KNUST SRC President Is Compromised; His Current Position Is Not In The Interest Of Students - Concerned Students

The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology has been home to chaotic scenes and agitations as a result of the reign of terror the institution’s management has been subjecting the students to.

It is needless, at this point, to repeat the resultant outcomes of the oppression and suppression the Vice Chancellor and his team heaped on the innocent students of KNUST since the Government came in to restore peace.

_Our happiness as Students over the intervention of government knew no bounds, and it was heightened by dissolution of the old Governing Council and the subsequent institution of an interim management committee to steer the affairs of the University within the next three months._

Our happiness, however, can be described as short lived due to a position our representative on the interim committee has taken.

Mr Kevin Sah, the KNUST SRC President, is working against the interest of the students he is supposed to superintendent.

It beggars belief why he would stab the very students he is to fight for in the back with a press statement that makes nonsense of the strenuous efforts the government of the day is making to amicably resolve this impasse and all the other issues which have become the bone of contentions between students and management of the University.

Let us delve into these issues one after the other to buttress our claims that Kelvin Sah is comprised and does not should not be speaking for us.

First of all, Mr. Kelvin Sah did not accept to join the newly instituted IMC blindfolded and neither was he under any form of duress to be part of it. He was spoken to and agreed to be our representative, so we are shocked to learn, two days later that this same person would write a letter to the Education Ministry and the President of the Republic to reconsider the decision to keep the old board dissolved. If he felt so strongly about this position, then he ought not to have accepted to join the IMC.

Moreover, Kelvin did not consult the other members of the SRC when he wrote that letter making nonsense of the IMC on which he is representing students. It was a unilateral decision, and that goes against the SRC’s constitution.

It is instructive to note here that when news about his press statement to the Education Ministry and the President of the Republic hit the airwaves, Sampson Lardi read it on Joy FM’s Newsfile. Enoch Kwarteng, the SRC Vice President of KNUST was interviewed on the show and he denied categorically that he was never aware of any discussion about what Kelvin Sah had written about. Mr Kwarteng also said that the leadership of the SRC knew nothing about it, thereby rendering the claims in the released press statement useless.

It is important to also ask this question; When did Kelvin Sah meet the old management of KNUST to resolve all the issues he highlighted in his press statement?

Which SRC executive members were part of the said meeting? When exactly did he meet with the old management team? Before or after the IMC had been constituted? If he did meet them before the IMC was formed, why did he not tell the world about it since that would have automatically resolved the impasse for which reason there would not have been the formation of the IMC? It could not have been after the IMC was formed because the old body is even no more and a day or two could not have been used to deliberate on all these thorny issues.

It is important to bring this to the attention of the general public. The SRC President was on GHOne Television on 24th October 2018 after the university was closed down and emphasized that ever since the school was closed down, the then management had not met with the leadership of the SRC. This clearly is worlds apart from his statement that the old management met with the leadership of the SRC and ironed out all their differences.

KNUST SRC has had its accounts confiscated by the management of the KNUST and this has been one of the contentious issues we have had to grapple with. Kelvin Sah, delivering the State of the SRC address to Parliamentarians on 7th October, 2018 said that the hijacking of our accounts was as a result of a directive from the Finance Ministry to consolidate all accounts which is linked to the state, and that the leadership of the SRC was duly notified.

However, in his interview on GHOne after the brouhaha on campus, Kelvin Sah ate back his words by stating that the SRC was not involved in anyway as far as that issue was concerned.

_Our checks at the Ministry of Finance indicates clearly that consolidation of accounts was for purely government agencies who are subvented directly by the state. Again this contradicts SRC Presidents admittance on the consolidation of accounts by the University Management which has left many wondering if indeed the SRC President can in anyway be trusted._

All these point to certain conclusions that:
*_Kelvin Sah has been compromised looking at the unilateral decision he took._*

_The SRC President is consistently inconsistent over the matters relating to these issues._

He has stabbed us in the back with his new position on these matters. We disown him and will not take anything he says as coming from us. As concerned students of KNUST we make the following recommendations.

*We demand that the VC is removed.*
*We ask that all the decisions relating to the conversion of halls should be halted.*

_We, therefore, want to reiterate the point that Kelvin does not speak for us and that whatever opinion or communique coming from him belongs to him not every SRC member._

*_We demand an open forum between the IMC and the students’ body since our rep on the board has been bought!_*

*#SrcMustBeCareful*
*#ObiriDansoMustGo*
*#SayNoToBrutalities*
.......Signed
Mustapha Wahab Salisu
(CHAIRMAN)
Jonathan Quayson
(GENERAL SECRETARY)