The appendage of Nkrumah’s birthday as a national holiday is perhaps the most outstanding contribution of President Atta Mills’ government towards promoting patriotism in the country. We commend government for such a bold and noble initiative. Considering the hero that Nkrumah is, it is of good purpose that the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) gives him a much wider recognition even as we celebrate him today. Nkrumah indeed laid a very strong foundation which left our country Ghana, with no excuse not to have prospered after fifty-four (54) long years.
It is unarguable that Nkrumah should be celebrated for his invaluable contribution towards developing education in this country, but the fact still remains that he has not been duly honoured as a hero. He suffered not just a coup d’état, but also an overthrow of his vision and policies for the good people of Ghana. NUGS strongly believes that there is no better way to honour a hero like Nkrumah than putting his good policies into practice. As students, we look back on the educational policies of Nkrumah with a sense of pride and dignity and find a worthy cause to celebrate him; conversely, the prevailing conditions of education in Ghana today provide a very austere deviation from the path to sustainable education as developed by Nkrumah.
It is instructive to use this occasion to reflect on the policies and strategies Nkrumah’s government adopted to pursue his vision for educational development in the country; also it is important to take a break to assess our performance as a country in respect of our educational advancement. Of our nation’s few tertiary institutions, Nkrumah alone assisted in establishing the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and the University of Cape Coast. In addition to these, he established the Ghana Secondary Schools across the length and breadth of the country.
Under Nkrumah’s government, development of education was to achieve three primary goals. And they are:
1. To produce a scientifically literate population
2. To tackle mainly the environmental causes of low productivity
3. To produce knowledge to harness Ghana’s economic potential
We must then ask ourselves how close we have come as a nation in achieving these goals. We will for the mean time comment on the first goal of Nkrumah’s educational development plan and later revisit the entire post and pre-independence educational policies.
Producing scientifically literate population
Scientific literacy must translate into productivity and industrial boost in Ghana, leaving little room for unemployment complaints. In Nkrumah’s address to the legislative council two days before the declaration of independence, he stated that, “we must seek an African view of the African problem. This does not mean western techniques and methods are not applicable to Africa. It does mean, however, that in Ghana we must look at every problem from the African point of view…our whole educational system must be geared towards producing scientifically-technically minded people.”
Following the establishment of the ten polytechnics and a few technical and vocational institutions set up by the former President Rawlings’s regime, less attention has been paid to these sectors of education. Former President Kuffour’s government has also contributed to technical education through infrastructural and logistical support in this regard. The previous government also instituted the capitation grant and school feeding programme. In spite of these efforts to boost education, the country still has a wide deficit of technical know-how and very little is being done about it today.
Today, we are told KNUST offers 60% science/technology and 40% arts/business courses; we have every cause to worry with this trend. The science and technology departments have not significantly reflected on the development of this nation and we believe a number of reasons have amounted to this. These include outdated curriculum, lack of teaching and learning materials, inadequate research and practical equipment, lack of laboratory facilities to meet the growing student population and many others.
Many science students leave our campuses with little or no productive knowledge but rather imbibed formulae and theories. The question is, if our graduates cannot come up with projects to solve problems of sewage management, energy, agricultural production, transportation, pollution etc, then, who should? Nkrumah’s educational agenda was aimed at reducing poverty through economic productivity riding on the back of science and technology but where do we stand today as a nation?
Here, we are reminded of the words of Dr. Edward Mahama “I am far from poverty not because I was born into a rich family but because Dr. Kwame Nkrumah gave me an education”
We deeply acknowledge efforts made by previous and present governments to provide sound education to citizens of this country but we cannot also overlook the fact that a lot more needs to be done. The present educational establishment is one that has witnessed a multitude of challenges such as lack of accessibility and affordability, financial austerity, and the lack of improvement of physical facilities. We still have over 3000 schools under trees, subventions to educational institutions are scanty and all the burden seem to have been put on the GETFund which was initially established to supplement education in the country.
