USAG Fires NUGS President

Wonder Madilo

THE UNIVERSITY Students Association of Ghana (USAG) has taken the outgoing president of the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) to the cleaners, labeling the president as the worst leader to ever lead the student front in the country.

 A statement signed by Enoch Anhwere Afoakwah, National President of USAG, said only shortsighted leaders like Wonder Madilo will take students through hell during congress.

“How myopic and shortsighted a leader can be that he did not plan the financial repercussions of the elections but only to give direction for release of funds during voting day,” the statement observed.

The statement stated that the actions of the outgoing president eventually led to the extension of congress from 25th to 29th August to 31st August, which is unprecedented in the history of NUGS.

“Indeed, Wonder Madilo has made negative history with his act of gross incompetence,” USAG noted in the statement which was in response to a press conference held in Accra by the outgoing president.

The statement said it was wrong for Madilo to suggest that it was the joint responsibility of the treasurer and the financial controller to receive capitation and dues from member institutions.

It contended that the NUGS constitution, without ambiguity, lays this responsibility at the doorstep of the treasurer, accusing the outgoing president of moves to deny the treasurer the free will to operate under the confines of the constitution.

“In view of this, we consider the directive by Madilo to member institutions to pay their dues and capitation to ADB account number 1011000110198 of the Ring road central branch as total disrespect for NUGS constitution and deliberate attempt to stifle students' fund.

“On this note, USAG requests ADB  to make the NUGS transactions for the past 2 months and the signatories that have been signed to cash money so as to establish whether a fiat was placed on withdrawal of funds or not,” the statement indicated.

USAG therefore asked Madilo to respond to issues such as the prison funds, the electoral regulations committee, among others.

Stressing that the outgoing president has failed to raise a voice on some developments in the country such as the youth policy, tariff increment, increment in academic facility user fees, among others, USAG tasked the outgoing president to seek a silent exit rather than spew out venomous utterances which do nothing but disrepute the hard-won image of NUGS.

The statement noted that USAG finds it baffling that Madilo will tell the world that his critics were peddling information that he wanted to rig the just ended congress.

“Did we all not testify to what happened at the congress, in fact, everything at the congress went to buttress the point that indeed there was an attempt to stifle the elections at the just ended congress,” USAG noted in the statement.

Taking offence at Madilo's statement that student leaders have subsumed the corporate interest of the student fraternity, USAG observed that he (Madilo) does not have the moral authority to say so.

They asked him to bother himself with questions such as why he eventually took the congress to Wa when the five-member search committee had actually recommended the campus of Ghana Education Staff Development Institute at Ajumako for the 44th congress.

Describing the outgoing president's press conference as unnecessary, USAG said they had expected the president to lead a delegation to empathize with the bereaved family of a member who had passed away, and take interest in the funeral arrangements thereof.

“Instead of doing this, Madilo chose to satisfy his paymasters with a cosmetic one-minute silence in his hurriedly organized press conference to attempt to wipe away repercussions of his diabolic thought after a week of the passing away of our beloved brother and colleague, Adoda Acquah Abraham, a second year computer science student of the University of Education, Winneba, at Kumasi at our just ended congress,” the statement bemoaned.

From Morgan Owusu, Kumasi