Recession In Ghana's Students' Front

Article by: Austin Brako (University of Ghana, Legon)

During the early days of the global recession in 2008, i had a gracious conversation with an economic lecturer on Legon campus as to whether the word "recession" is applicable to the students' front in Ghana. He quipped that, "the students' movement in this country is under a subtle and well detonated recession". I wondered what he meant by that, little did i know that, the students' front dies every minute by the actions and in-actions of those in power.

You may wonder why the "hell" I used the word "recession" in describing the collapse of the students' movement in Ghana. Horrible as your nightmares may be;

The Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary (7th Edition) defines recession as;

(a) A difficult time for the economy of a country, when there is less trade and industrial activity than usual and more people are unemployed.

(b) The movement backwards of something from a previous position.

It is premised on the second definition that this article is based.

The history of Ghana is laced with heroic and mammoth achievements of the students' movement. Notable is the infamous students' opposition to the Union Government (Unigov) of Acheampong etc. Yesterdays students' are revered when mentioned because knowing too well that, blood, sweat and tears have been the shoulders on which they stood, heeded to the call of history by ensuring accountability in the country.

Today, there is so much animosity, betrayal, each-man-for-himself-God-for-us-all attitude, and corrupt student leaders everywhere snuffing out the integrity and honesty needed to strengthen the students' front.

As a student activist on the Legon campus, especially, i have braced myself with colleagues who have been an apology to the memory of the dead who did nothing but trusted us to carry the cudgel of fight to lift the image of Ghana.

I have faced the University of Ghana's Disciplinary Committee with brave student leaders like Edwin Appiah, Eric Otchere, Elvis Ampadu, Nana Gyebi, Bernard Oduro Takyi and Isaac Batun who share the timely truth that the only way to revive the students' front is by facing our fears with optimism.

The students' movement is moving backwards from the position of the vanguard of the right of the farmer's child, and the pillar on which the hawker's daughter relies on to the entertaining dog at our backyard. And the National Union of Ghana Students' (NUGS) is a contributing factor.

The 2009 / 2010 NUGS executive have helped deepened our understanding of the ugliness of the students' movement in Ghana. Wonder Madilo and his men have contributed in detonating the timeless bomb lurking in the Union.

Sitting in the University of Ghana, Legon bus on our way to Accra after the 2010 NUGS Congress in Wa at the University of Development Studies (UDS), i lost in the memory of five pupils who stood to look at the Legon bus, passed. If but we knew what their thoughts and fears were.

We can achieve so much if the Ghana National Union of Polytechnic Students' (GNUPS) comes back into the fold of NUGS and help chart a common cause.

Education indeed is a privilege and not a right contrary to the NUGS motto. This has been the order of the day.

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