President of the Students’ Representative Council (SRC) of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kelvin Sah has given the strongest indication that the council will be forced to withdraw from the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS), if the political division within NUGS is not addressed.
Addressing the SRC parliamentary council on Sunday, December 9, 2018 when delivering his second state of the SRC address, Mr Kelvin Sah recalled the situation where the SRC and the local NUGS took divergent positions on matters relating to the recent impasse that led to the closure of the university for three weeks.
The president of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) branch of the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS), Yaw Boampong Adu Brempong, in October 2018 accused the SRC president, Kelvin Sah, of double standards. In a letter that went viral, Yaw Boampong claimed that the SRC isn’t working in the interest of students. He explained that the local NUGS has decided to disassociate itself from statements made by the SRC, as they do not reflect the reality on the ground.
However, Kelvin sah believes, for the local NUGS to take a position skewed towards what he describes as political convenience at the expense of the students’ front is shameful and should not be condoned.
“There were so many issues that came up during this impasse with respect the local NUGS and the National NUGS where the SRC was found stating where the student’s front would like to head and the local NUGS secretariat stating otherwise. I would like to say that under no circumstance should we condone such act which are purported to divide the students front and any of such act should be treated with disdain,” he expressed.
Recently, the Students’ Representative Council of the University of Ghana had withdrawn from the National Union of Ghana Students. The unanimous decision to “recede from all activities of NUGS” was reached at the Assembly’s 3rd sitting held at the SRC Union Building on Friday, 9th November, 2018. The UG SRC stated that it will not take part in any activity of NUGS and shall not fulfill its financial obligation until the NUGS deems it appropriate to operate the union on the principles and visions that gave way to its fruition.
Mr. Kelvin Sah further called on the SRC Parliament to set up a committee to look into the issues of both local and National NUGS as he questioned why a Union set up to represent the interest of students would be divided on political grounds.
“And so on this day, I put before parliament to set up a committee to look into the issues of the local and National NUGS secretariat. If we do not see any change, we’d probably might have to join our brother from the university of Ghana who have withdrawn and University of Cape Coast who are making plans to withdraw because we have discussed how we feel if the National body which is supposed to support us is having fight among itself because of political reasons then under no circumstance can we align ourselves to that because we have been elected and sworn an oat to fight for the interest of students,” Kelvin sah explained.
The political division in the National Union of Ghana Students appeared to be deep rooted. At the moment there seems to be two set of executive with each claiming to be the legitimate leadership of NUGS.