Former President John Mahama has waded into the current happenings at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), lambasting President Akufo-Addo for his stony silence.
According to Mahama’s spokesperson, James Agyenim-Boateng in a press statement, the former president is astonished over the muteness of Nana Addo .
“For a President who has been quick to comment on seemingly irrelevant and innocuous happenings in the country and beyond, it is telling that he has kept a deafening silence on this serious matter,“ the statement said.
The statement also added that, “Instead of the minister in charge of tertiary education moderating the then looming tensions, he hailed as a bold step the very issues that the students were unhappy about. A timely response from the government would have averted Monday’s unfortunate incident.”
Students in KNUST are protesting against what they call oppression from school authorities.
Following this, a demonstration led by the Students’ Representative Council on Monday morning turned turbulent. Students mounted road blocks on campus and marched to other halls of residence to prevent their colleagues from attending lectures while others marched to the school administration area; vandalising property.
Below is the full statement:
VIOLENT MANIFESTATIONS AT KNUST
We have noted with concern the impasse between students and authorities of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and its attendant violent manifestations.
This is by far the most disruptive student manifestation in the recent past and we are therefore calling on all sides to remain calm.
The events at KNUST show a deeper underlying frustration of the pent-up feelings of not just students but also the larger Ghanaian public. It is a reflection of the intolerance and impunity that have characterised governance under the present administration.
Again, the general hardship unleashed by the policies of the Akufo-Addo government continues to build resentment among many sections of Ghanaians.
The increases in the price of petroleum products, the recent hike in the Value Added Tax (VAT) through the backdoor which has resulted in the upward adjustment in the prices of goods and services, the massive job losses and the general hardship in the system, have all brought about economic pressure on parents and guardians as well as students.
We are calling on the government to implement measures that will help alleviate the suffering that families are facing so that labour and other key stakeholder groups, in their attempt to seek redress, would not take a cue from the manifestations of students of KNUST.
We are also calling for dialogue and deep engagements with student leaders, the KNUST alumni and the university authorities so that there can be a speedy resolution of the issues and a quick return to normalcy on the campus.
We deplore the Akufo-Addo government’s inaction and dithering in the face of clear signals of an imminent explosion of tensions at KNUST. Instead of the minister in charge of tertiary education moderating the then looming tensions, he hailed as a bold step the very issues that the students were unhappy about. A timely response from the government would have averted Monday’s unfortunate incident.
Even more baffling is the stony silence of President Akufo-Addo over the matter, many hours after the disturbances on the KNUST campus. For a President who has been quick to comment on seemingly irrelevant and innocuous happenings in the country and beyond, it is telling that he has kept a deafening silence on this serious matter.
JAMES AGYENIM-BOATENG SPOKESPERSON
TUESDAY, 23RD OCTOBER 2018
SUNYANI
By: Joseph Nii Ankrah