Inauguration of the EMBA in Lira University

I was invited by the Vice Chancellor of Lira University, Prof Jasper Ogwal-Okeng to launch an Executive MBA programme (EMBA). The Masters in Business Administration (MBA) is a globally reknown management degree which if you do the right one, you join the club of exquisite managers with the necessary knowledge to get high levels of productivity in an organization. If you don’t get the right one, yes, you get the title and that’s all. Lira University is just two years old but I was surprised by the developments there, the zeal of the managers in place led by the Vice chancellor and the enthusiasm of the students. Lira University is one of the now ten public universities. Sitting on 600 acres of land and with more land that has been given across the lake possibly another 300 acres, Lira University is being systematically developed. Definitely the future developments of the University in all respects has been taken care of. I believe the other university, with so much land, in fact much more is, Muni University in Arua. If am not mistaken, it has several square miles of land. Given the cost of land today and in the future, these young institutions do not have a problem and will not spend money acquiring land. 

The Vice Chancellor and his Deputy, the young, enthusiastic and eager to learn Prof Okaka Opio Dokotun were very pleased to see me. The Vice chancellor was someone we had interacted with in Makerere University in the 1980s and 1990s. Because of the negative vibes that always come out of Makerere University when my name is mentioned or when I appear in a Makerere University event, I took a decision to keep a low profile and not to participate in certain Makerere University events. I initially had misgivings about the invitation but decided that this particular person could not be part of the group that tormented me. Success breeds envy both positive and negative. MUBS by all standards has been a success and while there are many people who like it, respect it and adore it, there are many others who loathe it and regard it with disdain, but that is okay. We can deal with it, in fact, we did. The fact remains MUBS is an outstanding institution. Prof Ogwal Okeng chose to invite me out of the respect and positive envy and recognition of what MUBS has done and achieved. And I believe I did not disappoint him.

When I rose to speak at the ceremony to launch the EMBA programme, I did not fail to see the positive energy in the audience. My thoughts went to Busoga and current effort to get Busoga University off the ground, what a difference, I thought! In my remarks I shared with the students and staff the humble beginnings of MUBS and what we have done to create the institution it is. I shared with them our determination to be a leading institution and to be the best in what we did. I shared with them the fact that an aspiration to be the best will propel you to be the best but there will always be somebody better than you! I offered to collaborate and share knowledge and resources with the young University. I remarked that MUBS did not perceive other institutions as competitors rather, we perceive them as institutions that complemented what we did. I assured them that the demand for education in the country was so huge to be satisfied by a single institution and therefore there was still more room for many more other players. I dismissed the notion of competition and proposed sharing information, resources so as to improve the product we offer to the Ugandan student. The Vice Chancellor is a down to earth person having started the University as a constituent college of Gulu University in 2009 and now leading a fully-fledged public University. He has the resolve to succeed. He has picked the best in this endeavor. Again my thoughts went to Busoga University, what a pity. I also thought abpout MUBS, we have attempted t pick the best but sectarian elements want their own people and when they don’t get them, they rush to report to authorities to claim they are saints, what a pity.

The EMBA will be the first graduate programme that Lira University runs. The promoters of the programme are former MUBS students and there is no doubt that they will succeed in their endeavors. One of the benefits I have received over the years is to find my former students literally in all formal institutions. My advice to the aspiring Students of the Lira University EMBA was that an MBA is not a “cup of tea” but very doable. It gave such a rich experience and I advised them to form study groups, those who are married to get unmarried for the period! Those planning to get married to stay away from marriage because the MBA required time to successfully complete within reasonable time! 

I picked some lessons from Lira: One, was to improve administration of our various programmes .There’s need to allocate advisors to students to advise them on career choices and what they needed to do especially in difficult circumstances. 

Two, I also noted the passion interest and nationalism among the people in Lira district. Their love for their district. Institutions need a mission for everybody to subscribe to. I could see that common thread among the staff and students. The EMBA was starting with 85 people, an outstanding success! We haven’t achieved that in our campuses in JInja, Arua and Mbarara. I noted some students had got out of other programmes elsewhere to come back home to support the programme launched in their home districts! 

Three, comparing this to what have seen in Busoga, the Basoga are nowhere near the Langis in cohesiveness and love for their country, district or people. We took a university to Jinja and ten years later on we don’t have the title of the land. Of course we thank the Jinja Municipal Council for its graciousness even if a final title has not yet come to us. There is an effort to get Busoga University, we can learn from Lira University.

I thank Prof Ogwal-Okeng for the invite. I left the university a better person. The biggest irony is that with MUBS academic prowess, the naysayers continue to condemn us to a public tertiary institute. We are the third largest academic institution in this country but negative envy continues to lock us out of our right place among universities in this country and all over the world. They forget this institution is where their children go to school. I get shocked when they call me arrogant just to pull me down. I know I am not a push over but arrogance is not in my nature. Best wishes to Lira University, it has a great future ahead of it.