Social Welfare and Labor Relations, Executive Director National
Service Secretariat, Chief Executive officer Fare Wages and Salaries
Commission, The Representatives from: AASU, NUGS, USAG, GUPS,
Action AID, Other Student Leaders Present, Press, All Protocol
Observed, Ladies and Gentlemen.
The National Union of Ghana Students of old, has contributed
immensely to the Educational, Political, social, and Economic
development of Ghana. The contribution of NUGS to the
development of mother Ghana is so great so that the history of
Ghana cannot be written without mention of NUGS. In addition,
almost all Leaders of this country have passed through the mills of
NUGS knowingly or unknowingly. And so the Accountability of
NUGS affects not only the student fraternity of Ghana, Africa and
the World but also to our National and International Politics.
Currently, the Secretary General of the All African Students Union
(AASU) is from NUGS, A great number of our Ministers of State have
drunk from the big breast of NUGS, Innovations like the GETFund,
The Student Loan Trust Fund (SLTF) and other very important
political reforms have been machinated by the Union, and so there
is a need to ensure that NUGS will work again.
The Discipleship tools define accountability as a check and balance
system to protect us from harm from ourselves and others. We do
this by being open to what we are thinking and doing so we can
receive encouragement and reproof, when needed.
TYPES OF ACCOUNTABILITY
Christian Accountability
Political Accountability
Ethical Accountability (Within a corporate organization)
Administrative Accountability (For Civil Servants)
Individual Accountability in Organizations
Academic/Educational Accountability (For Students, Parents and
School Authorities)
Financial Accountability
Social Accountability, etc.
Today, I want to sum all these into what I prefer to call Leadership
Accountability, which is a mechanism put in place voluntarily to
render to the people we serve, the product of the services rendered
to them, the need to continue or discontinue the rendering of such
services, and take the necessary corrective measures which is
referred to in management as Controlling.
REASONS FOR ACCOUNTABILITY
1. 1. Lightens the load. You will still have to do the work, but you’ll
have someone to help with the mental and emotional struggles. That
is a major benefit because some of the biggest challenges reside in
your thoughts and feelings. A good accountability partner will
understand yet inspire you to overcome difficulties.
2. 2. Keeps you on track. When you have a form of accountability
then it is easier to stay on task with your work. If you report back to
your accountability partner with the wrong type of results he will
see that. He can make you aware of the discrepancies so that you
can make the necessary adjustments. We tend to get so deep into our
work that we don’t see when we have strayed off track. An
accountability partner is more removed from the fray. It is easier
for him to recount what your original intentions were in order to
keep you on target.
3. 3. Compels you to honor your word. Having accountability forces
you to do what you said you were going to do. It gives you a reason
to do the daily tasks that your goal requires. Just knowing that you
are going to report to someone is enough to make us keep at until
we get the work done. We don’t want to say, “I know I told you I
was going to do this but I did not do it.” If we know we are going to
be held accountable then we do it. We don’t let ourselves off the
hook. We know that there is someone else involved and we don’t
want to let them down. (Anthony D. Carter)
4. 4. For Rewards and Punishments . Accountability is holding that
person’s actions up for inspection and, if they are found to be “out
of line” as regards what is allowed, then that person is subject to
penalties for those actions that were outside the law, and if they
have performed creditably well, then rewards may be given.
WHAT ROLE SHOULD NUGS PLAY IN ENSURING ACCOUNTABILITY
By reason of brevity, I we shall discuss four (4) important issues in
ensuring accountability in our beloved student fraternity.
1. Selection of Leadership
2. Administration
3. Policies
4. Education and Training
1. 1. LEADERSHIP
Fortunately, the leadership of NUGS is elected by student leaders
who have been carefully elected or appointed in accordance with
local campus constitutions by respected students at the Tertiary and
Secondary levels respectively. This should have reflected a very
intellectual electoral college who should be able to interrogate
candidates and choose the best of the best, who have been tried,
tested, and approved by different levels of our student leadership
ladder and proven to be competent and efficient in the discharge of
the immense workload of student leadership in Ghana.
However Mr. Chairman, permit me to say that, for some time now, I
have been continuously disappointed by the quality of personnel
elected by student leaders in Ghana to handle the affairs of NUGS. It
is disappointing to see Ghanaian students needing help all over the
world and having no strong leaders or strong institution in NUGS to
stand firm and fight the defense of the defenseless. However, there
have been some exceptional leaders who in my opinion, have been
exceptional in the discharge of their duties as student leaders.
The fact is if the personnel elected/appointed to handle the mantle
of student leadership are not of the required ‘quality’ then getting
the work done efficiently and effectively will become a herculean
task.
I believe that, the first agent of accountability for student leadership
is the one who has the power to vote. Therefore, dear future leaders,
and partners to national development, when you go to the pools to
vote leaders for our beloved NUGS as well as SRC, Local NUGS, or
Hall executives; do not be blinded by petty-partisan-pleasures, or of
family, old school associations, or campus of affiliation, but rather,
the competence of the personnel must come first, so that in case
aspirants have the same level of competence, then these
considerations may be made.
