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| Prof Nsibambi (RIP) delivers the keynote speech in 2014 to a friend gone a year earlier. |
Promoting Academic Distinction, Administrative
Excellence and Enduring Integrity in
Contemporary Uganda: A Keynote Address
📌 Delivered by Professor Apolo Nsibambi
📌 May 30, 2014 Makerere Main Hall, Makerere University
📌 Bernard Onyango Memorial
1. INTRODUCTION
I am very pleased to have been requested by the organizers of the Bernard Onyango Academic Excellence Awards Public Lecture and the family of the late Bernard Onyango to be the inaugural speaker at this important event. When asked to do so, I did not hesitate to say ‘Yes.’ There are many reasons for my positive response to the request. First of all, Education is a cause that is quite dear to my heart, having been a teacher, scholar, administrator and Chancellor here at Makerere University for several years before leaving to apply my talents “elsewhere.” It is my strong belief that education is one of the most precious resources of any country, and it is the backbone of any lasting development.
Secondly, Bernard was a great friend of mine for many years. Like me, Bernard also studied at a ‘College.’ King’s College Budo and St. Peter’s College Tororo are among the very few schools in this country that were originally named ‘college’ for reasons that should be obvious to everybody! Bernard also taught at King’s College in 1955, and was one of the first non-Old Boys of the school to be invited to teach at Budo. I also variously worked with three of his brothers in the Public Service, including the late Akisoferi Ogola in the Constituent Assembly (CA) and Parliament, the late Nathan Odoi who was a long-standing diplomat and public servant, and with Martin Odwedo who was Permanent Secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister under me for several years. I can testify that each of these individuals was an exemplary civil servant, built in the same mould as their elder brother.
I first met Bernard on 30th August 1978 i.e. 36 years ago when I was Dean of the-then Faculty of Social Sciences. We sat together in the University Senate of which he was Secretary.
He was confident, honest, thorough and an effective time keeper. He was confident because he was intellectually strong having obtained a degree from Makerere University and a Master’s degree from London University. His academic credentials compared very well with those of most Academicians of the time. He was also very intelligent, a quality which enabled him to answer difficult questions to the satisfaction of Members of Senate. He was assisted by the late Gershom Eyoku who possessed an excellent memory.
Bernard was also a seasoned counselor. One senior Lecturer who was required to make some major changes in his doctoral thesis was very angry. He openly pointed out that the Professor who chaired the Committee which examined him did not possess a doctorate and that he lacked academic legitimacy to chair the Committee. This statement embarrassed and annoyed the Professor. Bernard was one of the people who counseled the Senior Lecturer who was informed that in Britain there are many Professors who do not have doctoral degrees. However, these Professors publish sound books and articles. The Senior Lecturer made the corrections and his doctoral thesis was eventually accepted.
Bernard encouraged team work to flourish in the Academic Registrar’s office. He was also accessible to Academics, Administrative Staff and Students.
He was sociable. After working very hard during the day, he used to relax at Makerere Staff Club where he used to interact with Members of Staff.
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| Bernard Onyango |
He was not only involved in Makerere and other universities in Uganda and elsewhere, but he was variously a member of the following Boards:
a. The Bank of Uganda;
b. Total (Uganda) Limited;
c. Uganda Cement Industry (UCI), and
d. The-then Uganda Posts and Telecommunications;
e. He was the first Chairman of the National Central Scholarship’s Committee established immediately after independence (1963 until 1987), the Immigration Control Board and of the Board of Governors of Tororo Girl’s School;
f. He was a member of the Board of Governors of St. Mary’s College, Kisubi, and the founding Secretary of the East African Examinations Council (predecessor to UNEB), and one of the founders of the Inter-University Committee (IUC) of East Africa.
Although he was cosmopolitan in outlook and experience, he loved his home, Kiyeyi and he never forgot his roots;
He was a man of great patience and considerable humour. Onyango was not lugubrious!
In performing his duties effectively, he was greatly assisted by Lucy, his dear wife. Lucy was a Warden of Africa Hall while I was a Senior Warden of Northcote Hall. Lucy is resourceful, calm, intelligent and discerning. Bernard and Lucy educated their children in good academic institutions and they are well behaved. I have interacted closely with Professor Oloka-Onyango one of the children of Mr. & Mrs. Onyango. He is sometimes controversial but he is intellectually sound and resourceful.
