8 March 2008
Bujumbura — The Post of Burundi and the chancellor of the University of Burundi, Mr Gaston Hakiza, have failed to agree over modality for the disbursement of the students' assistance to Alice Ndayisaba. The wrangle continues while the life of the student continues to embitter following a development of an infection although her family, the local Catholic Church and students have collected enough funds to change the course of her life.
At the beginning it was a sign of compassion that students felt for their fellow who was crippled after a car accident. At the beginning, it was felt as a duty of students' community to assist one their members. Now it has become a question of coming back to a decision that the education ministry and authorities of the University of Burundi took in late 2007. In 2004, Alice Ndayisaba survived a car crash in the city of Bujumbura. She has however developed an infection that local physicians are unable to treat due to the lack of adequate facilities. After the failure of the local hospitals to treat Alice Ndayisaba, students of the University of Burundi opened an account that would help to collect funds that would allow their fellow to get medical treatment abroad. Currently, 14 million of francs are in post account lodged at Mutanga Campus on the name of ASSER, the former Students' Association. However, following the dissolution of the University of Burundi's Students Association, Alice Ndayisaba, has no access to the money that would perhaps help to save her life in a medical facility abroad.
Presently, students of the University of Burundi have not elected their representatives who would get the powers to withdraw the money from the account. While the wrangle over getting representatives goes on between students and their authorities, the post has no right to disburse the funds to Alice Ndayisaba. Recently, the manager of the Post's agency of Mutanga said that the University of Burundi should pay the 14 millions to Alice Ndayisaba while waiting for the resolution of the problem of representation of students. The chancellor of the University of Burundi, Mr Gaston Hakiza, has however rejected this option. He has even demanded the Post to distribute the 14 million to students who made the contribution in order to dissolve the ASSER's account. In the meantime, a great part of students who contributed for months have completed their education and the post has closed their accounts as the government no longer pays them scholarships. Mr Gaston Hakiza says that the University is not ready pay anything whatsoever for the treatment of Alice Ndayisaba, adding that the Post has been unable to find ways through which it could pay the funds to the potential beneficiary. As this decision is irreversible, says the chancellor of the University of Burundi.
Mr Gaston Hakiza proposes that Students who will to give contributions to Alice Ndayisaba should proceed to a new subscription in order to allow the University to make cuts on their scholarships. On that ground, the University of Burundi will pay contribution to Alice Ndayisaba with a guaranty of payback. Many find that this move would delay the treatment of the student whose state continues to deteriorate. Students collected 14 million of francs over a long period of time, and it would take much longer to collect the same amount of money.
While criticisms calling the chancellor's sense of parenthood have increased it has also become apparent that the move of the government to dissolve the University of Burundi's Students' Association has left many issues unsolved as it put aside its social benefit. The situation it has created has started to backfire as the credibility of the chancellor is now at stake.
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