Politicians must avoid the temptation of making politics a job – Ugandan ex-VP
Professor Gilbert Bukenya, a trained medical doctor and former vice president of Uganda, in this interview with ZEBULON AGOMUO, spoke passionately on the need for Africa to urgently abandon Colonial mentalities, which has held down the black continent for many years. He spoke about the need to bridge the gap between the government and the governed, pointing out that in Africa, the gap has continued to widen. He urged politicians to see politics as a service to humanity and to quit the stage for others when they must have played their parts. According to him, education must be localized to address societal needs, and leaders must jettison the habit of copying everything from Europe and America. Excerpts:
Your Excellency, you were at the AUN to witness the graduation of your son, Conrad; how do you feel as a father whose son did not just graduate but won many awards?
I am extremely happy, not just that my son graduated from AUN, I am happy about the concept of bringing into Africa a development university; a university that does not become an ivory tower. I went to a university which was an ivory tower; and beyond its compound or the fences, I didn’t care what was happening there. But the AUN is unique for Africa. It’s a university that looks after the poor. That’s why I brought my son here, without taking him to these ivory towers. I prefer someone to understand the development of people and at the same time applying the knowledge of advancement.
You have the means and connections to send your son to Europe or America for studies; so why Nigeria?
Absolutely, I had the means and contacts to send the young man to any American or European university because I lectured at some of the good universities in America and in London (United Kingdom). I didn’t want to send him there because they train you in the traditional way. Somebody comes, gives you the knowledge and leaves you to either take it or leave it. When the AUN started, they brought in the staff, the faculty members and all that, I said this is something unique. I was a member of the board of trustees and I found there’s something unique in Yola. That’s when I told my wife in Uganda that I was taking this son of ours to Yola. There were lots of arguments. She totally refused; even our son was influenced and had refused also. But at a point, the young man, as a mark of respect for me, said: ‘Well, I have to go where my Dad wants me to go.’ He came to Yola and only two years of his stay here, when he came back to Uganda, I saw a change. At that time, I was still in politics, the vice president of the country; I used to go to communities. His mother would not allow me to go chat with the locals. She thought I was above those people. Now, this young man, Conrad, would come with me to my programs in the communities and would shake hands with the poor, the disadvantaged, and I said ‘Conrad, where did you pick this?’ He said to me, ‘You know, when we are in Yola, we go to the communities; we go to see their sewage system, etc.’ I said fantastic. I told him, ‘Continue with that.’ That is going to be the future of leadership in Africa because in Africa we have leaders who stay in places and they have no touch with the people; there’s no communication between where they stay and where the poor live. Some of these poor may not even have a meal a day. They don’t know that these poor people may go to hospitals and they don’t even get a tablet. Unless we create leaders who can permeate within the population and understand the problems that they face, that’s when Africa will change.
You advocate that African universities must begin to adopt the right teachings and programs that go on in AUN. But you know that the major problem with most universities has been funding. It is only founders with deep pockets and large hearts that could cope with the type of projects at AUN. How do we solve the problem of funding?
I don’t think it is a question of money for universities to participate in the population. In 1989, when I was still in the medical training, we fabricated training without walls. The concept was that you can train doctors within communities without putting up a building. We applied the concept in Zambia, Cameroon, Uganda and Malawi and it worked very successfully. We would have the doctors, who were doing public health; they would sit within the communities; they would help the communities to build sanitary systems. It was much cheaper than the training programs that are taking place here. Why did it fail? It only failed because our collaborating partners in the world made it complicated- you need a computer and many other things. And it failed. I still believe strongly that universities in Africa must practice community-based education within where the buildings are. I mean here in Yola, if you go to Jimeta and see how people live (I thank the new governor because he has built new roads and has cleaned up the place); when I came here initially when the university took off; I said let’s put public health training in the university because, at that time, I would go to the communities there and see the problems they were in. Today, AUN is doing a lot of community services and the question is, how is the AUN doing it? It is the conception; it is the teachers, the students, and it is the concept of leadership that they have used to apply the methodology of teaching at a higher level to communities. So, for me, I think it is not a question of money; it is a question of mind change of people. It is a question of making a lecturer to erase from his mind such a thought that ‘I am so super that I cannot rub shoulders with the poor people.’