Now, let me turn to the main theme of this lecture which is: PROMOTING ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE AND INTEGRITY IN MODERN UGANDA, but before I do so, let me just say two things. The first is that while Bernard Onyango had a brilliant career and achieved many academic ‘firsts’, he was primarily an administrator for most of his public life, and a teacher for only the eight-year period running from 1955 to 1963. I have therefore added the issue of ‘Administrative Excellence’ to the theme that was chosen by SPECTOBA for this lecture. Bernard promoted Academic Excellence by performing his administrative work effectively as Academic Registrar. He also reduced the gap between Administrators and Academicians because he solved their academic concerns effectively.
Despite this amendment, I nevertheless agree that the theme chosen is a most apt one for the celebration of the life of a person like Bernard Onyango. The theme is also particularly important for both an academic audience as well as for the general public. Indeed, the theme is crucial for Uganda today as it struggles to make a mark on the new millennium and to move from third world to first world state. The theme of excellence and integrity is important because the two must travel together; they are birds of a feather: One can be a brilliant and well-schooled individual, scaling all the heights of academic achievement, but lacking in integrity, honesty and due diligence. If you have a PhD and leak examination papers to students, one may question your own qualifications and whether or not you also got them through dubious means. Conversely, one does not have to be well-educated in order to display integrity. American Civil Rights leader, Martin Luther King Jr. made the following remarks with which I would like to associate fully:
“If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as a Michaelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, ‘Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well. “
In other words, however lowly your job, do it well and do it with integrity and you will be recognized for it; indeed, that is the whole objective behind honorary doctorates issued by universities such as Makerere. Such awards recognize and give honour to people who have excelled in spheres of life that are not necessarily academic. People like the late Dr. James Mulwana did not go far in formal school, but they devoted their whole lives to working with integrity and with discipline, earning for themselves many academic and other recognitions along the way. Again, to paraphrase Martin Luther King Jr., “If one cannot do great things, one can do small things in a great way.” Excellence, in other words, can come from doing one large thing in a big way, or from doing many little things with style and dexterity.
On the other hand, one can be doggedly sincere, transparent and truthful, but fail miserably to achieve academically, administratively or in other fields of service. There are many honest people who have failed to make a mark in any field—Academia, Public Service or in street sweeping! So, it is the ability to combine both excellence and integrity that is being celebrated today, and it is a quality that we need to commend whenever we see it, because it is a rare commodity and becoming even more scarce by the day.
In addition to the very many positive attributes we have already heard about Bernard Onyango, he combined academic excellence at St. Peters, at Makerere and at the University of London with administrative excellence and impeccable integrity in public service in the various spheres in which he worked.
Finally, it is important to differentiate excellence from success. Excellence is something that is lasting and dependable and largely within a person’s control. By contrast, success is perishable and often outside the control of any individual. The victim of the success mentality is threatened by the success of others and resents real excellence. If one seeks excellence, however, it is highly probable that they will eventually end up successful. Also, the person who is fascinated by quality is excited when he or she sees it in others.
Bernard Onyango exuded excellence and was not particularly bothered by success. Indeed, he helped so many people along the way and I believe that he took pride in ensuring that others excelled like him; that is why among the many administrators who have been at Makerere, his name resounds louder than others.
2. THE QUESTION OF ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE
We have just celebrated the release of the annual results of the Primary Leaving, Ordinary and Advanced level examinations. That celebration dominates the newspapers for several days, with cheering students embracing excited parents and happy teachers. It is a celebration of academic excellence at its best, and is a feat repeated around the country when it is graduation season at our many universities. When Onyango went to school, there were only a handful of secondary schools and tertiary institutions around the country. He joined Makerere in 1951 just when it began to offer its first full degree programs, and hence was a graduate of the first class that was affiliated to the University of London in 1954.
