KNUST Saga: Government playing politics – Minority

The Minority in Parliament has accused the Akufo-Addo government of politicising matters relating to Monday’s riots at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and described as illegal, the dissolution of the school’s Governing Council.

“You are politicising the Council and that is dangerous because you are going to give political actors the opportunity to always go into universities and do as they wish and that is dangerous to our democracy,” Minority Chief Whip, Alhaji Muntaka Mubarak told Class 91.3FM’s parliamentary correspondent, Ekow Annan, on Friday, 26 October 2018.

This follows the government’s dissolution of the Governing Council of KNUST and subsequent establishment of a seven-member Interim Council to look into the recent disturbances on campus, which resulted in the destruction of over 40 cars and 10 motorbikes.

The Interim Council, chaired by Nana Effah Apenteng, Paramount Chief of the Bompata Traditional Area, has a three-month tenure.

The committee was formed after briefs and recommendations made by the Minister of Education, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, after he led a high-powered delegation, including the Minister of National Security, Albert Kan-Dapaah; and the Minister-Designate of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, to Kumasi.

However, Mr Mubarak is of the view that: “The way we are handling it, believe me, it looks like some people already have some agenda and they found out that this was coming, so, they should take advantage of it because the speed with which they [government] are doing this thing, it cannot be explained”.

He continued: “When you put in the Interim Committee and they go and find out that the authorities or university council did not act illegally, what will you do when you have already dissolved them? You don’t even have the power to do that because, within their own status, they have enough provisions to deal with it. They [government] should tell us where they are drawing their power to do what they are doing”.

Meanwhile, the Ghana Association of University Administrators (GAUA) and the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) of KNUST, have declared an indefinite strike until the government restores the dissolved Council.

The leadership of the two groups indicate that they do not recognise the newly-constituted Interim Council.