Polytechnic students call for peace
The Ghana National Union of Polytechnic Students (GNUPS) has added its voice to the call for peace, free and fair elections this year.
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The union has urged Ghanaians to co-exist and tolerate one another before, during and after the polls.
It further asked Ghanaians to endeavour to live together as one people in one nation having a common destiny.
Tension
In an interview with the Daily Graphic in Accra on Thursday, the National President of GNUPS, Mr Benjamin Aklama, said the heated campaigns the political parties were engaged in across the country had brought about heightened tension.
He, therefore, called for circumspection in the way political campaigns and political commentaries were conducted.
“The peace of our country is paramount and as such efforts must be made to ensure the country is free from dispute or civil disorder,” he said.
He observed that an unfair election would have grave consequences for the nation as far as socioeconomic conditions were concerned.
“In the unlikely event of a misunderstanding leading to confusion, it is women and children who would suffer most and the repercussions could be huge,” he said.
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He said to achieve free and fair elections Ghanaians must guard against being lured by politicians into disturbing the peace and stability of the country.
Payment of bills
In another development, GNUPS has appealed to the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) not to disconnect the polytechnics from the national grid.
It said already, unannounced power cuts to the institutions were seriously affecting teaching and learning.
The union expressed unhappiness that in spite of a directive from the government asking that institutions that provided critical services to the nation be exempted from the mass disconnection exercise embarked on by the ECG, the company was still disconnecting the institutions from power supply.
Caution
Meanwhile, the GNUPS has urged management of the various polytechnics not to consider imposing a fee on students to pay for the electricity they use.
The union said such an act would be illegal. It has therefore urged the student representative councils in the polytechnics to engage with management of the schools and ensure that the move was nipped in the bud.
It called on the government to pay the bills owed the ECG by the polytechnics as had been the practice.