Whereas these challenges pose a serious threat to our development as a nation, the major challenge is the lack of the prioritization of education which remains a peril at the pinnacle of educational development in the country.
In line with celebrating this day, we pray all students to use this occasion to reflect on these noble educational objectives of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and hopefully become ambassadors of the Nkrumah agenda for an industrialized Ghana via science and technology.
We hope that government will adopt a blueprint for quality education in line with Nkrumah’s development agenda for attaining a wholly literate Ghana within the shortest possible time.
Signed:
Courage Nobi Peter Kwasi Kodjie
(General Secretary) (President)
(Tel: 0242879028)
eugene
Sunday, September 25, 2011
NDC MONOPOLIZES NUGS!
The National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) has for the past year been very dormant and has completely lost its credibility as a pressure group for and on behalf of the noble students of this country due to political party infiltration and monopolization. It is held that the NDC as a political party and some state functionaries financially supported some group of executives to ostensibly remove the legitimately elected NUGS President, Mr. Anthony Abotsi Afriyie on no constitutional or reasonable grounds and sought to replace him with one Hamza Suhuyini, (the junior brother of Alhassan Suhuyini – the Radio Gold host of “Alhaji and Alhaji” programme) who lost the elections to Mr. Abotsi at the NUGS Congress held at Wa.
This has created some confusion in the media as to who the legitimate NUGS president is. The two personalities have clashed on several occasions at programmes where the NUGS President was needed to represent students. This action, which is some sort of political ‘mafia’ has been strongly opposed by many students across the country, but due to Hamza Suhuyini’s supposed political party affiliation with the incumbent government, he has remained adamant to the legitimate concerns raised by various student leaders and activists across the nation, to stop holding himself as President of the Union.
It is barely a year now since this power struggle between Hamza and Abotsi began and is now time to draw down the curtains of this administration of NUGS and the question that many students are asking is whether two congresses will be held this year to elect two set of executives or not. If two congresses are held, what becomes of NUGS today? The battle is between one faction of NUGS controlled by the NDC and another faction spearheaded by Mr. Abotsi, a non-extremist of any political party, who has consistently stood for the good course of students.
Although majority of the institutions in NUGS have strongly rejected Hamza Suhini’s claim as the president of the Union, information gathered here is that letters have been distributed to various institutions inviting them to Congress with the appended signature of Hamza Suhini as the president of the Union. 2012 is an election year and all plans are being put in place by Hamza’s faction of NUGS to make sure NDC candidates take over the union to inhibit the woes and cries of students from getting to the media, since an expression of any of such plights will be to the disadvantage of the NDC government in the 2012 general elections.
This was clearly exhibited during a demonstration staged by University of Ghana students to protest the astronomical increases in academic facility user fees. Writings on the placards to be used for the demonstration were deliberately changed by that faction of NUGS to protect their government, thereby apportioning all blames to the Vice Chancellor.
Secondly, going through names in contest of the positions available in their congress, it is of no doubt that it would be purely another NDC congress especially with names like Osmanu Ayariga, the junior brother of Mahama Ayariga, the Deputy Minister Of Education, being pushed so hard for the presidential position.
Flipping through the chronicles of NUGS, the last time such impeachment was done was during Okudjeto Ablakwa’s reign as the NUGS president. He was impeached but on a very technical and constitutional grounds. After being caught flirting from one political party to another, he decided to remain with the NDC and needlessly on very trivial issues attacked the then NPP government to gain favor from the NDC, the strongest opposition at the time. His actions then, in one way or the other has seen him become a minister of state today. His institution opted out of NUGS and he technically ceased to be the president of NUGS for one Haruna Mahama to act as the president of the Union. Comparing the two impeachment incidences, it is incontrovertible that, Mr. Abotsi is only being frustrated to abandon his position for the NDC guys, who fear same might happen to their government.
Whatever be the case with NUGS today, students are not going to sit-in and watch their mother union being traded for cheap political favor and appointment as Okudjeto did but will rather stand firm on the good principles of conscience against the stomach controlled minds of others to put the various segments of NUGS together. No political party has a stake in NUGS so we ask all political parties to stay off the union.
