Shyness greeted her sparkling face and she was feeling uncomfortable knowing I was looking in her direction: perhaps thinking I had also seen their nakedness. There was nothing they could have done about it since I had seen virtually everything from a distance.
I couldn’t believe seeing the two good looking students go naked in the midst of several other students. The presence of the Police couldn’t even deter their action. I stood like a ‘Gbeshi’ whose first time in a city, is greeted with ‘palatable complex features’.
This happened during an attempted mob action against the President of the National Union of Ghana Students, for his failure to organize a successful 47th NUGS Congress at the Central University College in Prampram.
During this congress, Ghanaian students were taken for granted. After spending several thousands of Ghana cedis from students’ coffers on Congress grounds, delegates returned home without achieving the core objectives of the Congress. There was a failure to present a State of the Union address and financial statement of NUGS for 2012/13 by its executives coupled with allegations of an illegitimate candidate; all, culminating in our inability to elect new executives for the union. As if that was not enough, delegates were left to sleep in dormitories whilst NUGS Executives, comfortably lodged in a luxurious apartment in town: like George Orwell’s Animal Farm, “All Animals Are Equal but Some Animals Are More Equal than Others” indeed.
Interestingly, these undesirable acts at the congress took place around the same time the University Teachers’ Association of Ghana (UTAG) and the Federation of University Senior Stuff (FUSSAG) were on strike. Our ‘Cherished leaders’, characteristic of them had gone ‘dead’; leaving students to their fate. It rather took smaller associations such as the University Students’ Association of Ghana, Graduate Students’ Association of Ghana, and the SRCs of Legon and GIJ to advocate for the return of lecturers to the lecture halls.
What even makes the NUGS messy world worse is the infiltration and advancement of parochial interests by some politicians. Sad to say, they have hijacked our Union and now take decisions for Ghanaian students through our so called elected national student officers.
Today, you’re more likely to lose miserably or get sabotaged, as a NUGS Executive aspirant, if you’re not aligned to any of the parents of TEIN & TESCON. This has become so worrying that competent students are ‘traded’ by their own colleagues for others whose competency cannot be vouched for. In the process, principles of NUGS have virtually been squared to the protection and promotion of political party interest, Individual self, with NUGS at the bottom. Unfortunately, some of our own student leaders at the helm of affairs are responsible for the current predicament of NUGS: “S3 abua bi b3 ka woa, na )fri wo ntoma mo ampa”.
These student leaders have sold their integrity and have virtually become stooges for their political masters; giving credence to the saying that ‘He who pays the piper calls the tune”. We have witnessed in recent times how the Presidential seat of NUGS became like a bench with two students as presidents. How could we have made any progress with such a starkly divided front along political lines?
Comrades, In order for NUGS leaders to be proactive, more efficient and accountable, there ought to be a NUGS advisory Board composed of prominent individuals. The board should be made to check the feasibility and effective implementation of proposed NUGS projects; and even with how its resources (monies) are spent.
The National Youth Policy, launched in August 2010 has been there without any plan of Action. NUGS must be seen spearheading efforts for the finalization of the Action Plan to ensure effective implementation of the Policy.
Now, how do we make our stance on issues raised on occasions such as when the proposed tax on Private Tertiary Institutions occurred? What are the Medium-Term and Long-Term plans of the Union? We’ve got to hear the voice of NUGS leadership in clear terms on some of these pertinent issues. Some of us are ready to support the process.
However, the two gentlemen, who stripped naked to show their grievances toward the ineffectiveness of NUGS, did not appropriately express themselves though they had a good case. As student leaders, we ought to be guided by good principles to make a case that student leaders are resourceful partners for development and not tools for problems as sometimes perceived.
