Government backtracks, calls for new university council

The government of Ghana has retreated from a recent decision to dissolve the governing council of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and replace it with an interim council in the wake of demonstrations by students which resulted in the institution’s closure. In a new statement, the Ministry of Information has requested that the chancellor reconstitute the council in accordance with the university's statutes and laws.

"Council is expected to be reconstituted by Friday November 2, 2018. The reconstituted council will then take over from the interim council," the statement, signed by Deputy Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, said.

Reversal

The government’s backtracking follows opposition by the University Teachers Association of Ghana, the Ghana Association of University Administrators and the Teachers and Educational Workers Union of Ghana to the government’s decision to dissolve the existing council – which included the overlord of the Ashanti Region, Asantehene Osei Tutu – and replace it with a seven-member interim council chaired by Nana Effah Apenteng, paramount chief of the Bompata Traditional Area of Ashanti.

The professional bodies threatened to withdraw their services if such a decision prevailed.

The interim council was given a three-month tenure and was directed to re-open the university within 14 days. At the time the ministry said in a statement it was of the view that the governing council was not in a position to review its own processes and decisions affecting the student body to guarantee peace.

The new directive from the ministry of information means all the previous actions had been reversed.

Demonstrations

The university was shut indefinitely on Monday 22 October, apparently on the advice of the Ashanti Regional Security Council, after disturbances on campus during which property was vandalised. A demonstration by students claiming to be protesting the brutal treatment of a student in an earlier peaceful march turned violent, with university authorities claiming damage to cars and property.

The minister’s statement said the university management’s view was that, “increasingly, there had been acts of wayward behaviour, hooliganism and incidents of violence on campus, hence the need to take steps to protect life and property.”

Government’s “immediate priority” was “to expedite the reopening of the university to ensure a smooth return to academic work … Government is also mindful of an adverse international image the country would suffer if the university remained closed for a protracted period, especially given the substantial number of foreign students at KNUST”, according to an earlier statement.

Following the disturbances, police said 18 students, including two female students, had been arrested to help with investigations.

Student unhappiness

Following the closure, a section of the student body called for the dismissal of the vice-chancellor, Professor Kwasi Obiri-Danso, whom they accused of enforcing a policy to change all male halls of residence into mixed gender halls, but the president of the University Teachers Association of Ghana, Eric Opoku Mensah, said this was “unfortunate.”

“These were decisions are taken by the university governing council and, like all other stakeholders, the vice-chancellor only implemented the decision by the council and therefore should not be singled out for condemnation,” Opoku Mensah said.

For their part, students said the issues went beyond residences. According to various local reports, students said they felt oppressed by some policies of the university authorities and lived in fear. They said they did not have enough opportunities for conflict resolution and dialogue with the authorities, resulting in a breakdown of trust between students and the authorities.

Mediation

Earlier last week, the Christian Council of Ghana offered to meditate as a neutral party to help find a solution to the conflict that led to the disturbances, which the council described as “unfortunate”, adding that the situation had “elicited strong passions and those passions may have erupted into violence”.

It said the country respects the rule of law and appealed to all the parties to conduct themselves “in a calm and orderly manner as resolution is sought to this impasse”.

The closure of the university came barely months after Vice-Chancellor Obiri-Danso announced that the institution had received high marks for its “good quality” rating, after an evaluation by the African Quality Rating Mechanism (AQRM). The university, Obiri-Danso said, scored 3.25 on the AQRM’s evaluation scale, which was next to exceptional.