles pitting the university against its students apparently caused unease among the top administrators who resolved to push for a review of the guild constitution to settle the normal progress issue one and for all, and their efforts culminated into the current constitutional review. Art. 16 of the Students Guild Constitution enjoins both the students’ guild and the university council with powers to amend the Guild Constitution.
Any proposed changes require a 2/3 majority approval by the house of guild council representatives and does not take effect until approved by the university council. The source informs Campusbee that the cabinet meeting resolved to endorse an amendment that makes it impossible for any one who has ever had a retake to contest for any elective office of the students’ guild. Previously, a provision similar to the proposed one affected only the guild presidential aspirants but other leaders such as GRC’s were unaffected, something that raised concerns that it was discriminatory.
The GRC house is now set to debate this proposed amendment and make a decision on whether or not to pass it. However the proposed amendment has stirred debate and consternation from some of the students at Makerere. According to Derrick, the proposed amendment is unfair because it unfairly locks out competent students from contesting. “Even the national Constitution does not state, for instance, what kind of UACE grade one must have attained before they can contest for presidency so what is so special about Makerere?” Mary, a political science student however argues that the new amendment is necessary to rid the university of academic masqueraders in leadership positions. “If he can’t even lead his grades how can he lead us?” Attempts to get a comment from the constitutional affairs’ minister were futile since he was reportedly preparing for a paper.
