Mr President, call National Security, University of Ghana to order
Our leaders, temporal and religious, must step in to settle the impasse between the National Security and the authorities of the University of Ghana.
Since the university authorities decided to erect tollbooths on roads leading to the campus, they have faced a certain level of public resentment for their action.
The student body decided to take legal action against the university authorities, while parents of the pupils and students of the university basic schools have blocked portions of the road for the decision by the authorities to impose tolls on motorists who use the campus roads.
The university administration has argued that it secured a facility of GH¢8 million from the bank to rehabilitate the campus roads which deteriorated during the construction of the N1 Highway, saying to pay back and be able to maintain the roads, it must impose a certain amount of levy on road users.
When the move by the university appeared to be causing some disaffection in society, the Chief of Staff, Mr Prosper Bani, asked the university authorities to rescind their decision to impose tolls on motorists who used the campus roads.
Things came to a head when National Security operatives pulled down a tollbooth under construction at the Okponglo end of the university campus because of the nuisance it caused to users of the Tetteh Quarshie-Adentan-Aburi highway.
That move did not deter the university authorities but rather deepened the mistrust between the security apparatus and, by extension, the government and the university administration.
However, recently when the university authorities decided to erect a ‘checkpoint’ at the Okponglo end, it drew the ire of National Security, which warned the bosses of the university to put on hold the project until the security implications of the checkpoint had been ironed out.
The university authorities stirred controversy when they said they could not recollect at what time during its meeting with National Security that the university was directed to suspend the project.
Then, presto, at dawn yesterday National Security operatives again moved to Legon to demolish the checkpoint.
The Daily Graphic thinks that the rigmarole between National Security and the university administration should no longer be allowed to fester as if there are no leaders in the country who can call for a truce or order.
It is not in the interest of the nation for this ‘fight’ to be allowed to persist while the ordinary person for whom all these actions are meant looks on confused.
The Daily Graphic appeals to the President to intervene in this matter to bring about a ceasefire in the controversy between the two bodies, so that we can use the time for litigation to fix some of the challenges facing the country to assure our people of a better standard of living.
