Uganda presudent talks on how he insisted that his son studied in Nigeria

WhyI Insisted My Son Must Study InNigeria’ – Ex-Uganda Vice



 A son of a former Uganda Vice President, Gilbert Bukenya, recently graduated from the American University of Nigeria (AUN) owned byformer Vice President Atiku a

Abubakar.Gilbert Bukenya in an interview with PREMIUM TIMES, says he insisted his son learn in Nigeria because of the uniqueness of AUN and also spoke on Africa’s leadership challenges among others..Read excerpts below;You are an advocate of other universities not only in Nigeria but inAfrica, adopting the “development university” model. Knowing that funding has been a major challenge for education on the continent, how do we go about that?I don’t think it’s a question of moneyfor universities to participate in the population, no. In 1989, then I was still in the medical training, we started in Africa, public health training without walls. The concept was you can train doctors in communities without putting up a building and we applied this conceptin Zambia, Cameroon, Uganda, and Malawi, it worked very successfully. We would have the doctors when they are doing public health, they would sit within the communities, they’ll help the communities to buildsanitary systems. And it was much cheaper than the training programmes that are taking place here. Why did it fail? It only failed because our collaborating partners in the world made it sophisticated into needing the computer, into needing this transportation system, etc, and it failed. I still believe very strongly that universities in Africa must practice community-based education within where the buildingsare. I mean, here in Yola, if you go to Jimeta and you see how people live…I thank the new governor because he has put up roads and really cleaned up the place. When I came here, first I said let’s put publichealth training in this university because I would go to the community here and see the problem they were in. Why has this university, AUN, managing….? It’s such a budget, it’s the conception, the teachers and students and it’s the concept of leadership that they have used to apply the methodologyof teaching at a higher level to communities. So, for me I think it;s not a question of money, it is a question of mind change of people, it is a question of having a lecturer change his mind or her mind, that I’m so super, I cannot rub shoulders with the poor people.