The University Teachers Association (UTAG) of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi has indicated that it would not succumb to pressure from government to change its representatives on the Governing Council of the University.
According to them, per the KNUST Act, government has no business meddling in the formation of the governing council of the university.
Addressing the media in Kumasi yesterday, Prof Charles Marfo, KNUST UTAG Vice President, stated that the issue of representation of the constituent bodies on the council was not up for discussion by government.
“The representatives of UTAG, TEWU, Alumni and Convocation (both professional and non-professional) have been duly elected through a laid-down process to represent their respective constituents on the council for a defined term,” he disclosed.
Prof Marfo argued that just as Ghanaians vote a government into power for a fixed term and wait patiently to vote it out of office at the end of the term, the unions and associations also have the same mandate per the KNUST Act.
Government and constituent bodies on the Governing Council are in dispute over the selection of representatives.
Government has revealed that individuals who sat on the previous Council ought not to be on the new council, insisting that permanent representations from the constituent bodies such as TEWU, UTAG, Convocation, alumni and SRC ought to be changed.
Government believes members of the previous KNUST governing council were partly to be blamed for the rumpus on campus which led to the shutdown of the university.
This appears to have stalled the formation of the KNUST Council as the bodies also insist on maintaining their representatives on the council in order to counteract manipulations by government.
The formation of a new Governing Council of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi could not take place in Kumasi on Friday November 2, 2018 as announced earlier.
At the press conference, the KNUST UTAG members said government failed to establish whether the grievances of the students came to the attention of the council and rather blamed the governing council in order to dissolve it.
Prof Charles Marfo said government’s action is akin to giving a dog a bad name in order to hang it, adding that the demand of government was against the spirit of the mutual agreement reached between the parties.
“If government claims that the legally constituted University Council had to be dissolved because of its failure to anticipate and prevent the destructive demonstration by the students, why then did government populate its own seven-member Interim Management Council (IMC) with as many as five members of the old supposedly ‘failed’ and incompetent council?” he quizzed.
Source: Daily Guide
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Mr Kaku, please, have you read the article very well? If indeed you have read then don't blame the UTAG for the undue delay of the reopening of KNUST. The government, I think is failing in this quest, why would you reach a gentleman's agreement with these bodies in camera and then after having constituted the new council you come back and dispel it with a flimsy reason that you don't any of the old members on the new council after having put about 4 of these members in your #fast track IMC#. Everyone knows that the agenda of the government is to kick out the VC on the council thereby creating cock and bull story for us to believe. If the target is the VC, use the Constitutional process and kick him out rather than embarking on this childish agenda to kicking him out of the council. I'm in fully support of the constituent bodies to continue this good course to put the government right after all if something can't be good for gander that same can't be good for the goose. And my little piece of advice to the government, I think they should accord a bit of respect for the Chancelor, Otumfuor Osei Tutu II, they're really embarrassing the Asnate Kingdom overlord. If they twist the resolution of this KNUST impasse in their political googles, it'll be the students who'll suffer. I'm calling on the students to rise and speak against the new decision after all their SRC president too wouldn't be on the new council [which will or may be against their SRC Constitution] per the current decision of the government. Can we also quiz that, in this current serious economic hardship in Ghana, we should kick the constituted elected government out of office? Long live mother Ghana!!! KB
Ghana is in serious trouble! Our well-educated men and women are now behaving like political party vigilante groups-Invincible Forces, Hawks, Aluta Boys, etc. Or they have something to hide from their actions and in-actions in the university? They take fat salaries from the tax payer and the government, yet they find it difficult to talk with this same government. UTAG and co., have you also considered the plight of the children, the parents and wards who pay various sums of monies for the school to run?