Kofi Annan Heckled By University Students

Authorities at the University of Ghana are angry at what they term unruly behaviour of students of the Commonwealth Hall who are alleged to have heckled former UN boss, Kofi Annan, during their last graduation ceremony, two weeks ago.

The students heckled the former UN Secretary General, who is also Chancellor of the University, and chanted songs in his face. He suffered this along with his guests. Other parents and guests of graduands also suffered a similar ordeal from the Commonwealth Hall students. Authorities say the students' behavior tarnished the image of the university and those found to have done so will be punished appropriately.

Stella Amoah, Acting Director of Public Affairs at the university, tells Joy News they are humiliated by the occurrence and will punish all those found to have taken part. "We have had a lot of student misbehaviour in the past. Sometimes it is considered as frivolous or even out of mischief but not this one. This time, they carried their acts too far and caused a great deal of embarrassment to the motto of the university.

The students came out in a very shamelessly bold attitude in the full glare of the Chancellor, His Excellency Kofi Annan to disgrace the university," she said. "Investigations are going to be carried out and once we find who the culprits are, the university will deal with them in the way that [follows our disciplinary processes]."

The University of Ghana which prides itself as Ghana's premier tertiary institution has, over the years, had to deal with several cases of misbehavior by students. Cases of examination malpractices have been handled swiftly and the university has vowed to tackle the latest incident with the same approach.

Perhaps the Commonwealth Hall students, also known as the Vandals, have the university's biggest headache in its exercise of discipline. The mainly men hall of residence has a shrine which a few rowdy students chant war songs at. The songs, a mainly their own rendition of popular gospel songs, are sung amid loud claps and feat thumps.