Formation of KNUST NPP Frontliners does not offend rules — Authorities
Authorities of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) have stated that the formation of the KNUST New Patriotic Party (NPP) Frontliners does not offend any rules and regulations of the university.
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While the National Democratic Congress (NDC) believes it would affect academic work and politically polarise the entire university, the NPP describes it as an age-old practice and cites the likes of former, Dr Josiah Aryeh, who was a lecturer at the University of Ghana, Legon when he worked as the NDC General Secretary.
But speaking to the Daily Graphic, the Deputy Registrar of University Relations of KNUST, Mr Vincent Ankamah-Lomotey, allayed the fears of the students who are NDC and all others on campus who are apprehensive that they might be victimised by these lecturers.
Background
Last Sunday, some lecturers and academicians from the KNUST, known as KNUST NPP Frontliners, called on Ghanaians to rise up and support the opposition NPP to win the 2016 Elections.
According to the group, which was made up of senior members and senior staff members of the university, the NPP remained the better alternative to the corrupt and visionless NDC whose governance had crippled the sensitive centres of the economy and brought untold hardships on the ordinary Ghanaian.
At the inauguration of the group, Dr Kwabena Boadu, the leader of the group, explained that the aim of the group was to serve as a think tank, ready to serve the party to win power in 2016 and beyond and with the vision, to be recognised as an elite group of supporters to influence policy direction as well as serve as an interface between the party and the electorate in explaining party policies and canvassing for votes.
No fears
Reacting to concerns by some members of the Tertiary Education Institutions Network (TEIN) of the NDC about possible victimisation, Mr Ankamah-Lomotey said, “I don’t agree with them because these are intellectuals who would not engage in such things.”
NDC
The Public Relations Officer of the KNUST NDC TEIN, Mr Prince Nyarko, told the Daily Graphic, “We are not perturbed the least about the formation of this group” but they were worried it would open the floodgates for others to form similar groups on campus.
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A situation which, he explained, could lead to the proliferation of parallel entities on campus and if care was not taken, even the Vice Chancellor and other heads of departments would join the fray, leading to political polarisation of academic work on campus.
Mr Nyarko stated that his basis for fear of ill-treatment was born out of the fact that the group had been formed to specifically garner support and votes for the opposition NPP and wondered how these would play out in classes that were full of known NDC activists.
He explained that although both the TEIN of the NDC and the Tertiary Students Confederacy (TESCON) of the NPP on campus had patrons who were lecturers, such patrons did not openly expose their known political colours on campus.