Today—largely thanks to the National Resistance Movement (NRM) government—we have thousands of schools and many universities. Each of these strives to develop their students into well-educated and exemplary citizens of the world. How successfully they are carrying out these tasks can be the subject of debate. However, I believe that there are certain basic and cross-cutting elements or ingredients that contribute to the achievement of academic and administrative excellence, and I want to speak about some of these today, including the following:
1. Time Management;
2. Agenda Setting and Prioritization;
3. Peer review, and
4. Versatility
Let me begin with my favourite topic which as you all know is the management of time:
A• Managing Time
There are two commodities which are absolutely free and distributed to every human being in equal measure. The first of these is the air we all breathe. Air is freely available and allocated to all people without discrimination; we use it whether we are asleep or awake. Likewise, we all have TIME; every human being has been given 24 hours in a day; 30 days per month and 12 months in a year; it is the truly universal condition. TIME is endless and equally exploitable by us all. At the same time, it is important to underscore the point that while TIME is free, it is a non-renewable resource, and as former British Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli said, “He who gains time gains everything.”
But having time and managing it are two different things; we all have time, but very few of us manage it properly. It is my humble submission that the distinction between the two is what marks the difference between the average and the exceptional; it is the difference between mediocrity and excellence. Time management is directly linked to academic and administrative excellence, because the better one uses time, the more productive one becomes and consequently, the more useful to society. Time lost is inefficiency gained, it is economic loss registered. This is why the World Bank measures the length of time it takes to set up a business and ranks countries around the world according to the speed with which it takes to set up a company. Linked to this, Economists have shown that there is a direct relationship between the speed of incorporation of a company, and the achievement of economic development. In China—as famed businessman Richard Branson points out—showing up late for a business meeting is not only viewed as disrespectful, it can cost you a deal. This is because the Chinese believe that if you cannot manage your time properly, the likelihood is very high that you are not very good at managing anything else.
Time management is the act of controlling and organizing events as they are being influenced by time. It includes carrying out activities in a given time frame and arriving for duty or functions on time. Scholars of Management Science speak of achieving SMART goals. The acronym ‘smart’ stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Rational and Timed. I do not need to elaborate on each of these elements, but it is quite clear that taken together they constitute the recipe for achieving academic and administrative excellence. In Uganda we still have a great distance to go in terms of efficiently and effectively managing our time and thus in moving from mediocrity to excellence. When I was Prime Minister, I would often go to events where I was chief guest and arrive before the main organizers of the occasion had even shown up! Over time during my tenure, civil servants came to appreciate the value of time—whether in terms of preparation of the Government payroll, delivering a report before a set deadline or completing a pit latrine within the specified financial year. In sum, the effective management of time is the first and most essential ingredient of excellence in academic and administrative pursuits. The second aspect of academic and administrative excellence is Agenda Setting and Prioritization.
B• Agenda Setting and Prioritization
There is an old saying that I like very much: “If you don’t know where you are going, you will end up where you didn’t want to go.” Every profession has certain institutional goals that it expects its employees to pursue. In a tertiary institution such as a university these are four: teaching, research, publication of the results of the research and community outreach. All of these are coordinated by the administrative function, which was Onyango’s forté, but at a university the four ingredients are essential to the achievement of excellence in whichever discipline be it Political Science or Robotics. How do you at Makerere set your agenda—whether as individual teachers and researchers or as an institution?
Let us start with the latter. According to Webometrics and other online surveys such as the Times Educational Supplement, Makerere hovers between the top ten and top fifteen of the universities that are ranked highest in the whole continent. Although this position is a laudable one, Makerere still has largely failed to topple the dominance of the South African universities in this area.
While a lot is being done, I believe that much more can still be achieved by way of securing institutional academic excellence, especially since Makerere was at one time ranked among the best in the world; indeed, it was dubbed the “Harvard of Africa.” In this regard, I think it is time for us to discuss where we want Makerere to be in the next twenty or so years and to embark on working out the modalities for achieving this goal. While I am sure you have been having many internal discussions on this issue, perhaps it is time to broaden those discussions to include outsiders like myself in your deliberations.
In summary, Makerere and its friends (like me) need to hold a grand meeting (ttabbamiruka or kacoke madit) to review the institutional approach to excellence. Such a discussion needs, among other things, to evaluate Makerere’s relationship to the use and development of new technologies suitable for our agrarian economy (for example, mobile phone applications (Apps) and Social Media); it needs to ask what needs to be done with respect to influencing and improving government policy and for enhancing the business environment, and finally, it should investigate how Makerere can return to being the hub of distinction that it was once renowned to be, especially in the face of new competitors, both locally and on the international scene.
