NUGS MUST WAKE UP FROM ITS SLUMBER!!!!

The National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) is a democratic, non-partisan and progressive Mass Movement comprising of students in Ghana and Ghanaian students abroad. The primary aim of NUGS is to protect and safeguard the rights and interest of Ghanaian students, as well as inculcating in them a high sense of responsibility, patriotism, discipline and above all nationalism, with the ultimate aim of integrating them and ensuring their maximum participation in all activities relating to National Development.

The organisation is made up of various students irrespective of their gender, political persuasion, ethnic origin, social standing and cultural background. NUGS represents over 7 million students in Ghana. The organisation acts with democratic principles and also embraces the situations of students ranging from progressive, democratic ideals and principles which includes racism, hunger, poverty, tribalism, corruption, ignorance and illiteracy.

NUGS, as an embodiment of the democratic rights of Ghanaian students and the mother body of all student associations in the country, is charged, among other things, with the responsibility of promoting unity among Ghanaian students and championing the welfare of Ghanaian youth in general without prejudice to any cause.

To a very large extent, NUGS has been one of the finest reservoirs and preparatory ground for the production of some of the requisite human resources that the nation can boast of; many of whom have become the crème de la crèmes of our past and contemporary social, economic, and political milieu.

 The likes of Dr. Arthur Kennedy, a leading member of the New Patriotic Party, Hon. Haruna Iddrisu, Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Shamima Muslim, a media practitioner, Mr. Kwabena Agyapong, General Secretary of the NPP, Hon. Okudjeto Ablakwa, a Deputy Minister of Education, Hon. Maxwell Kofi Juma, and Dr. Omane Boamah, Minister of Communications,  among several others are all proud products of NUGS.

That notwithstanding, it is regrettable to note that the NUGS of today is comparatively becoming less famous and is hardly able to hold the fort for Ghanaian students as its antecedents professed. More disturbing is the observation that contemporary NUGS seemingly appears to have relinquished its hitherto enviable influence in shaping educational policies and it is gradually becoming what can best be described as ‘a political breeder’ for some ‘unscrupulous persons’ hiding behind political parties to perpetrate their own parochial agenda at the expense of the Union.

 This development has only but negatively affected the corporate image of NUGS, with the ordinary Ghanaian students being the ultimate brunt bearers for no fault of theirs.

In view of the foregoing, it is my contention that the leadership of NUGS over the recent past has ‘failed’ to effectively discharge one of its primary responsibilities of shaping governments’ educational policies in the country to succinctly cater for the interest of students because as already indicated, the Union has itself been embroiled in several controversies, pettiness and intransigent partisanship at the detriment of focusing on its core mandate of constructively critiquing educational policies and offering the necessary suggestions as might be required for the benefit of its constituents.

For instance, the silence of NUGS has been very loud in the fight against some injustices and acts of maladministration that have characterized many of our educational institutions today and of course the unimaginably outrageous hikes in the cost of education at the various levels of the ladder, and the nauseating sectionalism and religious fanaticism experienced in many of our schools.

There is no denying the fact that the Ghanaian media landscape of late has been overwhelmed with negative reportage about problems bedeviling the educational sector; which range from lack of basic teaching and learning materials like teachers’ notebooks, chalks, textbooks, etc to issues of industrial unrests and the precarious state of GETfund, to that of astronomical hikes in school fees, collapsing state of the school feeding programme coupled with the imminent closure of all government assisted Senior High Schools among several others, including government’s apparent failure to make do with its promise of building 50 SHS each year, converting polytechnics into technical universities as well as the construction of 10 new colleges of education in the country and the withdrawal of teacher nursing and teacher trainee allowances.

Mention can also be made of the plight of our brothers and sisters who are schooling in the three regions of the north; precisely, at the second cycle institutions relative to government’s failure to release feeding grant and subventions to their school authorities.

In the face of all these myriad of problems which have overwhelmed the nation’s education front and their associated repercussions on the ordinary Ghanaian student, one would expect that the leadership of the various student Unions in the country who are in a better position to act; would rise up to the occasion in providing the much needed voice to the silent majority of students who are overwhelmed in such quagmire.

 I am afraid that the occasional issuance of press releases which we see every now and then cannot be enough in arresting the conundrum. Student leaders need to adopt a better form of constructive engagement with authorities and broaden its consultative horizon to include more and more stakeholders who might be of help in providing possible solutions to these deleterious cankers.

NUGS promotes the social, economic, educational and, cultural interests of Ghanaian students at the national level towards all relevant bodies and in particular with the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Youth and Sports. The National Council for Tertiary Education, Ghana Education Trust Fund, National Accreditation Board, Student Loan Trust Fund and Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools and the Association Of African Universities. NUGS seeks to champion the interests of Ghana students and makes sure students’ access to quality education is made progressively free by providing students with infrastructural and logistical equipment, more computer labs, Libraries equipped with books up to date, affordable but quality education, expansion of lecture halls, provision of accommodation and shelter and a practical curriculum for schools.

It also helps to seek the developmental, independence and socio-economic progress of the welfare of the country. It has been able to inform and train all students (SRC) on what could promote developments through seminars, campaigns, trainings, conducting research and partnership projects.

From the foregoing, it can safely be concluded that the NUGS of today is not living up to its mandate as compared to the NUGS they inherited from their forebears. There is the need for the new executives to wake up from their slumber and distance themselves from the beck and call of politicians in order to live up to the mandate given them by the generality of Ghanaian students.



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