The Activist, the Activism of Aluta Continua

– My reflections

I have been nowhere; and trust me

if I tell you so. I grew up in a setting where newspaper was for the few who

gained the opportunity to work in one government office or the other or in a few

instances, retired teachers; (pensioners) as they were called who had extra

cash to spare on the luxury of knowing what’s in the news. But as a young and

ambitious student, I have always known that the news mattered. News like “which

foreign government official visited the country”, “which part of Accra have

suffered flooding”, “the latest increment in fuel”, “what was new in Makola,

and others were but a few one could watch out for on GTV news bulletin. Hardly

did it matter to me nor my friends the news of students going on demonstration

as a result of insensitive increment in their school fees, a group of students

meeting somewhere to elect their leaders or a group of student leaders pressing

on government to meet one demand or the other. In fact, the last thing I might

want to care about is a group of students dictating how they think government

policies should have been put in place to salvage one national canker or the

other.

However, what did I grow up to hear?

That there was some action called student activism, and that there was a group

in the name of a National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) under whose umbrella

all Ghanaian students have a place so to have our interest well catered for in

the national discourse. My ignorance was complicated when an older friend told

me stories about how NUGS played key roles during the dark days in Ghana when

our actions as a country so long as governance and politics were concerned,

were dictated by men in uniforms through the barrel of guns. Indeed, I was told

of how ordinary students of this country rose up to protest against those

oppressive regimes and their obnoxious policies; several of whom lost their

lives through stampede and gun fires during those wild demonstrations. I’m also

told of stories of hell breaking loose on campuses of Universities as students

rose up to defend their so called social rights some of which and other related

incidents have led to universities being closed down.

Eventually I have come to

familiarize myself with the acronym NUGS and a few names that have been

associated with it. I fell in love with Haruna Iddrisu those days when as a

young boy, I started sharpening my interest in the news of the day where in the

morning; my ears were either stuck to

Joy news or anywhere else I could hear the voice of one politician or the

other. Then later I heard bigger names like Ward Brew, Arthur Kobina Kennedy

and a few others I cannot exactly recall. Perhaps what must have helped more

was my association with a few friends through whom I was introduced briefly to

the activities of the Greater Accra Regional SRC. Perhaps, there was more I

could have learnt about student activism except that I was in a hurry to get

out of Secondary school merely because I felt I had fallen victim to the new

Computerised School Selection and Placement Program when my dream of Achimota

School ended on rocks. I attended a very small community secondary school in

Accra anyways; memories of which I hold dearly.

Honestly, the starting point for me

was the university. That was when I came to hear more of NUGS and this new

lexicon of STUDENT ACTIVISM, a definition I have been looking for. One of the

latest definitions of student activism I have come to learn from a senior

colleague is “when students know their rights and limits and can ask why or why

not if needs be”. I have grown to love my university, and even though I think

that KNUST is one of the finest universities we have around Africa, I doubt how

much this language of student activism is understood by students of the

university, most especially the fraction that takes unflinching interest in the

politics of the day. I must confess how thrilled I get by the boisterous

confrontations and agitations of my good friends from Conti and almighty

Katanga sometimes, but the question is: Are those scenes good enough to be

called student activism especially when male halls have had a long standing

history with the formation of NUGS. I’m not sure how much the history of NUGS

has been told, hence I ask ignorantly: What is the essence of NUGS? When there

is no credible voice to speak for the Ghanaian student or when they virtually

know nothing about it. What is student

activism when we cannot solve the basic challenges that confront our student

front? What is student activism if we cannot organize just one decent election

on our campus? What is student activism when we are being denied the space to

confront authorities over our needs? What is student activism if we cannot

contribute meaningfully to the national debate regarding policies that could

break the neck of the next generation of Ghanaian students? What is student

activism if the gullies of our rights are gradually being washed away by the

colourful lather of gushing party waters and individual selfish interest? I

know not what others think; but in my ignorant opinion, until we approach the

beckoning recognition of the fact that at the heart of student activism should

be a much more responsible NATIONAL

UNION OF GHANA STUDENTS (NUGS), then though I’m just a kid, the question I

pose for reflection is “what is student activism”? And “who is the activist”?

Nii Tettey Ashong

KNUST.