On The Brouhaha At The Ghana National Union Of Technical Students (GNUTS)

The activities of Ghana National Union of Polytechnic Students (GNUPS) now Ghana National Union of Technical Students (GNUTS) began in 1987 when the union broke away from the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) due to what leaders at the time referred to as “unfair treatment and marginalization of technical students of NUGS”.

The then GNUPS continued until it formally and legally operationalized in February 2000 with its promulgated constitution at a congress in Tamale. Which is tuned to be widely known in student union records as the “TAMALE DECLARATION”.

The union has contributed enormously to the socio-economic and political development of Ghana and beyond not withstanding all this, the union has mostly been rapt with past and current government’s decisions and policies with the most recent one, which called on the President H.E Nana Akuffo Addo to constitute governing councils of Technical Universities and Polytechnics for smooth running of the institutions.

Apart from this, in 2014 the union cut a sod for what I mostly refer to as a well-crafted, and solicitous inventionworth about GH¢ 50,000 dubbedPOLY FASHION CONCEPT which sole intention was to create jobs for the heaving unemployed polytechnic graduates and also prove to the world that the union is capable of assembling polytechnic brains to help develop mother Ghana through the fashion industry.

But for some time now, I have been thinking of what has happened to the beautiful and decorativePOLY FASHION CONCEPT an asset which is supposed to be owned by the union. What happened to the inability of the POLY FASHION CONCEPTto operate constantly since its inception in 2014?Could it be mismanagement? Could it also be that, a group or individuals are thwarting the efforts of POLY FASHION CONCEPTto be very operational? Or some faceless individual (s) have hijacked the property of the union for their own and personal parochial interest?I leave this questions to the financiers of the union.

From the student political facet, every year, we go to elect leaders at congress who later tune to be selfish young thieves from the SRCs after they have learnt all the administrative and technical rudiments of looting and stealing under the pretext of helping to develop their various SRCs, they proceed to the national level with their corrupt intentions and when they finally get into office, the worst will normally happen as you can think of mismanagement of resources, corrupt practices etc.

We will not and cannot continue to be electing some of these heartless, callous and misguided wolfs under sheep skin to be administrators of our prestigious union.

In the words of Kenyanlaw Prof. P. L.O Lumumba he said "We cannot continue to elect hyenas to be watching our goats and after they have been consumed we turn to cry".Only our real conscience will save us from these wicked student politics.

My question is, why won't people break away? I'm happy that, the instances that led to the formation of the union in Tamale is not a surprise to me now. Until we learn to be circumspect and take a comprehensive look at issues within the union, the union will not succeed.

This will only stop until we stop electing selfish young thieves who when they come into office, they use all available avenues to amass wealth from their own poor colleagues under pretext of serving them. It’s a not a surprise that we had causalities at the just ended congress in Accra Technical University. This will serve as a lesson to others who will want to serve in other capacities. The game has just began……….

The writer is a youth/student activist and a past member of the Wa Polytechnic SRC General Assembly member.

Jutta Tibe Kombian
Wa