Unleash your pTo break or not to breakotential like Dr. Ben Carson – Part 2

I read with interest a newspaper article titled Govt hints on lean Unima. The story was that after dispatching off Bunda to form its own university, the Lilongwe University of Science and Technology, Chancellor College (Chanco) was the next one. The article suggested that consultations were ongoing and these would be concluded in early 2015. Early 2015 by my standards is now and perhaps up to June in this same year.

Then the newspaper article went on to quote my former teacher at HHI Secondary School Roy Hauya. He presented his view on possibilities. These included College of  Medicine and Kamuzu College of Nursing merging to become one university, The Polytechnic to become the Mecca of engineering, business, technology and communication; and Chanco to be the liberal arts university. These are interesting and worthwhile ideas that need to generate a conversation.

Whether one believes that the University of Malawi (Unima) should be split further or not is one thing. The possible gains for such splits have been outlined, but one would also want to hear what we will forgo by such in so doing. Whoever is tasked with the final decision to split the university will do well if they not only listened to the positives, but would also stop and ask for a list of negatives.

I continued reading the article until I reached one paragraph: “Meanwhile, Unima Vice-Chancellor, John Saka has said the issue has not been discussed.” What do we have here. We talk about consultations completing early 2015, we talk about ideas as to which college becomes which when the split is completed and the man we entrusted with running Unima has not been consulted. Are we serious? The law is clear as to who is the CEO of Unima and this is Saka. Was the article work of fiction or fact?

To summarise: if there was any discussion worth its attention about splitting Unima, that discussion must involve the Vice-Chancellor of the university. I am not naïve as to believe that Saka will be at each and every forum talking about the split of Unima. I am also not suggesting that anyone needs to seek permission from him to talk about the split.

Let me finish off by saying that I am gravely concerned that there has been a growing tendency to allow parking of vehicles on Glyn Jones Road between Mt Soche Hotel and Standard Bank. Illegal indeed and the city council should not be collecting parking fees here. The city council should be towing vehicles parked at this place and not cashing in on people breaking the law. This area has not been designated for parking on both sides of the road. For city council to station their wardens here to collect parking money is bad, bad and bad.