The University of Ghana Road Saga: My Perspective

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• Jojo 11 years ago

  Than every public institution should now charge tolls,because the public are a nuisance and prevents them from working in a serene atmosphere as Legon puts it.e.g Korle bu teaching Hospital,Airport road(bypass)Ministries,Burm ...
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  Than every public institution should now charge tolls,because the public are a nuisance and prevents them from working in a serene atmosphere as Legon puts it.e.g Korle bu teaching Hospital,Airport road(bypass)Ministries,Burma Camp road ,etc etc.The University of Ghana is not an autonomous republic in the republic of Ghana.it has no right to institute taxation on the people of Ghana(and collecting Tolls is a form of taxation), no matter how just their cause without legistlation from Parliament.

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• The mask 11 years ago

  The university of Ghana remains the primary source of economists and political thought in Ghana. That Ghana should be in this state of affairs is reflective of the failures of Legon.
  
  The premier university of Ghana - The U ...
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  The university of Ghana remains the primary source of economists and political thought in Ghana. That Ghana should be in this state of affairs is reflective of the failures of Legon.
  
  The premier university of Ghana - The University of Ghana Legon sadly does not appear in the top
  500 universities on earth. This must be corrected immediately. The university in order to achieve this must improve:
  1) Faculty student ratio
  2) The number of research projects it carries out
  3) The test scores of its entry class (internationally normalised)
  4) Employers' review of performance of its graduates (local and abroad)
  5) Peer review by other universities

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• YAA NEW YORK 11 years ago

  Wayoe,You made my day.Its sad we are in a country where indiscipline,mediocrity and related issue of unbridle life has clouded our real sense of judgement.Where on earth is this issue going to be encouraged?we trust me a day ...
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  Wayoe,You made my day.Its sad we are in a country where indiscipline,mediocrity and related issue of unbridle life has clouded our real sense of judgement.Where on earth is this issue going to be encouraged?we trust me a day is coming when the President will get to the jubilee house only to find out that metal containers houses bola,and makola or neoplan station has been transferred to the jubilee house even right in the office of the Prez!The painful issues are that those who are suppose to reason to enforce laws are the worse culprits Wayoe mark my word sooner than later we will realise the shocker of our lives

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• Kofi Ata, Cambridge, UK 11 years ago

  Sokpo Wayoe, I am one of those who criticised noise disrupting academic work as one of the reasons given by the university authorities as an excuse because there are universities in the UK that are in very busy cities with mo ...
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  Sokpo Wayoe, I am one of those who criticised noise disrupting academic work as one of the reasons given by the university authorities as an excuse because there are universities in the UK that are in very busy cities with more noise from traffic, pedestrians and tourists but such noise do not disrupt academic work. We did not say that because those universities do not ban the use of the roads, University of Ghana should not restrict the use of its roads. We were challenging the reason/s given for the restriction. In other words, we do not believe that the reason/s are genuine. This is supported by the fact that the university originally introduced user charges and were happy to allow as many vehicles to use the roads as far as the drivers were prepared to pay. The main objective for the restriction was therefore financial and not sanity for academic work.
  
  For the above reason, your logic that because universities A and B allow their roads to be used therefore university C should allow its is neither here nor there. It's the wrong comparison and your conclusion is in itself fallacious.
  
  Your second analogy with university halls of residency is even worst. We never made such suggestion that because Legon is a public university the roads must be used by all. Your comparison suggests that because Ghana Commercial and Agric Development Banks are publicly owned anybody could walk into those banks and demand to be given loans. That is not the case because there are conditions for loans and those who go into the banks for loans must meet the conditions before they can be given loans. It's the same with halls of residence at Legon. Please do not reduce this important national issue to triviality with such illogical comparisons and analogies.
  
  You are absolutely right that the problem has been caused by lawlessness in Ghana. First, the unilateral decision of the National Security Coordinator to show the university authorities "where power lies" and the university authorities effort to revenge by trying to prove that powers lies with them. Ghana has become lawless and that is real problem and util laws, regulations and rules are enforced and citizens comply with them, no amount of restrictions will bring sanity.

