The Students of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) who depend on the students’ loan for academic survival have queried the National Democratic Congress’s (NDC) socialist ideology and are preparing for a massive demonstration against the government this week. They have described the government’s freezing of their loans as insensitivity to the plight of the poor who have vowed to be at the apex of the academic ladder.
There has been an uneasy clam on the campus of KNUST as students have been seen in groups discussing the notice pasted by the Local NUGS Secretariat signed by its President Mr Reuben Amankwa.
The notice states that the Students Loan Truest fund (SLTF) is unable to pay the loans due to the fact that GETFund has not released money to the Truest because of the emptiness of its kitty. A resident of Unity Hall, Mr Samuel Kwame Appiah, who survived on campus at the mercy of the loan, described the situation as a mockery of how the NDC government holds itself in the eyes of Ghanaians.
He said although NDC claims to be a party for the poor and the down trodden, its acts and omissions are detrimental to the poor whom the party have deceived for a very long time.
Mr Appiah stated when it comes to lofty promises, the NDC is an expert but when it comes to the implementation the NDC would also always find indefensible defense. “The same NDC which claimed that there was no money in the national coffers found money from the coffers to pay per diem to its members of the transition team, and one should not wonder if they find money to pay for students who support their cause,” he lamented.
A number of students GO spoke to rap the government for being myopic as it failed to recognize that the dissolution of boards would result in the current predicament facing the students. “It is ironic for the President to tell students of Legon just last Saturday that the government had frozen loans meant for students,” they charged.
When contacted, Mr Theophilous Obboye-Tawiah, a student Loan Trust Fund Coordinator for KNUST, confirmed the information pasted by the Local NUGS Secretariat that there is shortage of funds at the Trust.
When quizzed on what accounted for the unavailability of funds of GETFund, he stated that he could only speak for the Truest not GETFund. He explained further that the students of Legon have received their loans because the SLTF had little money in its account, but the students have rejected this, accusing the government of discrimination and fearing in view of the proximity of Legon to the Presidency.
Meanwhile, a former Deputy Minister of Education in the NPP administration, Hon. Kwame Ampofo Tsumasi, has rebuffed the assertion that there is no money in the coffers of the GETFund.
