Banning political parties in Makerere is the right move

As a university student, I was saddened by the death of a colleague, Bewatte Betungura, a 25-year-old student of Uganda Christian University (UCU), who was stabbed to death during the violent guild campaigns at Makerere University on July 15th,

2022.

Betungura lost his life due to political campaigns. We do not need to lose another life in such political activities.

Seeing a parent mourning his or her child is terrifying, and it takes them a lot of time to heal. Losing a child at such tender age is shock of life to a parent.

Most parents’ struggle with funds to educate their children some even pick loans from banks or borrow from friends or sell their properties to ensure that their children finish their education.

Besides my university where political parties are banned in guild elections, the rest of the universities’ elections are influenced by political affiliations.

Yes, it is true multi-party system is the recognized political system in this country but I wouldn’t encourage it to be carried out in universities.

That is why I strongly agree with Professor Barnabas Nawangwe’s move to ban political parties in Makerere University’s elections as reported by the Daily Monitor on July 21, 2022.

In the article, Nawangwe defends his decision citing safety and peace of the students.

First and foremost, political parties play a key role in dividing students which frustrates their fight for a common cause which is education.

As it is said that “united we stand and divided we fall”, when these students separate themselves, they may fail to actively cooperate together in issues regarding their education.

I would recommend they remove political parties from students’ leadership then strict university campaigns participation to students only belonging to that university. Interference from outsiders or foreigners should not be entertained.

Since my stay at Islamic University, have not seen any person outside the campus participate in the guild campaigns.

The reason why we have not had any case of violence during the campaigns at IUIU is because we have no political parties’ affiliations. Other universities should take a leaf from Islamic University in Uganda (IUIU).

Universities can nurture students into leaders without those political affiliations.

Students interested in party politics should wait until they finish university.

The author is a student at Islamic University in Uganda (IUIU).

Nassali Rashidah