A group calling itself concerned lecturers of the University of Ghana has expressed reservations about the “intransigent” positions of the authorities and called for the immediate resumption of negotiations to resolve the current crisis without any further confrontation.
In a statement to the media, members of the group, made up of seven lecturers, also called for the immediate withdrawal of security forces from the University campus, saying their deployment there smacks of fascist repression of teaching or learning. “We feel strongly that the most credible option now is a dialogue especially as the student body has accepted in principle the idea of cost-sharing,” it said.
Signatories to the statement were Dr Adam Nasser, Department of Modern Languages, Mr. Kwame Karikari, Dr Kwasi Ansu-Kyeremeh and Dr A Bonna Koomson, all of School of Communication Studies, Dr A Essuman-Johnson, Professor Jacob Songsore, Geography Department and Nana Ohene-Ntow. They said they were embarrassed at “the excessive enthusiasm with which the University authorities are colluding with government to impose what is clearly the first step in shifting the entire educational cost onto the already financially over-stretched Ghanaian worker.”
The group also said it was disassociating itself with recent statements by some Executive members of the University Teachers Association (UTAG) on the issue. We are particularly appalled at the impression created that all of us in the University are allies of a government, which has reduced the country’s educational system into ruins.”
