UG SRC president slammed for being ‘populist’

A former Vice-Presidential candidate in the 2019 University of Ghana Students Representative Council election, Bismark Kwaku Asante, has launched a scathing attack on the SRC President, Isaac Agyemang, describing him as a ‘populist leader’.

Kwaku Asante’s outburst, which was on Twitter, was in response to Isaac Agyemang’s intention to petition school management on its decision for the remaining seven weeks of teaching for the second semester to take place online.

He is questioning the motive for which the SRC President will be petitioning the school management, especially as some universities in the country had decided to continue academic activities online.

“See, don’t be a populist leader. What exactly are you petitioning management over? To stop the rollout or what? Isn’t e-learning what all schools globally have resorted to? If you’d be the kind of leader that write petitions, every time there’s a whim from students, then charley,” Kwaku Asante posted.

Isaac Agyemang, however, says that “the focus of our petition will be on what we expect to be done and the various issues raised by students, so as to mitigate the various risks involved in rolling out such a program”

He also adds that his office was not consulted before the decision was taken.

On Monday, the Pro-Vice-Chancellor in charge of students and academic affairs, Prof. Nana Aba Appiah Amfo, in a statement announced that the remaining seven weeks of teaching for the second semester will take place online, using the University’s Sakai Learning Management System.

In line with that, the University reached an agreement with Vodafone Ghana to allow students free access to the Sakai.

Whilst some have commended the University on taking steps to move academic activities online, others are unhappy with it.

One such student is the President of the Alexander Kwapong Hall Junior Common Room.

He has described the move as discriminatory.

“I’m going to my village tomorrow. I don’t have internet connectivity there. If they do not get internet connectivity to my village, I cannot do this. This is discriminatory against those of us with no internet connectivity where we’re planning to spend the quarantine time,” he told UniversNews

Other students also took to social media to register their displeasure with the move.