Mkapa Returns to School in Uganda and Gets Bonus Degree
- Category: The Comrade
- Date 29-11-2009
- 516 views
The ex-President of the United Republic of Tanzania, Benjamin William Mkapa is a privileged man. Few days ago, he retraced his academic footsteps to Uganda’s oldest university at Makerere, to receive some gratuity in form of an honorary degree, becoming the tenth person to get such an award from the institution. The Comrade believes that Mr Mkapa was chosen for this honour because he is the only surviving former student of Makerere University whose record as a head of state is fairly unsullied.
No one can, however, weigh Mkapa against Mwalimu Julius Nyerere who also studied from Makerere University; but Mkapa is the second most successful alumni after the deceased Tanzanian idol. Most other former students of Makerere who became presidents did not have the luxury of retiring from office honourably. Nigeria’s Alhaji Shehu Usman Aliyu Shagari was toppled and detained in 1983, to be released later but banned, for life, from participation in Nigeria’s politics.
Godfrey Binaisa ruled Uganda for eleven months (June 1979 – May 1980) whereas Prof Yusif Lule spent only sixty-eight days as president of the same country. Kenya’s Mwai Kibaki is serving his last term in office, amidst incalculable social mayhem and political vulgar. Uganda’s earliest presidents, Milton Obote and Edward Mutesa, were disgracefully ousted and only returned home dead.
None of Uganda’s leaders, past or present, has deserved the accolade of an honorary degree from the country’s most prestigious university. It is thus apparent that only Tanzania reaped worthy and fortunate presidential upshots from Makerere University.
You know now why Mr Mkapa has been invited not merely to be conferred the degree of esteem but also as chief guest and main speaker at the university’s former students’ reunion. The decision to bestow the Doctor of Philosophy degree on this eminent alumnus was endorsed by the Makerere University Senate; the highest decision-making body of all academic-related matters at the institution.
An honorary degree or a degree honoris causa (Latin) is merely a donation award because in granting it, the university ignores the normal requirements for graduation such as registration, fees payment, or passing examinations. It may even be awarded to someone who has no connection whatsoever with the university.
The awarding institution often derives benefits from associating with the person in question and the recipient of the degree usually makes a speech, as the major part of the occasion. The fêted degree is given as tribute to the individual’s contribution to the institution, the academic field or generally to humanity.
Benjamin William Mkapa enrolled at Makerere University more than half a century ago in 1957 (long ago really!) and graduated in 1962 with a bachelor’s degree in English Language and Literature.
A sage of old, Ropo Oguntimehin said, “Education is a companion which no future can depress, no crime can destroy, no enemy can alienate and no nepotism can enslave.”
This is now reality to Mr Mkapa. Yet the world does not pay for what a person has learnt and knows, but rather for what the person does with it.
The Comrade thinks that Mkapa got an education and used it well to scale both the professional and socio-political heights. He deployed the knowledge education instilled in him to rise to the level of a head of state and, while there, he still acknowledged that he did not have the monopoly of the national vision.
Sir William Haley, a British journalist, once noted, “Education would be much more effective if its purpose was to ensure that by the time they leave school, every boy and girl should know how much they do not know.”
When other presidents were tinkering with electoral systems to stay in power, Mkapa was preparing to handover office. Each Member of Parliament in Uganda was bribed with 5 million shillings so that they could change the national constitution to allow Yoweri Museveni remain in office.
During his final visit to Uganda as a head of state in 2005, Mr Mkapa could not mince words; he told the President and Parliament that democratic governance in Africa can only take root if leaders groom potential successors to the presidency and create systems that are strong enough to outlive their founders.
For his courage and wisdom, The Comrade recommends another doctorate for Mkapa.
By Venansio Ahabwe
Source: The Comrade, The Guardian on Sunday