Ghana University Students Threaten To Boycott Classes

September 7, 1999

ACCRA, Ghana (PANA) - Students of University of Ghana in Accra threaten to begin a sit-down strike from Wednesday to press home demands that government provides 13 billion cedis (about 5 million US dollars) needed by the universities to run their programmes for 1999.

The students would boycott lectures and other university activities, Nii Narko Dowuona, students representative council president of the university, told a press conference Tuesday in Accra. He added that the students would resort to any measure to make the atmosphere on campus ungovernable.

Instead of going to lecture theatres, they would converge at the central cafeteria where they would teach themselves, Dowuona said. The decision of the students threatens to disrupt the academic calendar once more and brings them on a confrontation path with government.

The students had been protesting against an increase in university fees, saying they could not pay.

"We resolved that the government should solve the present impasse once and for all by providing the 13 billion cedis shortfall needed by the universities in Ghana to run their programmes efficiently," Dowuona said.

He emphasised that until that money is provided and the burden lifted off the shoulders of students and their parents, "we are going to boycott all lectures and other university functions; and by any means necessary make the system ungovernable."

Dowuona said they are in close contact with their colleagues from other tertiary institutions who would join them in due course.