BWOWE: REWARDED FOR HIS FIGHT TOWARDS STUDENTS CAUSE

It is nearly a month since the guild elections were held and we have watched the unfolding of many events, discussions and stories of successes from those that went through.

The elections that were brings me back the memories of my village in Kyempene Rubaare Ntungamo where many people voted because as aresult of the highest bidder. Irrespective of whether someone is competent or not, people will vote them in my village if they have been given “akamiro” which is advanced to logistics (Mugaati) at University.

To be the guild president is not an easy job especially when one is from a humble background. The race is always very tight and expensive to the extent that a candidate will always have to facilitate his/her campaigners.

To Bwowe Ivan, a third year student of law at Makerere, this wasn’t the case. Humble as he was in the first days of the campaigns when he would walk alone because possibly he did not have the financial clout to convince the masses to rally behind him for support.

The topsy-turvy, and the dramatic reversal of events and attitudes of students towards the voting period was really a shock to many especially the supporters of Aseru Sarah, Aber Lillian and Phillip Musiime who were we positioned to even offer some goodies such as pens, alcohol, food etc

Meanwhile students were quick to realise that whereas one may offer alot of money, he might not be with you in times of hardship especially when they have got what they wanted.

The confusion the marred guild campaigns including the disqualification of Andrew Mujinya, Boniface Mbabazi, Emmanuel Wanyama Ojambo who were potential contenders in the race, landed Bwowe to the fertile grounds for his victory.

In addition, Lillain Aber who stood a sure chance to win because of her Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party became tribal centred and had directly involved herself in the petition against the authenticity of Mujinya in the race and eventually caused many of his supporters to lose faith in Aber and desperately rammed Bwowe.

Similarly, Aseru Sarah’s case was also predetermined because her father is the minister of Local government in the current Museveni government and therefore students were unsure of whether she would not be compromised. More so it was also alleged that her mother who is among the top officials in the University senate did all in her power to see Andrew Mujinya disqualified and this cost her a lot.

Musime phillip who initially was independent and later joined the National Resistence Movement (NRM) camp as their flag bearer following the disqualification of Boniface Mbabazi on grounds that he had forged the academic results put Musiime to test because NRM in Makerere was already biased and only students went there for ‘Mugaati’ (logistics) since as the ruling party, they always have money to offer.

Now comes a Bwowe Ivan just from nowhere, manipulates the available environment and becomes the 80^th guild president of Makerere University with 6943 votes and 64.66%. His involvement in the case filed by Bwowe and others Vs Makerere University that eventually saw the cancellation of decision by the university council to suspend them due to their participation in the spate of demonstrations against the 60% tuition policy previously.

Finally, I hope every member of this gallant intellectual community had a pick from the elections.  Beware that it is not the size of a dog that matters in a dog’s fight but rather the size of the fight. Bwowe’s victory largely was due to factors that were beyond his making.