By Allieu Sahid Tunkara & Hajaratu Kalokoh
There was uneasy calm at the Fourah Bay College campus yesterday, a day after rival student groups clashed over union elections.
The riots led to an indefinite ban on students’ union activities in the college by the Ministry of Technical and Higher Education, a decision that has sharply divided the student community.
Life has however returned to normal with lectures resuming yesterday.
One of the presidential candidates, Mohamed Wurie Bah expressed disappointment over the ban “because once again students have been deprived of representation in college”.
He said: “Issues affecting students will be only addressed if we have elected representatives who will seek the welfare of fellow students”.
Eunice Naffie Mustapha, another presidential candidate, said the majority should not suffer for the abnormalities of the minority.
She said FBC students had lacked a representative body for several years.
“I personally condemn the violence, however the ban is doing us no good and it is not in the best measure to tackle the issue,” Mustapha added.
There has been no official statement from the college authorities.
But ordinary students have been expressing their views on the matter.
Abass Kamara, a year one student at the History and African Studies department lamented that the riots had disrupted his class. Sounding unhappy with the behaviour of his colleagues, he said it could tarnish the image of the college and called on the university authorities to take decisive steps to end violence on campus.
“We are looking forward to the university authorities investigating the circumstances that led to the violence and bring the culprits to book” he said.
He however said that they were concerned over the indefinite ban on the students’ union.
“Without a government at FBC, who will represent us,” Kamara wondered. He appealed to the university authorities to provide alternative means of governance system on campus in the short term.
Another student, Umu Barrie expressed similar sentiments about the absence of a studnets’ union government on campus. She is concerned about the welfare needs and other interests of students. “I want to see a government being elected on campus so that we can enjoy effective representation,” Barrie told Politico.
She urged the university authorities to go after those students who caused the violence instead of “a blanket punishment”.
Ibrahim Mansaray an Honours 2 Mass Communication student said he was very sad that they would not be having a students’ union body. He said this meant the welfare of students would still not be priority to the university authorities as had been the case for years.
“However I agree with the decision of the ministry because it is their responsibility to ensure sanity in the educational atmosphere.’’ Mansaray added.
He said exams were just around the corner and that if there was unrest it would impact the exams calendar.
Another student who prefers anonymity said the ban should have been left with the college authorities to determine and not the central government. “Such a ban is like politicizing the education sector” they said.
“As a top university we should be able to take decisions for ourselves and the government should refrain from politicizing sectors that are meant to be neutral, or else our country will be in a disarray”, the student said.
Deputy head of the police media, Samuel Saio Conteh told Politico that no one had been arrested in respect of the violence but that they were embarking on some aspect of proactive policing on campus by deploying a number police personnel there.
“We have no intentions for now to arrest anyone but we have deployed some police officers to monitor the situation,” he said.
© 2019 Politico Online