Mr. Chairman, it wounds my heart to posit that Government is the biggest
bane of accountability of student leadership in Ghana. Instead of leaving
the students to select their own leaders, Governments/political parties,
do all they can to finance, raise campaign teams, and supervise what we
call the ‘political mafia’ to put their cronies in power, and when this
happens, the leaders cannot bite because our elders say that ‘he who pays
the piper, calls the tune’. Mr. Chairman, I can say that over 70% of
student leaders in Ghana are paid either in cash or for a future reward of
position in government by political parties, and so student leaders
become lovers of their party and hence push their party agenda at all
times instead of the agenda of the students we serve. What pains me most
out of this is that individual student leaders benefit from these things to
enrich themselves- instead of governments/political parties giving
financial and other support services to the Union, they give it to
individuals and hence you can get NUGS Presidents or Press Secretaries in
the past taking press releases from party offices to be delivered in the
name of NUGS.
1. 2. ADMINISTRATION
NUGS should be able to lead the national student front by example,
in this regard; there is a need to run NUGS as a professional
organization rather than an association of boys and girls having
fun. By this, I mean;
1. NUGS must have an office administrator to see to the day-to-day
running of the Union whose office should be under the authority of
the coordinating secretary; since NUGS is a going concern. Since I
came to NUGS we have always had issues with the handing over of
adequate documentation to ensure continuity and so we always
have to start from the scratch again.
2. There should be a properly trained Accountant in Business to
supervise or support the professional preparation of financial
accounts to meet international standards, and that could help NUGS
in attracting international sponsorship
3. There should also be a professional accountant in practice (An
auditor) either external or internal to supervise the annual audit
board to professionally audit the accounts of NUGS.
4. Also, in addition to national officers, there should also be appointed
other leaders (For National Service for other offices like)
1. A Research Directorate, to be headed by a professional researcher as
Research Director
2. Transport officer to handle our transportation issues
3. Accommodation officer to be in charge of a successive agenda to
getting a permanent office and accommodation for National officers,
when they are on national duty.
4. Director for Early Childhood Education
5. Director for Basic Education
6. Director for Secondary Education
7. Director for Tertiary Education to coordinate the affairs of GUPS,
USAG, ‘GNUPS’ PUSAG, and other relevant student groups in Ghana
8. Director for international education, for students on international
scholarship
9. Director for Public Affairs who shall act as director for the Press and
Information Secretary who is the Minister for Communication for NUGS
When this done, then we can convince corporate Ghana as well as
other players in academia that we are poised as a strong institution
and serve as an example to the Ghanaian student leadership
fraternity.
1. 3. POLICIES
The following policies must also be put in place to ensure that the
Union is standing on its good feet
1. The financial procedures manual must be updated, and as part of
the manual, member institutions must present to NUGS every year
its budget/financial statement at the beginning and close of the year
to be certified by the appropriate School authority. When this is
done, the issue as to overstating or understating the number of
students will be a thing of the past and so the calculation of dues
will become easy.
2. A resolution must be passed by member institutions in Good
Standing whose dues pass through the school authorities to permit
NUGS to receive their dues from source that is from the University
itself. This will ensure that the Union is financially sound to
undertake its obligations.
3. National Officers should insist that officers on National Service must
be posted to NUGS because the workload is very high and requires
full time officers to perform.
1. 4. EDUCATION AND TRAINING
NUGS should organize accountability and leadership workshops
regularly for students and student leaders to enhance the quality of
personnel in order to ensure accountability in the National student
front.
1. 5. DECISION MAKING
Mr. Chairman, I would like to put on record that student leaders of
today have lost the basic understanding of leadership. Leadership is
to represent the interest and the voice of the people you serve and
not to Lord your own views on them. For instance, NUGS plans for a
demonstration and you hear member institutions dissociating
themselves from the decision, this clearly means that, the leadership
of NUGS is not representing what the students are asking for but
rather what they think they student want. Again, decisions like
demonstration and other decisions that exposes the union to the
public must pass through the mills of NUGS such as NEC (National
Executive Committee), CC (Central Committee), or Congress, but
when some national officers think they are best at making such
decisions, then they must be guided by the saying that “Two Heads
are Better than One” I do not fancy being heard, and NUGS should
not allow people to assume we are towing a party line.
Again, Local NUGS and SRC executives should also know that they
wield a lot of power in NUGS and as a matter of fact if they are not
there, there is no NUGS, so when things are going wrong, they
should not hesitate to call a spade a spade, like calling for
emergency CC or petitioning NEC on issues of concern. For instance
we lost our office during the last administration because we waited
forever for government through GETfund to furnish it for us. It looks
like we are repeating this same mistake. Again, government gives
NUGS a van without a driver and that is a repetition of the same
mistake that lead to our other van having an accident. And
Institutional Executives look on and say nothing. The Akans have an
adage that translate as “he who paves the way, knows not that his
back is crooked” “nea oretwa sa no onim sƹ nakyi akyea”. So we
shouldn’t sit unconcerned and wait till congress to sing the doom of
national officers, we must strike whiles the iron is hot.
CONCLUSION
Just like an independent state, students in Ghana have given their
sovereignty to NUGS, therefore ensuring accountability in the
student front, shaping student leaders across the country to become
better partners to national development should be a priority for
NUGS. There is a need for NUGS to restructure, and prepare herself
for the modern day global economy. I believe that the days of ‘aluta’
are long gone, and these days, the use of professional administrative
skills is what aids the governance of any group; but it looks like
NUGS has not metamorphosed to the current trend of doing things. I
believe that for NUGS to remain relevant for a foreseeable future
period, and not become a useless entity in three years, meticulous
steps towards a proper administered NUGS must be taken.
Thank You.
By Orchill Prince David
NUGS Representative to the National Youth Authority Board
0249774457/0203244855
nationalunionofghanastudents@gmail.com
For Copies, Contact: ghanastudent.blogspot.com
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