An Open Letter to NUGS by Reginald Amo Yeboah

Reginald Amo Yeboah

“Education; is becoming more of a privilege Not A Right” - Reginald Amo Yeboah 

Mr. President,

As you are very much aware, too many Ghanaians Students find it very difficult to keep up with the basic necessities of our students life, even though by God’s grace, education in Ghana and as potently espoused by our Union’s motto must be a right and not a privilege. Ghana is endowed with all that it takes to make here a better place where every ordinary Ghanaian Student can enjoy reasonable comfort in attaining the minimum or average standard of Education. Like your predecessors, you are doing everything possible to put smiles on the face of the ordinary Ghanaian Students which is most commendable. Your Leadership has been exemplary in these abnormal times of COVID-19 Pandemic and complemented with the efforts of Government, your engagements have proved to be very much fruitful which also deserves commendations.

I believe in your great concern for the ordinary Ghanaian Student, majorly, which compelled you to deny yourself of full focus for your academic pursuit to run for this portfolio. This spirit of self denial, most often than not, perceivedly, exhibited by students Leaders are none but a scam. I do not want to place same on you and which is why I write to you directly. To bring to your notice a complicated but most topical issue which requires urgent attention but is usually neglected which leaves students always in despair. Sadly, the situation repeats itself every academic year. Pardon my courtesy, the exigencies of the matter and the complex nature of the issues did not afford me the luxury of time to serve the letter through The Secretariat or the SRC in KNUST.

Prices of Students’ Hostels in Ghana is increasing rendering education in our Tertiary institutions, ironically, a privilege instead of a right. This issue is becoming more cancerous in the already dreaded students’ lives in our Universities. I am sure you may, by now, have seen a hashtag #KnustHostelFeesMustFall on social media particularly Twitter. An army is, indeed, rising and you may not want to underestimate the impact it can make. Such successes by students mass actions will render irrelevant the very cherished portfolios we occupy in our students’ leadership front. In fact, an ‘ordinary’ 4-in-1 room sells in a range of Ghc 1,800-2,200, 3-in-1 for Ghc 2,200-2,800, 2-in-1 ranges 2,800-3,500 and 1-in-1 ranges 3,500 and beyond (These are average figures). It is common knowledge, Mr President, that the least of the price ratings which is Ghc 1,800 can even fetch you a befitting accommodation facility with a very comfortable payment plan in a NON-STUDENT environment.

To give you details, if not a clearer picture of what you might probably be aware already, albeit, using KNUST as a case in point. ‘The matter chop hard’ now since students’ themselves are somewhat leading in a ‘black market’ sales of bed spaces adding more injury to an already dreaded sore and the greater student populace are the ones ‘bleeding’.

Bed space sales is the new ‘oil’ and most viable business option run by some students. This is not to blow an unusual whistle but to paint the sad picture of what our inactions as concerned students, students’ leaders, prudent private hostel investors, proactive and effective University Management has resulted in.

The complex nature of this issue is bewildering. Since you are the chief driver at the National Union of Ghana Students, I trust that you can drive this home too but allow me to drive you through the issues.

Some students blame Management of the University for this canker. They believe Management run some hostels which are already suffocating students and these ratings eventually become the bench mark for the Private Hostels off campus. Students contend that if Management reduce their breath-choking prices, these private management would do same. This blame, in my view, is aneamic because the hostels run by the Management of KNUST is the SRC hostel, Wilkado and Some others. There is a misplaced view that GUSSS (Ghana University Staff Superannuation Scheme) Hostels is run by Management of the University and this complicates the matter the more. Again, these Private Hostel Management, treading on this mistaken belief, uses the GUSSS Hostel Prices as their bench mark and to justify their claims, they say “your management are charging big so what do you expect?” In the end, the ordinary students are bleeding. Again, it is instructive to note for example that, if you sell banana and I decide to sell groundnuts close by to take advantage of your customers need for groundnut because of your bananas, I guess your banana customers cannot blame you on my high groundnut prices. Same is the fact that they cannot implore you to put me to order unless there are laws regulating such sales. Can the University Management be blame worthy of the dishonesties of the Private Hostel Managers?

My grandmother would say, if you want to uproot a tree by cutting without uprooting its root, it will only re-germinate. Fundamentally, Management of the University runs an IN-OUT-OUT-OUT policy which means that you are only housed by the university in your First Year and you find your own fate subsequently. This is the root of the problem. It is presumed by this, that once management leave you to your fate after first year, there is enough capacity off Campus to accommodate the numbers. If there is not such capacities, then management need to regulate the numbers they take in. This is the fundamental problem.