You were a former vice president of Uganda; one of the problems in Africa is the inability of politicians to pursue other careers when their tenure of office expires; they want to sit tight. Do you have any intention of going back to politics?
No. I think every human being must have a journey. My journey started in my profession as a medical doctor. Then I came into politics and I did my part. Now my journey is back into the application of my professionalism and community services. My appeal to politicians is that they should never, never make politics a job. They must know that being a politician is a service to the community and because many of them have continued to make politics a job, that’s why they continue to fight, they don’t want to leave and that’s why they want to make a lot of money, even money they don’t need. I am an example of those who say, you do your part, when you finish, quit and do another thing.
It can be said that both in your profession and in politics, you rose to the highest echelon. You have also traveled widely and have seen what goes on in different parts of the world. What do you think is the problem with Africa?
Why is Africa lagging behind? Simple reason: We African leaders cannot say no. If African leaders learn to say no to foreign influence, then we can shape our way. African leaders copy a lot. If someone comes here with a very good jet plane, they would want to take it, they would not ask, how does this jet plane come about? African leaders copy the wrong things from Europeans. And I will tell you straightaway. The white man comes here to exploit you. So, if he finds you in a position of weakness, he will exploit you and even convince you to fly food from Europe for you as a president to eat. And I have seen many presidents in Africa who completely refuse their own traditional food and prefer à la carte from Europe. We must learn to say no. We must learn to plan for our people. We must learn to eat and live with our people. Even though mosquitoes are biting in my community, I am ready to keep my skin so that the mosquitoes will bite me also. But in Africa, it is not so. We must always take with skepticism what a white man brings as a proposal. Look at it, say no, if you think it is a no; say yes if you think it can help your country or Africa. That’s the problem we have.
Obviously, your generation could not say no to the white man; do you think that those coming behind have the capacity to say no?
The only way the young people can build the capacity to say no is to start getting proper training in leadership from primary level of education. Let these young people begin to know that leadership does not only mean leadership in politics but leadership in totality. If you have a role in a rural population, and if for instance, these young people can mobilize members of their community to clean up their environment, that is leadership. If we have poor latrines and these young people can make the latrines more usable for the people, that is leadership. Once we develop that- Europe did it long ago and also America- you create patriotism, you create national leadership; but if you impose leadership, it is dangerous.
What is your general assessment of the quality of education in Africa and do you think that our poor level of development here has anything to do with education?
Education in Africa was imported from Europe and now from America, etc. Education in Africa was not self-created in Africa and that’s why you find in Africa there is a fight. When I used to be in political leadership, we had the francophone because they spoke French; we had the Anglophone because they spoke English; we had others also. And again you find also we are divided among ourselves as black people. We must create an education which is localized. If I teach my child agriculture the way we do it here, what is going to be the implication for the future? Look at Nigeria; Nigeria should be the biggest agriculture country. In fact, Nigeria should be a net exporter of agricultural produce. But is that the case? No. The country is rather a net importer of rice, mangoes, and everything. So that’s why education system which was imported into Africa is wrong and it is very difficult to change it. My children would want to go and study in the UK, why is it that UK children do not want to study in Africa? Why do they want to go and study in America and American children do not want to study in Africa? So, the education system in Africa must change. It must look at our local challenges in Africa and then apply it. You know these Americans, they started the university training based on their problems, that is why every state has a state university but based on Agriculture; now they have changed because they are more advanced, but in Africa, the story is different. I go to some universities that took an offer in the early 60’s, if you drive around the campuses, they are as backward as they have been. So, we need to change our education system.
You spoke about language divisions; for us in Nigeria, although the Benin Republic is very close to us, we easily identify with Ghanaians probably because they speak same English as we do. There was a call in the past for Africa to adopt a common or social language; do you think that is possible?
If Africa has to move forward we have to start getting languages that support our systems. I come from east Africa; in East Africa, we have adopted the Swahili; Rwanda used to be a French-speaking country, they have now adopted Swahili; Burundi and others have also done that. So, this is the way forward, and we have to abandon Colonial mentalities, even on food. I know one African president whose food is flown from Paris. I am sure that when he was growing up he was eating yam and cassava. So, that mentality must go and how does it go? It is by mobilizing communities to get rid of those political leaders.
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