By Mabinty Magdelene Kamara
The Students’ Union president of Fourah Bay College has written to the Chancellor of the University of Sierra Leone and president, Julius Maada Bio calling for the protracted lecturers’ strike to end.
In a thinly-veiled threat, Augustine Bona says they will embark on a “peaceful protest” if the ongoing industrial action by lecturers is not resolved.
According to the letter dated 27th January 2020, Bona writes that they will have exhausted all dialogue efforts unsuccessfully by the time of the protest.
“We are disappointed and frustrated that those efforts have not yielded the ultimate dividend; the resumption of college,” the statement reads.
It adds: “They [students] have further instructed me to inform you that this letter is the last effort insofar as dialogue is concerned that we will accommodate, and if a date for the reopening of college is not announced by the University/College on or before Wednesday 3rd February, we will strongly and collectively put feet and faces behind these words; we will resort to peaceful protest(s).”
All state Universities in Sierra Leone are currently shut down due to an ongoing strike action by their lecturers, all with similar concerns over pay rise and other improved conditions of service ands entitlements.
Several meetings or negotiations have been held between government, lecturers and the university administration to resolve the impasse and get the striking lecturers back to class, but none have so far been productive.
The latest such meeting was with the Vice President with a view of resolving the impasse between the administration and the lecturers.
However, the meeting between the Vice President Dr Juldeh Jalloh and representatives of striking lecturers ended without agreement which left the industrial action unresolved.
The president of the Academic Staff Association of the University of Sierra Leone said in an earlier interview with Politico that the VP did not address their key demand, namely a 100% pay rise.
Dr Williette James said they were left “disappointed” because the vice president said he was not in a position to make any fiscal commitment to the aggrieved lecturers.
As the standoff continues, the President of the Njala Student Union, Bo campus, Ishmael Koroma said that having tried various mechanisms in their different universities, they were now considering a joint action with all other students of other public universities across the country including the Ernest Bai Koroma University and the University of Sierra Leone which comprises Fourah Bay College, College of Medicine and the Institute of Public Administration and Management (IPAM).
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