This has created some confusion in the media as to who the legitimate NUGS president is. The two personalities have clashed on several occasions at programmes where the NUGS President was needed to represent students. This action, which is some sort of political ‘mafia’ has been strongly opposed by many students across the country, but due to Hamza Suhuyini’s supposed political party affiliation with the incumbent government, he has remained adamant to the legitimate concerns raised by various student leaders and activists across the nation, to stop holding himself as President of the Union.
It is barely a year now since this power struggle between Hamza and Abotsi began and is now time to draw down the curtains of this administration of NUGS and the question that many students are asking is whether two congresses will be held this year to elect two set of executives or not. If two congresses are held, what becomes of NUGS today? The battle is between one faction of NUGS controlled by the NDC and another faction spearheaded by Mr. Abotsi, a non-extremist of any political party, who has consistently stood for the good course of students.
Although majority of the institutions in NUGS have strongly rejected Hamza Suhini’s claim as the president of the Union, information gathered here is that letters have been distributed to various institutions inviting them to Congress with the appended signature of Hamza Suhini as the president of the Union. 2012 is an election year and all plans are being put in place by Hamza’s faction of NUGS to make sure NDC candidates take over the union to inhibit the woes and cries of students from getting to the media, since an expression of any of such plights will be to the disadvantage of the NDC government in the 2012 general elections.
This was clearly exhibited during a demonstration staged by University of Ghana students to protest the astronomical increases in academic facility user fees. Writings on the placards to be used for the demonstration were deliberately changed by that faction of NUGS to protect their government, thereby apportioning all blames to the Vice Chancellor.
Secondly, going through names in contest of the positions available in their congress, it is of no doubt that it would be purely another NDC congress especially with names like Osmanu Ayariga, the junior brother of Mahama Ayariga, the Deputy Minister Of Education, being pushed so hard for the presidential position.
Flipping through the chronicles of NUGS, the last time such impeachment was done was during Okudjeto Ablakwa’s reign as the NUGS president. He was impeached but on a very technical and constitutional grounds. After being caught flirting from one political party to another, he decided to remain with the NDC and needlessly on very trivial issues attacked the then NPP government to gain favor from the NDC, the strongest opposition at the time. His actions then, in one way or the other has seen him become a minister of state today. His institution opted out of NUGS and he technically ceased to be the president of NUGS for one Haruna Mahama to act as the president of the Union. Comparing the two impeachment incidences, it is incontrovertible that, Mr. Abotsi is only being frustrated to abandon his position for the NDC guys, who fear same might happen to their government.
Whatever be the case with NUGS today, students are not going to sit-in and watch their mother union being traded for cheap political favor and appointment as Okudjeto did but will rather stand firm on the good principles of conscience against the stomach controlled minds of others to put the various segments of NUGS together. No political party has a stake in NUGS so we ask all political parties to stay off the union.
NUGS FOR SALE; HAMZA SUHUYINI IS FLOATING HIS SHARES!
The drama of NUGS politics began a year ago following a legitimate suspension of Patrick Adonoo (the general secretary) and Benedicta Lasi (the international Relations secretary) for acting in the name of the president Mr. Abotsi without his knowledge and not only that but also holding press conferences which Abotsi knew nothing about. Almost immediately after the suspension, an unconstitutional emergency congress was held by a section of the executives and some other two students at the GNAT Hall to impeach Mr. Abotsi. Patrick Adonoo sat in that meeting and saw himself being sworn-in as the acting president of the union while serving a suspension. Barely three weeks after that meeting, all over on the air waves, we heard one Hamza Suhuyini who lost by a margin of 37 votes to Abotsi in a legitimate congress elections that saw Abotsi become president, addressing issues in the same capacity as Mr. Abotsi who had not accepted the impeachment process and was never going to accept it. Hamza Suhuyini persistently held onto that branch of NUGS, which has been tagged the NDC flank of the union by themselves, acting as the president. Hamza’s desperateness to lead NUGS at all cost peeved many students across the country, thereby throwing their support behind Abotsi and that has caused the divisive student front we see today all over the country. But the noble students of this country know so well that Mr. Abotsi is the legitimate president of NUGS and not Hamza Suhuyini.