May be we can start by indentifying particular locations of research and teaching and focusing on the areas of critical need and nurturing them into Centres of Excellence. For example, in the 1960s and 1970s Makerere was renowned for its Medical and Agriculture faculties; perhaps we can start there, and then move on to Law, Humanities and Information Technology and thereafter to all the other varied disciplines at the university. Excellence needs to be nurtured and nourished, and that can only be done with a very clear agenda and program on how to go about achieving this. These observations lead me to the next part of my speech which is concerned with the nurturing and auditing of individual excellence as opposed to the institutional.
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| Prof Oloka Onyang makes his remarks at the Memorial Dinner same day |
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| Prof Charles Olweny makes remarks at Bernard Onyango Public lecture at Makerere May 30, 2014 |
C• Peer Review
Related to the issue of Agenda Setting and Prioritization is the question of focus, and here I am particularly concerned about the nurturing of academic and administrative excellence among the individual scholars and managers at Makerere rather than at the institution as a whole. Just the other day a newspaper called me to ask why President Museveni no longer included (Makerere) academics in his Cabinet. While I told them it was not true—there are still a number of academics in Government today—the question nevertheless raises a related issue: where is the new crop of stellar academics and administrators today? Where are the Kyalwazi’s (of Surgery), the Okot p’Biteks (of Literature and Poetry) and the Ali Mazruis (in Political Science)—Makerere scholars of yesterday who shook the academic and professional worlds of their times? Are Makerere’s individual academics of today really excelling at their craft? What are the new innovations and critical contributions originating from scholars at campus to the many issues of contemporary public concern such as the environment, regional integration and terrorism, to mention but a few? Why are we not hearing about them? What can be done to encourage them to excel? In light of the general perception that individual academics are no longer excelling, much more needs to be done to nurture the young academics of today to become the excellent scholars of tomorrow.
Many in this audience would be familiar with the old academic saying, ‘Publish or Perish.’ It refers to the system of peer review whereby scholars and academics have their work assessed by their colleagues in the discipline. However, I believe we need to add a new dimension to this old saying. I would say, ‘Publish and Broadcast.’ Be known by your deeds. Whereas academics must constantly make evaluations, whether of scientific findings, of graduate students or of themselves, those evaluations remain internal; the public doesn’t know who is the best agronomist or the most erudite poet among you. Academics need to come down from the Ivory Tower and engage with the public and demonstrate that their excellence is not confined to the lecture room. Internal audits must be verified by external (public) scrutiny and validation.
D• Versatility
Finally, in the pursuit of academic and administrative excellence, there is a need to be versatile. In this context the versatility I am talking about is the need to adapt to changing circumstances. People like Bernard Onyango, along with others like the late Professor Senteza Kajubi run Makerere both during good and bad times, but they made the best of the situation in which they were faced. Excellence means taking adversity and transforming it into possibility which will eventually lead to enhanced capacity. Even in Makerere’s most difficult times, people like Onyango were relied on to ensure that standards remained high and that the single most important product of the university—its degree awards and graduates—were held in high esteem wherever they went. Indeed, adversity and pressure bring out those who are able to withstand challenges and to rise to greater heights on account of them. This last point allows me to move on to the second leg of my speech—the issue of integrity.
3. INTEGRITY AND ITS RELEVANCE TODAY
Bernard Onyango was a man of exceptional integrity. He built that integrity by steady and dedicated service to the various universities in which he was in control of the public records as well as in the many other capacities in which he served such as on the committee in charge of the distribution of national scholarships for fifteen years. Onyango did his work with diligence, thoroughness and precision. During his tenure, I never once heard anybody complain about messed up transcripts or dissertations not being vetted. This is not to romanticize the past and to say that such malpractices did not exist in Onyango’s day; however, the mechanisms which he put in place ensured that if any occurred, they were dealt with swiftly, transparently and with a view to ensuring that they did not recur.