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• Kofi 11 years ago

  The university introduced the road user fees to deter drivers who have no business on campus roads from using it. N it was also meant to reduce road congestion. The university stated that when the policy was introduced vehic ...
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  The university introduced the road user fees to deter drivers who have no business on campus roads from using it. N it was also meant to reduce road congestion. The university stated that when the policy was introduced vehicles that used the road reduced from 16000 to 8000 do where lies your argument that the reasons given by the UG were not genuine?
  Pls lets do honest intellectual discourse cos after all Sokpoe has taken his time to come out with logical points, premises n conclusions.

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• Kofi Ata, Cambridge, UK 11 years ago

  Kofi, I do not dispute that but the question is how long would have this lasted? Remember that the charges lasted a few days and therefore the 50% reduction could have been the results of drivers not being aware and turned aw ...
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  Kofi, I do not dispute that but the question is how long would have this lasted? Remember that the charges lasted a few days and therefore the 50% reduction could have been the results of drivers not being aware and turned away. But subsequently, the traffic numbers would have increased as road users became aware of the charges. Obviously, there would have been some reduction but not as much as 50% and would not have reduced noise.
  
  You ignored my argument that the policy was not about noise disturbing academic work but about raising revenue and to show the government where power lies. If revenue was the case, then the university must be honest and stop the excuses. If it was not about raising revenue why charge students, especially non resident students for driving to attend to legitimate business on campus or restrict them to a particular route? I know that here students may pay to park their vehicles on limited parking slots on campus but that is to raise funds and to reduce noise or cars on campus because the car has become a necessary evil.
  
  What about parents right to take and pick their children to and from school as well as the safety of children who were supposed to be left and picked at/from the gates? Were those issues properly considered by the universities before implementing the policy?
  
  Please do not talk honest intellectual debate when you yourself pick on just one example to counter argue the issues I raised in my earlier comments.

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• Mike Gizo 11 years ago

  Your English too is impeccable

  Your English too is impeccable

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• mky 11 years ago

  Sokpo, what a lopsided and boneheaded logic trotted out by a diehard Legonite to justify a fiscal policy that is more or less a taxation system...

  Sokpo, what a lopsided and boneheaded logic trotted out by a diehard Legonite to justify a fiscal policy that is more or less a taxation system...

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• Dantankwa 11 years ago

  Wayoe, Kofi Ata has already made nonsense of what you have described as logic. To begin with, we call it University road, simply because it pass through the University and not because they have exclusive right to it. We say t ...
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  Wayoe, Kofi Ata has already made nonsense of what you have described as logic. To begin with, we call it University road, simply because it pass through the University and not because they have exclusive right to it. We say the same for Presec or GIMPA road. Can you imagine the kind of choas we will find ourselves if all institutions that have roads and streets starts behaving as if they are living in island by themselves.
  The University authority are wise enough not have said that they are levying the road because it is university's road. That would have been very lame. They had to use the loans they contracted for construction just a stretch of that road as a justification. As Kofi rightly pointed, these later reasons about creating a serence atmosphere for academic excercise and protecting staff and students are afterthought. Why didn't they raise those earlier.
  
  Again, you seemed to have missed the argument about this blatant exploitation not been practiced in better universities elsewhere. The truth is that when it suit us we make similar comparisons and we ignore them when we are trapped. The UG tells us it is seeks to become a leading global university. It is therefore logical we remind them that what they are doing is not done elsewhere. It is as simple as that. We are not saying they can do it because X or Y university is not doing it. In plain terms, those who make this comparisons are simply reminding UG to think outside the box and discover more innovative means of creating revenues, instead of levying poor Ghanaians who are are already saddled with several taxes. Did you even realize you ended up making similar comparison, in terms of lawless of our environment in contrast to the law abiding society in advanced country.
  
  If you had taken the trouble to speak to the ordinary workers of the University including some lecturers you would have discovered that they are against the levy. A good number of them do not have cars and therefore resort to taking taxis,and consequently they end up paying additional 2 cedis. In effect, they bear the incidence of this university levy, and not the taxi drivers.

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