It’s about that time of the Academic year again where students of University of Ghana, the Premier University will go to the polls to elect those who will man the Union Building and champion the interests of Students for the next one year.
And as expected, propaganda has reared its head in all nooks and crannies, seeking to propagate some candidates ahead of the others and in the process, candidates are mudslinging others to give them an unfair lead in the race to the Union Building.
But before I press on to the substantive issue, maybe a little disclaimer will do to avert the thinking of students and other readers that I am against propaganda. I’m never against this tool and I’ve told a couple of colleagues that if I ever decide to run for office, even for the position of Course Rep, I shall make use of this to bolster my agenda albeit in a more decorous manner.
Indeed, I can say without the fear of contradiction that the Propaganda tool is used by each and every political party or election candidate across the globe in many forms. In fact there was a time in this country where a political party had the office of Propaganda Secretary even though they’ve changed it now. And so the importance of this tool can’t be underestimated.
But One would have expected that these candidates will channel their time and resources into identifying and proposing solutions to the myriad of perennial problems facing the student body – unstable and unreliable Wi-Fi, incessant water shortages, the ever increasing fees and management’s penchance to introduce very obnoxious levies each and every path of the way among a plethora of other very pressing issues facing the ordinary student.
But no, they are, rather, in a Rambo fashion, competing on who mudsling each other best, of course not to put them all in the same can – some have really carried themselves in a very decorous manner in this race.
And so it is no wonder that this a University that has an ever flowing dancing water fountains at the main entrance and also in front of the main library but water shortages in the halls of residence. This is the time for a more united student front with a strong leader to champion the interests of the student body.
We cannot keep mute and say they should do it theirselves, because if we continue on this tangent, then we risk electing propagandists into the Union Building, people who will reinvent the cycle and keep up with the same old boring and uninspiring rhetoric.
Then we should stop calling ourselves intellectuals, because there will be no difference between ourselves and the unlettered party footsoldiers in the remotest parts of our country.
And so whoever those faceless people are behind so called barometers and election charts should know that the good students of University of Ghana are wise enough to decipher between cheap propagandic rhetoric and we’ll thought action plans to serve the interests of Students.
It’s noteworthy that life is not all about SRC positions. Indeed what next after SRC election? Our paths will definitely, one way or the other cross and we’d need each other. And so of what essence will it be to denigrate and pull the image of a colleague in the mud just because you want to win an election.
We have no future as a country if this is the path the leaders of tomorrow seek to chart, where we are placing so much on form over substance.
It’s time to speak. And for me personally, I refuse to sit aloof and watch unconcerned or risk saying the same words as Martin Nimölla: “First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out, because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me.”