News:
March 25, 2014
The ranking member on the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee of Parliament Joe Osei Owusu says he does not see the value in repealing the clause that gives power to the University of Ghana to restrict the use of its facilities by the public.
The Bekwai MP maintains any attempt to repeal that clause will be a “populist reaction to the issue.”
The University of Ghana has in recent weeks been in the news for asserting its restrictive powers on who can use its facilities, particularly its roads, and under what conditions.
Section 3 of the University of Ghana Act 806 which was passed in 2010, makes provision for only members of the university to have free access and privileges of the university. Currently, non-members are not entitled to have free access to the school except they have stickers or use only one of four entry and exit points to the university.
In pursuant of this provision the university has introduced a sticker billing system in which non-members of the university are required to pay 400 cedis a year before they can have access to the university’s roads.
The implementation of this policy has generated lots of chaos with the public as well as parents of pupils of the university primary all kicking against the policy.
The issue found its way to Parliament and has generated similar controversy with MPs splitting hairs over it.
Joy News can exclusively confirm that a private members’ motion has been filed in Parliament seeking the removal of the restriction clause in the Act establishing the University of Ghana.
This motion will thus compel the minister of education to re-introduce the Act for a possible removal of the clause and pave way for easy access to the university’s campus .
But Joe Osei Owusu told Joy News’ Evans Mensah on Top Story he would vote against any such motion once it is raised on the floor.
He argued no university anywhere in the world is used as a thoroughfare and Parliament cannot by this motion take the regulatory powers of the university from the University’s council.
“Somebody needs to regulate the university. If you take away that power away from the university who is to going to regulate it,” he asked.
He said the university allowed its premises to be used as a thoroughfare only as a temporary measure to curtail the massive traffic that was created as a result of the construction of the Legon Madina Road.
“It will be most unfair for the public to demand that after the university had granted access they should go ahead and turn the university into a thoroughfare,” he pointed out.
Emmanuel Agyarko, MP for Ayawaso West Wuogon, the constituency in which the university is sited has said the approach to restrict the powers of the university is unsustainable.
His greatest challenge is the parents whose children attend the university of Ghana primary school.
Mr Agyarko said the university is currently negotiating with the PTA of the primary school for a compromised fee to be paid.
He would also vote against any motion that would curtail the powers of the university in regulating who uses its facilities.
Meanwhile the MP for Asawasi and Majority chief whip, Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak is in support of the amendment to the Act.
He argued the repeal of the clause would “best serve the public and the country”.
myjoyonline.com