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The true test of a leader; An open letter to the KNUST SRC

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Leadership has always been a very controversial topic. Not everyone will shower you with praises. There will be some that will not buy into your vision, others will completely oppose every block of idea you propose. Every leader has had her/his fair share of the image I am trying very hard to paint. This however, is buoyed by the many stories of the leaders we have come to know, appreciate and model.

Today as I write from a bus en route to Accra. I just read the news of University of Ghana removing a statue of Mahatma Gandhi; a political figure I have referenced as a freedom fighter and celebrated, from their campus over a petition of alleged racism on the part of the much celebrated icon to support the global fight for “blacklivesmatter”, triggered by the tragic death of George Floyd in the United States  of America. Kwame Nkrumah is not spared in this regard as some are of the school of thought that he  was a “dictator” or a “benevolent dictator”, whiles a large chunk of the masses idolize the man for his ideals including myself.

But let’s leave that debate for another day. I am pretty confident although I haven’t come across it and I say this on a lighter note; some people might accuse Mother Theresa of being conceited and fame-driven. But at the end of the day, it is what it is and some of these arguments are well-founded and has a base like that of a pyramid.

Let me tone down to the level we can all relate to. Just a little over a year ago, if my memory serves me right, the entire student populace went to exercise their franchise to elect a new leader to be at the helm of affairs of all issues concerning students and our collective interests for the 2019/2020 academic year.

Throughout the campaign, we saw the number of people that chanted the catchy, unforgettable mantra of “duty-bound”. The duty bound mantra and her people(not excluding myself), had a massive  campaign: room to room, class to class, hall to hall, held a rally, had a talented young artiste to remix the well-known ‘kpo k3k3’ song originally sang by Stonebuoy to add to the list. Folks, if you haven’t listened to the song, get a copy. The election was an eye-sore. The elections ended and it was tagged as a “historic win” by many media outlets.

The true test of a leader, I mean what marks a leader for life, engraves your name on the lips of many is fashioned by your actions and inactions in trying times. In this write-up, I will try my best to exclude  previously questionable and outrageous dealings of the current SRC administration in the past and stick to the confines of ‘actions rolled out by the SRC during this period of COVID-19’.

Before I begin, let me start from the bottom and render a piece of advice to final year students. Elections concern you when you are in final year don’t say; “there’s nothing to gain from it”. The President of the state Nana Addo, in his recent address to the state, allowed all final year students to go back to campus to finish with their projects and complete their courses. The University declined in good faith and decided to let students complete their courses and projects online. Whiles this may come as good news to some people the  downside cannot be overlooked.

 

Even so, with all the good intentions of protecting the students from being infected with the novel virus, some students have been asked to come to campus for the same  agenda. Again, the rising cost of data bundles to access these platforms and submission of assignments have been overlooked. With no help whatsoever from the SRC. Again let this be a lesson, if you are in  final year, elections should concern you.

I wouldn’t want to bore you with long talk….let us continue this dutiful discussion in my next write up.

….to be continued

By; ANDY AMANKWAAH
BSC. Chemistry, KNUST
EmaIl;orandyman@gmail.com
Twitter; AndyAmankwaah
0504971727(send in your comments)