Namibian Founding President Dr. Sam Nujoma stepped down as Chancellor of the University of Namibia, paving the way for his successor, President Hifikepunye Pohamba, to be at the helm of Namibia's top academic blast furnace.
It was a seamless change of guard reminiscent of when Dr. Nujoma stepped down as Head of State and passed on the baton to President Pohamba nearly eight years ago. Scores of members of the University of Namibia community, senior government officials, members of the diplomatic corps and representatives of Namibia's development partners thronged a hotel in the capital Windhoek to witness the change of leadership, the first such since UNAM's establishment in 1992.
In a stirring valedictory speech, Dr. Nujoma reminisced about bearing witness to and being among the architects of UNAM's metamorphosis from a small, elitist academy to a popular national public university that now boasts of 11 campuses in different parts of the country and has an enrollment of a over 17 000 students from all over the world.
The Founding President admitted that it had not been plain sailing. There had been challenges, he said, some of which still persisted.
"One of them is high student: lecturer ratios. In some faculties, lecturers are still handling unacceptably large numbers of students, which suggests that at such faculties, staff complements need to be drastically increased. However, this cannot be done without taking a holistic look at the country's budgetary constraints, because education and health are the two sectors that are taking the greatest shares of our national annual budgets," he said
Dr. Nujoma said a second challenge was a mismatch between growth in student population and growth in basic infrastructure to adequately take care of the students.
"Attracting and retaining qualified and experienced staff who can give internationally recognized education to our young people was a challenge during my tenure as Chancellor. This is likely to continue to pose a challenge if steps are not taken in good time to make terms of conditions at UNAM comparable to what is offered by other major African universities."
He said where UNAM had succeeded in attracting experts from other countries; it had failed to ensure that they take up positions expeditiously.
"We need to improve on this. As a young and growing country, we have not yet reached the point where we can go at it alone in terms of human resources."
He challenged the private sector to join hands with the Government in supporting education and thanked all those who worked with him during his tenure.
On his part, incoming Chancellor President Pohamba paid tribute to Dr. Nujoma's exceptional stewardship and reiterated his commitment to further strengthening the country's education sector.
"…we must build and maintain an education system that delivers desired results by equipping our youth with skills and competencies required by the economy," he said.
The President called for the cultivation, inculcation and promotion of discipline, dedication, hard work and self-respect on the part of all at UNAM.
UNAM Vice Chancellor Prof Lazarus Hangula thanked Dr. Nujoma for his exemplary leadership as chancellor and pledged his and his team's cooperation with the new Chancellor.
(...)
We are very proud of this university and impressed by what it has achieved within only 20 years. (continue reading here...)