The 28th of October, 2019 (yesterday) left the Uganda Christian University (UCU) student fraternity in a pile of mixed emotions as they had to choose who they would vote come Friday, 1st November, 2019 after being treated to a 3 hour Presidential Debate between the two Guild Presidential Aspirants; Kadaga Timothy and Nyakahuma Elisa.
Unlike the usual “priestly campaigns” the Christian Based institution has organised in the past, this year’s campaigns seemed to be extremely vigorous and emotional at the same time to the extent that several scenes of violence could be witnessed between persons from Kadaga and Elisa’s camp irrespective of heavy Police deployment which signified a great change in UCU students’ behaviour.
Fast forward, to the students’ disappointment, celebrated journalist Raymond Mujuni did not enter appearance despite the fact that he had been invited and advertised as the Debate’s Moderator. This left former Guild Presidents Ms. Amongin Prisca and Mr. Barasha Duncan as the day’s moderators. Questions posed to the candidates were based on logic, current affairs, international affairs, university affairs and policy analysis.
Firstly, the two candidates relayed their manifestos with Timothy Kadaga’s campaign being premised on the theme “Unity in diversity.” He seeks to unite the student body irrespective of one’s culture or status in society to solve the university’s issues whereas candidate Nyakahuma Elisa preached about solutions to the high rates of tuition at the University.
However, Candidate Elisa shocked the student community when he was asked what “the major cause of the current strike at Makerere University” is and his response was that it is “sexual harassment of students by lecturers” which the students interpreted as a lack of insight on current affairs although he had brilliant policy analysis skills. On the other hand, his opponent Kadaga Timothy seemed to be well conversant with matters of policy, current and international affairs as well as his intentions to introduce “The UCU Run” as a measure to increase the Guild fund which is used to pay tuition for the needy students.
From the team at Campus bee, we wish both candidates good luck come Friday.
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