Secondary to this problem is the fact that, management of the university have tagged some Hostels accredited and others unaccredited as a way of regulating Hostels off campus depending on some factors. Usually, students are advised by the University Management to patronize the accredited hostels. However, the capacity of all these accredited hostels leave huge deficits with no option for students than to patronize the unaccredited hostel. Sadly, the University Management again will posit that you be at these unaccredited hostels at your own risk. It is simple to say that if Students are robbed, for example, there is no remedy for them if they are at unaccredited hostels. As student, the safety and security is a condition precedent for a successful academic life. Students in these unaccredited hostels are bleeding, Mr President.

Out of same problem of excessive intake, it  leads also to a basic economic phenomenon, that is, more students would chase few accommodation facilities and this results in prices escalation thus inflation. Simply, sell a bed for 10k and you would get a student to purchase it without complaints as a result of either what the already complicated system has occasioned or they have no option.

The Private Hostel Owners, who are perceived by students to be husbands, wives, relatives or friends of University Staff are profiteering while Management of the University looks unconcerned. These helpless colleagues of ours are calling for remedies and we cannot disappoint them hence the trending hashtag #KnustHostelsMustFall. This is the case of KNUST and I believe same is the case in other Tertiary institutions.

Sadly, our colleague students and indeed unscrupulous ones as that have taken advantage of the situation. We have a ‘black market’ for hostels sales now as I mentioned earlier. These students will purchase the bed spaces at ‘wholesale’ prices and re-sell them at exorbitant ‘retail’ prices. This only stabs us in the back in our collective fight against the high hikes of hostel prices on our campuses.

A multifaceted approach is required to deal with this ponderous situation, Mr President.

First, I wish to bring to your notice that the Rent Act 1963, (Act 220), the law regulating affairs between landlords (Hostel Management) and tenants (Students) is always and almost left unused. It works co-operatively with landlords and tenants to promote optimum peaceful co-existence through education, reconciliation while also providing on rent matters in compliance with the Rent Act 220.

Demand/supply and the flimsy excuses by our Private Hostel Managers cannot be a panacea for landlords to increase their rents. No landlord (Hostel Manager) has the right to increase his/her tenants rent arbitrarily without a just cause. Any landlord who wants to increase his/her rents in Ghana must liaise with the Rent Control Department for rent assessment. At the Rent Control Department the landlord (Hostel Management) would be made to justify the grounds for the rent assessment, which usually is based on an increase, for example, in property rate payment by the MDAs. This increase is also based on any improvement made by the landlord that is of beneficiary to the tenant whiles in occupation of the property among other conditions. Such justified increments are regulated and that is not what we are seeing today.

It follows that, Tenants (Students) have the right to resist any rent increase by any landlord and in case of any opposition a report may be lodged at the nearest Rent Office for assistance. I can assure you that, WE WILL FIERCELY RESIST THIS THROUGH EVERY LEGITIMATE MEANS. Kindly anticipate a formal petition which I have commenced gathering signatories.

Moreover, NUGS must in the immediate term, spearhead a charge on the Rent Control Department, with backing from the Ministry of Education, to set up a task force to do a comprehensive nationwide inspection on hostels and accommodation facilities in Tertiary institutions across the country, set the appropriate standards for their operation as well as a standardize pricing systems subject to the Rent Laws.

Again, NUGS must charge government to, as a matter of urgency, expedite efforts to deal with the accommodation deficits on our University Campuses. We need to be extra proactive in this regard save less we are face with huge crises when we receive the ‘Akufo-Addo Graduates’. We have recent events on Legon and KNUST Campuses after admissions as examples where thousands of freshmen were stranded on arrival.

There is no gainsaying the fact that your lead has been very fruitful and the ordinary Ghanaian Student has been dutifully represented. I have taken notice of the donation of a 33-seater bus to NUGS from MASLOC, NUGS Women and Girls Entrepreneurship Support Scheme by your leadership, plans for the establishment of the NUGS Library etc etc. These are very commendable projects. Just as your predecessor forged through on the issues of the Students’ Loan Scheme which today has found its way into the manifesto of the ruling government, I am pretty sure that our attempt at this would yield great results.

I believe that generations not yet born, will come to bless you. Indeed, you would have set a great example for your immediate collaborators and the rest of us aspiring students leaders to emulate.

As I reflect with you on your extraordinary spirit of self-denial, I would like to urge and encourage you in a very humble way to concentrate on your great desire and efforts to liberate the majority of Ghanaian Students, who lack the basic necessities for an average student life, from this most avoidable extortions.

The needs of the ordinary Ghanaian Students are many and let me not belabor the point that you can provide for all of them within your almost extinguished tenure. But one thing that I am very sure of is: if you are able to help reduce the hikes in the prices of Hostels on our campuses through an effective and pragmatic approach which favors all sides, it may be the greatest achievement and would reinforce our motto thus "Education, a right not a Privilege!"

On this note, Mr President, I wish you well, poised to hear from you in lightspeed.

Sincerely yours,

REGINALD AMO YEBOAH

(Disappointed Health Sciences Association (HESA) President, KNUST)

Tel: +233 20 720 0450/  233 59 603 3057