KAMPALA – The former Vice Chancellor of Makerere University, Professor Asavia Wandira, has died, leaving the University community ‘shocked and saddened.’
Proof wandira passed on Thursday morning at Nakasero Hospital where he has been receiving treatment for the past weeks.
The university’s Vice Chancellor, Prof Barnabas Nawangwe, described Prof Wandira as “a person of high integrity who kept the university intact in the most difficult period of its history and said his death was a “huge loss”.
“I have received the sad news of the demise of Professor Asavia Wandira, two-time Vice Chancellor of this Great institution,” Prof Nawangwe said.
Professor Wandira, served as vice-chancellor for 11 years in two defferent intervals. ((VC, 1973-1975, 1979-1986)
According to a 2009 report by the Observer Newspaper, Prof. Wandira is the second longest serving head of the institute after Sir Bernard de Bunsen who served as Principal for 13 years (1950-1963).
He is also among the few people who have served as VC at two different intervals.
He served his first tenure of Vice Chancellor from 1972 to 1975, after which he left Uganda. He served as Professor of Education at the University of Swaziland. On return to Uganda, he was named Minister of Education in 1979. Thereafter, Professor Wandira was appointed Vice Chancellor up to 1986.
He led the university under Presidents Idi Amin, Prof. Yusuf Lule, Godfrey Binaisa and Tito Okello Lutwa and briefly under President Museveni.
Prof. Wandira was a commissioner on the Constitutional Review Commission that sought people’s views on the 2005 constitutional amendments.
He was also instrumental in the formation of Busoga University as he was the chairperson of its pioneer Board of Directors that worked on its establishment in the late 1990s.