News broke last Monday that Ghana's public universities were closed because of strikes called by the Teachers and Educational Workers' Union. Reports suggested that mid-semester exams had been affected.

The libraries of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and the University of Ghana were also closed and students could be seen "roaming about in search of a place for research", according to Joy FM radio.

But on Tuesday it seemed the alleged strike was more of a misunderstanding. An unnamed source told the Daily Graphic there had not been an official declaration of a strike on the University of Ghana campus but "many of the workers had taken advantage of the situation to stay away from work".

Similar accounts were brought forward from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.

The union's General Secretary, Daniel Anim-Antwi, told the newspaper the confusing circumstances came about after local union executives held a meeting and adopted a resolution protesting against late payments of salary increments.

Union members are awaiting a 17% salary increment that took effect in January. After negotiations, January to July increments were to be paid in two instalments, in September and October. There are conflicting reports whether the first instalment was paid but the final payment has definitely not yet been made.

As the resolution prompted no reply from the vice-chancellors of public universities, the union held local meetings with members to inform them of the situation. Anim-Antwi stressed, however, that he had appealed to the members to go back to work until the union had been able to lodge a formal complaint with the National Labour Commission about the grievances.

A source close to TEWU, who called the current developments "a protest", said the union was due to review its decision on Friday.

The Ghanaian government seemed surprised at the protests. Deputy Minister of Education JS Annan told Joy FM the protests were "ill-timed". Annan suggested the current government had taken serious steps towards paying the remaining salary arrears and that teachers should go back to work so as to not disrupt the academic semester underway.

Union members interviewed in the Ghanaian media were upset, some saying they would not go back to work until all payments had been made. Others said they had been patient for too long. The coming week will tell whether the union and government can reach agreement or if an official strike at Ghana's public universities is forthcoming.

Comment:
We still have a long way to go in Africa. It is a big surprise that governments in Africa would like to be "forced" to act before it could take a positive decision in the interest of the their countries. In Nigeria it was like government was forced to act before Universities workers could be attended to. Many times, from experience, most of the changes we see in Africa is as a result of "force" from outside Africa. Can't we think?

Olufemi Olubodun

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