Father Lawrence Kanyike, a former priest at Makerere University’s St. Augustine chapel says Makerere university has been ruined by politics and that leaders, guild presidents to be exact, are being elected according to their political parties.
The former Makerere St Augustine chapel Monsignor, while appearing on NBS television’s people and power show, said he believes political parties have nothing to do with student issues and that leaders should focus on student affairs as opposed to political parties.
“What have the political parties got to do with the absence of books in the University library?” Father Lawrence wondered.
Father Lawrence Kanyike says unlike his days at Makerere when strikes were at their peak, students today strike for political reasons as opposed to issues that actually affect them.
Father Lawrence Kanyike served as chaplain at Makerere University St Augustine chapel -a catholic community at the hill. Father Lawrence left Makerere university’s catholic community in 2014 having served it for 30 years and joined Kyengera parish where he serves as a parish priest.
It is worth noting that politics at Makerere university has for the recent past been dominated by sound political parties at the time. For instance, before the birth of the People Power movement that later rebranded to National Unity Platform, the Uganda Young Democrats (UYD) alias Democratic party was everyone’s favourite and most politicians that eyed the guild president seat had it among their options of political flags.
With the on set of the people power movement, politicians at Makerere university shifted their eyes to it. Its not surprising that, for instance, during the 85th and 86th guild elections, at least not less than two contenders affiliated themselves with this new movement. This justifies why the National Unity Platform’s candidate in the 87th race Shamim Nambassa had a landslide victory to become Makerere’s 87th and 5th female president.
Due to party politics, unpopular parties such as the NRM have often lost in the guild elections as students opt for popular opposition parties. Whether Father Kanyike’s argument holds some water or not, it is subject to debate.
Though the Bee surmises that some students use these political parties as scapegoats to achieve their hidden agenda, it’s not surprising that later some of them cross and join the National Resistance Movement that they despised during their campaigns.
For instance, FDC’s ‘untouchable’ Kato Paul who served as the 83th guild president shamelessly crossed to NRM in recent elections – post campus days.
