Tamale Poly students threaten to boycott elections

Some students of Tamale Polytechnic on Monday besieged the offices of the Tamale Municipal Assembly demanding their share of the district assemblies' common fund without which they would boycott Thursday's general election.

The students, who were either natives or born and bred in the Municipality, said under the guidelines for distribution of the fund, they qualify for financial assistance from the Municipal Assembly.

Mr Yakubu Ibrahim Mahamin, president of the Tamale branch of the Polytechnic Students Association, said even though 20 per cent of the common fund is meant to cater for needy students, the polytechnics were not catered for by the assembly last year.

"In spite of the fact that the assembly did not budget for the universities, students from the universities benefited from the fund last year whilst we were neglected," he said.

Mr Mahamin said despite assurances given to them last year and several meetings held with the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Mr Mohammed Adams, this year, no single student at the country's polytechnics had been awarded any assistance. They have therefore decided not to vote on Thursday if their monies are not given to them.

But in a follow-up interview with the MCE, he expressed surprise at the reaction of the students, saying: "We met in my house on Saturday and I assured the student leaders that efforts are being made to ensure that they receive their monies".

Mr Adams said the delay in the disbursement of monies to needy students, which forms 10 per cent of the 20 per cent common fund allocated to education, was due to the volume of work and amount of money involved.

He said there are 268 students in the Tamale Polytechnic alone who, under broad terms, qualify for the loan but steps are being taken to streamline them to ensure that only the needy are covered.

"In this regard, we have disqualified all workers on study leave who are studying at the Tamale Polytechnic to ensure that we target those who are really in need.

"Workers at polytechnics in other parts of the country who are on study leave, however, still qualify for the loan", he said.

At a meeting with leaders of the polytechnic, Mr Adams assured them that they would receive their monies soon since work on the list of students submitted began on Monday.

He said the lists of students from the Kumasi, Accra and Sunyani Polytechnics have already been dealt with and the assembly would soon disburse their monies to them.

Mr Alhassan Mohammed, Vice-President of the association, appealed to the assembly to speed up its work since failure to pay their fees on time would attract a penalty of 50,000 cedis.

Addressing the students who had besieged the premises of the municipal office later, Mr Adams advised them to go to the polls on Thursday since their concerns were being addressed.

Mr Adams said due to the great number of students from the municipality who are in tertiary institutions, giving assistance to all would over-stretch the budget of the assembly.

"We would be disbursing more than the stipulated 10 per cent of what we have but we see the need for it hence our decision to overstep the amount."

He said the assembly spent 30.6 million cedis on students at the University of Ghana, Legon, alone and if it intends to offer wholesale assistance to the students of the Tamale Polytechnic at 200,000 cedis each, it would spend more than 50 million cedis.

Alhaji Yakubu Bukari, Presiding Member of the Tamale Municipal Assembly, told the students that the issue of assistance and elections were two separate matters and should not be linked.

"Voting is your right and you should vote whether you get your money or not".

He said that even though the assembly was doing all that it could to speed up the disbursement of the monies, delays could occur due to bureaucracy.