To begin my exploration of the issue of integrity, let me borrow Onyango’s own words on the occasion of the dedication of the Administrative Block at Uganda Martyrs University (Nkozi) in his name:
“Whichever way you look at it, a University’s main concern is with documentation and records. These are divided into Administrative and Academic records, but the latter are the more vital. They include examinations (A-level, Mature Age, etc.). These are records which may alter the face of institutions such as UNEB, Makerere, National Water, UMEME, etc. Administrative records include Personnel. They include outgoing cash, so more people concentrate on forging ghost pay rolls. Many people in the short term and with ill intention prefer to work in Purchasing, in Pay Roll, or in Establishment. However, in the long term falsifying academic records is much more fatal than any damage that can be done in these other areas of an institution. “
Every institution has records, whether it is the Land Office, a private company, an NGO or a cultural institution. Over time, it has become clear that control of those records is like sitting on a gold mine; these are records for which people will beg, steal, borrow and even kill. Indeed, that is why there are so many problems today over forgeries of land titles, academic certificates, passports and even of wills!
To ensure that those records are kept safely requires a minimum degree of order, but a maximum degree of integrity; the person who is in charge of them needs to be beyond reproach. Integrity is a value like persistence, courage and intelligence. It is one’s choice of values and the resolution to live by them that form an individual’s character and personality. Moreover, integrity enhances all the other values that an individual has, such as compassion. But the main mark of people with integrity is that they produce the highest quality of work.
It is also important to point out that integrity entails progressive leadership; in his field Onyango was a leader. But he also had a good team, among whom I recall people like the late Eyoku with his encyclopedic memory, Sam Muwanga and Mrs. Deborah Etoori. There was also the resourceful Kizza who run examinations for the WHOLE University from a tiny office upstairs right here in the Main Hall. In other words, integrity instils confidence in the people you work with and they seek to emulate you. People will not follow leaders whom they do not trust. Great leaders, trusted leaders demonstrate integrity and in doing so, achieve the faith and confidence of their workers, colleagues and peers, who then become willing followers, loyal employees and trusted coworkers.
Given my experience in both the Academic and Governmental world, I have come to believe that there are certain universal characteristics of integrity that should be emulated and which I wish to underscore today. These include the following:
1. Know that it is the little things which count (attention to detail);
2. if you mess up, confess the mistake and correct it (accountability);
3. Keep your word (trust);
4. Care about the greater good, i.e. the good of the institution and not the good of the individual;
5. Be honest and modest;
6. Act like you are always being watched by others;
7. Bring close to you those of similar virtues and talents, and
8. Do not be detracted provided you know you are on the right path.
In Uganda today, these are values that we sometimes lose sight of. I would like to urge Makerere and other universities to thus teach these values in classes on Ethics and Integrity and to make them foundational and cross-cutting courses that are taught in all disciplines. It is only through inculcating these values in our youth that we can ensure that vices such as corruption in public office, embezzlement of government funds, bribery of voters and related unethical malpractices can be fought and eliminated.
4. TOWARDS THE FUTURE
The reason for celebrating the life of any individual is to draw lessons that can inform us as we forge ahead into the future. From Bernard Onyango’s life, we can draw numerous lessons about excellence and integrity. Those lessons are both individual and institutional. Whether you are a leader in Academia or in Administration, or even in Business or the Arts it is important to recognize that you are a model for those whom you lead. Thus, you need to be consistent and clear about your ethical standards, providing your students, clients or employees with facts and not smokescreens. By your actions you must challenge any system that encourages dishonesty or rewards unethical behaviour. You must be consistent and clear about ethical standards and the expectations of those you lead. You must encourage people to expose and express their concerns about questionable practices so that they are eliminated. Most importantly, you must offer open, candid feedback to management, to your colleagues and to your clients (which in the case of a university are the students and parents). I believe that Onyango lived by these standards and that such standards need to become fully institutionalized, not just at Makerere but in every arena of academic, administrative, economic or political enterprise in the country.
Many times when someone passes on we cite the Bible verse in 2 Timothy Chapter 4 Verse 7. It reads, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” We are here to offer to Bernard the crown of administrative excellence. It is thus my honour and pleasure to formally announce the establishment of the Bernard Onyango Academic Excellence Awards (BO-ACE) to reward not simply scholarship and excellence, but to underscore the idea that distinction must ride together with dignity and integrity.
I wish to contribute one million (1,000,000) shillings toward the establishment of the Bernard Onyango Academic Excellence Awards.
THANK YOU!
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