PROF. VINCENT BAGIRE
It was exactly 30 years on October 18, 2023, since I stepped at Uganda Martyrs University where I later graduated with my first degree, majoring in Management. It is the life at UMU that further shaped what you have read of my writings in this magazine nonstop for the last thirty years on management for Catholic leaders.
Five years ago, I wrote of UMU@25 in this very magazine. I reiterated how UMU had made 25 years of committed training of managers. I continue to be proud to share in its history and the shaping of my decision to specialize in management as a study discipline. On that, setting foot at Nkozi, we were 84 young strangers. We found a few staff with lit faces at seeing that the idea of a Catholic University in Uganda had gotten the light of day. Suffice to recall that the desire for a Catholic University had been around since Archbishop Kiwanuka suggested so in the 1960’s. In 1991, the venture was launched by the Catholic Bishops.
A task force headed by Msgr. Hilary Tibanyenda, who became our first chaplain worked with an identified character in the personality of Professor Michel Lejeune, Bernard Onyango and a host of less than ten others. As Vice-chancellor and Registrar respectively, these two willed servants did what it takes to see the seed grow. As I drove up the hill to Nkozi, on a tarmac road, through a buzzing township, sky rising buildings, my mind settled on the rural setting that it was. On the dusty path through homesteads, stuck with nothing but rural air, my sponsor and then national youth chaplain, Fr Paul Serra pulled to a stop beside a heap of debris.
There I alighted, met with lit faces of staff who little minded the surprise we had to have left the city to start a University education in the hamlet. I park amidst hundreds of students, bustling in their own routine. The University has grown from the initial two faculties to over ten; from 84 students to close to 10,000. It is here that the philosophy of a University endeared to train professionals of quality who would combine academic excellence with human and Christian values blossomed. Team building, communication, caring for one another and involvement in physical work clearing debris, left of the dilapidated structures that UMU had taken over from the national teachers collegecharacterized the basic management practices.
We envisioned a well-laid compound, walkways, green environment and beauty for posterity. Now, here I was and that posterity was only awakened at my arrival when officials from management came over to welcome me. One official attracted attention when he said of me being one of the 84, the first president of the students union in 1994 and now a professor. It was amazing how they connected 30 years of UMU to their current campus life. Indeed, in the climax celebration, the few of the 84 present were the congregation’s excitement of the day. It is thus in that springing life of academic excellence and quality that UMU has continued to shape leadership and management in Uganda. From the 72 initial graduands fitting into the Biblical disciples Jesus sent out, UMU counted close to 42,000 alumni on its 29th graduation, which was marked with its 30th anniversary.
UMU has expanded from the Nkozi campus to other centers at Lubaga, Mbale, Nsambya, Masaka, Kabale, Ngetta and Fortportal. As UMU family, we take pride in her 30 years life of serving. In our time, we concentrated on building structures, systems, teamwork and inculcating values that would last long. It is now time for the current management and students to spur UMU to greater heights. As alumni, we are holding lit candles for the world to see. May the Uganda Martyrs by whose name we are called, inspire us all in shaping the future and with virtue and wisdom to lead the world.
