Second semester on university campuses is just like a market day at Asesewa, it is a busy one with hall week celebrations and elections. I am getting worried with how we elect our leaders on our university campuses. Our voting line is just like what happens at the national level where people are elected on the basis of ethnicity, height, freshness and beauty.
I don’t really have much problem with what happens at the national level due to the high illiteracy of the electorates but my worry has to do with intellectuals who are supposed to know better and vote on policies and issues basis. That is just one aspect of my worry and my greatest worry as to do with how we politicize our campus elections with NPP and NDC interest.
My brothers and sisters, you know what? There is no way to truth, truth is the way. Sometimes we must be truthful to our self for the sake of posterity. The fact is that if we don’t stand up and pursue a new direction of life but rely on NDC and NPP, we will be hanged behind the cloak of poverty forever. It is rather unfortunate that today our colleges and SRC presidents are elected on the basis of political affiliations.
In KNUST, both NPP and NDC (TESCON and TEIN) present candidates to be elected into various positions and at the end such candidates emerge as winners. Is that what we are supposed to do as intellectuals? This practice has many consequences. What it means is that, any neutral candidate despite his cogent policies will never be supported or elected and this is a tragedy of gigantic proportion.
If our SRC, NUGS and college elections are not done devoid of political influence then I may be sorry to say that our students’ leadership has no future. We can do our politics at the national level but at the students’ front we must detach ourselves from NPP and NDC political cord. The NPP and NDC argue and it makes them look like two dwarfs fighting for height. They consider Ghanaians as electorates not citizens, and in that vein provide temporary solutions to our problems to enable them get a second chance to canvass us for votes. Many of the problems we face in our country today are as a result of how we mingle politics with everything we do. Those reasoning voices who are neither NPP nor NDC are not considered.
And one major problem with we Africans is that when we are given money to buy a car, we rather go and buy a horse and expect the horse to behave like a car. We vote for the wrong people and expect them to solve our problems. There is a need for us to unite as students and vote for potential candidates who will represent our interest irrespective of our political affiliations.
It is easier to wake someone who is truly asleep up than one who pretends to be sleeping and that is the challenge of our generation. We are a generation of pretenders, we must be realistic. We live in a country where we are told that we are the future leaders, and we also pretend that the future never comes, the future is today. A mosquito can make the lion’s eye bleed, we are mosquitoes in our corners and we can make great changes.
Go to the Kejetia or Makola market and you will see some of our brothers and sisters from the northern part of Ghana carrying loads which are heavier than them, just to earn a miserable living. There are many children walking on our streets that do not go to school. Go to the villages and see what school children are going through and you will weep. We need vibrant students’ leadership which will fight for the rights of all students in Ghana and not leaders who will serve the interest of their political parties. What worries me most is that these days you have to get political connection before you are employed, what then happens to my friend Tamakloe and the many students out there who do not belong to any political party?
The current situations we are going through as students range from unemployment, poor education infrastructures, etc. If upon all these we don’t unite as students and do something positive to change our fortunes but torn apart with NPP and NDC acrobatic propaganda driven politics then we certainly have no future and posterity will judge us.
Let us take this NPP and NDC affection from our students’ politics and pursue a common goal. Let’s do away with our political conformity and do our students’ politics on intellectual conviction. Until the rotten tooth is removed the mouth must always chew with caution.
We are not children of a lesser god, “EBEYEYIE”.