NUGS today has two major stakes; the Hamza lead NDC flank and the Abotsi lead rational thinking non partisan students who believe in good-will to the students they want to lead. One man’s hunger for power has today caused the union serious bruises which are refusing to heal. Hamza Suhuyini definitely holds a fraction of NUGS today since the NDC government has succeeded in turning student activism into trivial partisan politics, making him their darling boy for the game. If things continue this way, very soon the NPP will also be tempted to create their own section of NUGS then the CPP, PNC and others. But this must not be the case, must it?
This September brings to end the Abotsi lead NUGS administration and whiles plans are being put in place by him to hold a successful congress to elect a new set of executives, the Hamza lead faction is busily gambling with positions as to who takes over his illegalities and the politics of ‘buga-buga’. Whoever buys majority of his stolen shares takes over that flank. This has seen Osmanu Ayariga in contest for the presidential position, and some others virtually representing as if there were a competition. It is of no doubt that, Osmanu Ayariga is being planted to prevent the outpour of the grievances of students on government since of course he would not like to mess-up the kitchen of his brother. The position has already been traded but as to whether the good people of Ghana will recognize him as a legitimate president of NUGS following the outcome of Abotsi’s congress, we patiently wait. But definitely not, no matter how strong government influences on the media may be the truth shall always stand; Hamza Suhuyini has no constitutional mandate to hold congress or appoint anyone to lead NUGS because himself is not a legitimate executive of the union.
From the length and width of this country, students are patiently waiting for the one they mandated to lead the union, Mr. Abotsi to successfully hold congress and elect a new set of executives. It is hard time the future leaders of this country throw away the dirty politics of ‘mafia’ and ‘buga-buga’ to claim power at all cost and rather set good precedence for the youth of Ghana. We hope Hamza Suhuyini in his fair conscience support Abotsi to hand over peacefully, neglecting every pressure from his political party; the NDC.
NUGS today has two major stakes; the Hamza lead NDC flank and the Abotsi lead rational thinking non partisan students who believe in good-will to the students they want to lead. One man’s hunger for power has today caused the union serious bruises which are refusing to heal. Hamza Suhuyini definitely holds a fraction of NUGS today since the NDC government has succeeded in turning student activism into trivial partisan politics, making him their darling boy for the game. If things continue this way, very soon the NPP will also be tempted to create their own section of NUGS then the CPP, PNC and others. But this must not be the case, must it?
This September brings to end the Abotsi lead NUGS administration and whiles plans are being put in place by him to hold a successful congress to elect a new set of executives, the Hamza lead faction is busily gambling with positions as to who takes over his illegalities and the politics of ‘buga-buga’. Whoever buys majority of his stolen shares takes over that flank. This has seen Osmanu Ayariga in contest for the presidential position, and some others virtually representing as if there were a competition. It is of no doubt that, Osmanu Ayariga is being planted to prevent the outpour of the grievances of students on government since of course he would not like to mess-up the kitchen of his brother. The position has already been traded but as to whether the good people of Ghana will recognize him as a legitimate president of NUGS following the outcome of Abotsi’s congress, we patiently wait. But definitely not, no matter how strong government influences on the media may be the truth shall always stand; Hamza Suhuyini has no constitutional mandate to hold congress or appoint anyone to lead NUGS because himself is not a legitimate executive of the union.
From the length and width of this country, students are patiently waiting for the one they mandated to lead the union, Mr. Abotsi to successfully hold congress and elect a new set of executives. It is hard time the future leaders of this country throw away the dirty politics of ‘mafia’ and ‘buga-buga’ to claim power at all cost and rather set good precedence for the youth of Ghana. We hope Hamza Suhuyini in his fair conscience support Abotsi to hand over peacefully, neglecting every pressure from his political party; the NDC.
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