It is great being the first female Guild President at NUR

Aimée Mwizerwa is the out going Guild President of the National University of Rwanda Students’ Union-NURSU. As the first female Guild President of the 47 year old institution, Sunday Times’ Bryan Kimenyi talked to her about her time in office. Tell us about yourself I’m MWIZERWA Aimee, a 26 years old student in the Faculty of Agriculture at the National university of Rwanda-NUR. Since July last year I’ve been the Guild President of the National University of Rwanda Student Union-NURSU. How does it feel to be the first female Guild President of the National University of Rwanda? It feels great especially for me because I was the first woman to occupy the seat. Being the NUR guild president alone isn’t an easy feat and many men have failed to make it. My election made me believe that Rwandan women today can play a role in the transformation of the society. During your tenure, what has been your greatest achievement? We were elected into office after the university administration had dissolved the former body. When we came in, our main objective was to transform the student government into a stable union. I think we’ve managed to do exactly that as we’ve built a strong bond between us and the administration and also delivered. As the first woman guild president, I was under serious scrutiny from the students and the administration, but my presidency is going to pass without any scandal or failures. What have been your greatest challenges? At the beginning of the year, there arose a problem of government bursary for 468 first year students of the NUR and 1500 students from around the country. The university was going to lose part of its population and we had to do something as their leaders. When we pleaded to His Excellency the President of the Republic, he intervened and all the 468 students of NUR were given government bursary and he did likewise for others across the country. Despite the fact that this whole issue ended well, it was a challenge because the students concerned and their relatives were angry and put us under pressure only to be saved by the president. Any other problems your government has faced during its term? As a body, we are supposed to see that the problems of students are addressed immediately. From the beginning of our term, we realized that students lacked facilities mainly in the lecturing rooms, the school restaurant and they also complained about the conditions of the mattresses in their houses. As we talk, the mattresses have arrived and are being distributed in every house and the restaurant has received some facilities it lacked and the rest will be solved next semester. The other issues rotate around the big number of students, which have forced us to make students share beds, something that didn’t happen in the past. About bed sharing, don’t you think some problems of hygiene and improper conduct may arise? When allocating these beds, we made sure that people of the same year shared a bed. Our intention was to avoid any case involving same sex rape. The students are allowed to choose who they want to share the bed, and I think that’s why we haven’t recorded any cases of the nature. However, due to the economic condition of the students, bed sharing has also helped in improving the standards of living of the students who share beds. Last year one would pay 5000 RWF but this year the students sharing the bed split the bill. What has been the guiding force in your leadership? As a body, we were blessed with a good team. We worked together with respect and there was a lot of dynamism in what we did. We wouldn’t have prospered if we’d not worked as a team. What relationship did your government share with the university administration? The past governments had always failed to create a relationship with central administration. The government we succeeded had been dissolved by the Rector, and our administration would have faced the same wrath if we’d not live to the expectations. Instead we’ve built a strong bond based on openness and the Rector and Vice Rectors have accorded us unlimited access to their offices without making appointments. Is it true that you are puppets of the central administration? Those allegations are not true and they lack tangible examples to support them. Our success story can tell for itself. We’ve done good work for the Students and addressed every problem they have. As a woman leader, what has been your contribution in their emancipation? My contribution has been to construct self confidence in the minds of my younger sisters of 1st and 2nd years. With my encouragement, many of them now represent their faculties, classes and some I’m sure will vie for positions in the next government. I’ve always wanted to see women competing with men in all fields of life and this has been my main emphasis whenever I talked to these young sisters of mine. Ends