By Madi Jobarteh
Since March 1, the members of the UTG Staff Association have been on a sit-down strike in protest against the irresponsible and callous decision of the Senior Management Team to purchase only six vehicles costing up to eight million dalasi. These vehicles were bought not because there exists no vehicles at all for the members of the Senior Management Team. These vehicles were bought not because the university has adequate resources to spend on such luxury. These vehicles were bought not because the conditions of life and teaching are conducive at the UTG. Rather these vehicles were bought at a time when the UTG is probably the most deplorable higher educational institution in the world with the poorest facilities imaginable. How therefore can the UTG SMT defend such a decision?
One has to visit the Brikama Camps to realize that this campus demands urgent attention. Practically there are no well functioning services and no well-kept structures in the entire campus. Similarly the Faraba campus remains stagnant in the middle of nowhere without even the necessary perimeter fence. Services such as water, electricity and Internet as well as proper transportation services for students remain utterly poor and erratic. The entire infrastructure at Brikama campus is falling down. Yet this is the university that should produce the technocrats who would produce the ideas that must deliver the Gambia to higher standards of development.
The decision by the SMT is completely unbecoming of a leadership that has the interest and the commitment of its institution and its members at heart. Already the members of the SMT enjoy better pay and other incentives. They already have usable vehicles. Yet these people have not only failed to consider and associate themselves with the plight of their own institution, but would go ahead to spend so much money on goods that add absolutely no value to either their own performance or to the conditions of the institution they claim to proudly lead and manage.
I wish to join the members of the UTG Staff Association on their sit-down strike until their demands are met in full. I wish to call on all students of the UTG to stand with these lecturers because the position taken by the lecturers is in fact in the best interest of the student. These lecturers are standing for the judicious use of public resources and the wellbeing of students, and therefore all students and Gambians must stand with them that indeed waste of public resources and impunity will not be tolerated anymore in the Gambia.
In this same vein, I wish to call on the UTG Governing Council to take urgent steps in support of the Staff Association and ensure efficient and accountable management at UTG. Contrary to the erroneous analysis by Dr. Henry Carroll, the members of the UTG Staff Association have a right to engage in an industrial action which is an international human rights norm sanctioned by the International Labour Organization to which the Gambia is a party. Under our Constitution, Section 25 subsection 1(d) guarantees the right of the Staff Association to demonstrate peaceably. Hence no one can force or threaten the members of the Association with dismissal or reprisals for their action. Rather the Governing Council must explain how they could approve such expenditure when they know the conditions at the UTG.
I wish to call on the Minister for Higher Education (MOHERST) to immediately attend to the concerns of the UTGSA and students by addressing these genuine and legitimate concerns. Both the Governing Council and MOHERST must take this matter to the Office of the President, which is the Chancellor of UTG to address this matter. The SMT must be dismantled and a new and competent person appointed as Vice Chancellor. The UTG Senate, responsible for academic affairs must step in to ensure that these concerns are addressed so as to put a halt to the disruption of lectures.
Failure of the Senate and the Governing Council as well as MOHERST to address these concerns through the Chancellor who is the President of the Republic tantamount to neglect of duties and abuse of power on their part. This is because this is a legitimate matter which falls within their jurisdiction hence they must respond to the matter with urgency. Any day this sit-down strike goes on, it is entirely the responsibility of the Senate, the Governing Council and MOHERST, which is also a direct violation of the rights of the students.
All Gambians must call on the two Vice Chancellors and members of the SMT to resign and account for the use of such huge amount of money for their own self-aggrandizement. They must be held to account to justify the decision to purchase these vehicles at such exorbitant price when their university is beset with basic survival needs. One has no choice but to feel ashamed and disheartened when one visits the UTG campuses especially in Brikama. The toilets alone are an insult to one’s humanity! Therefore let the SMT resign now and account for this terrible decision. Eight million dalasi is more than enough resources that could have upgraded UTG facilities and services to acceptable international standards. Hence it beats one’s imagination that the SMT would not find pride in investing in their own university to bring it that standard but to seek to satisfy their own selfish interests.
With such money, they could have entered into a contract with any Internet service provider in the country to make the entire UTG a Wi-Fi-free zone for students to improve their research opportunities. Alternatively they could invest in the UTG’s own ICT facilities to provide Internet for itself. This is what one finds in places that call themselves universities around the world. With that amount of money, the SMT could have provided excellent landscaping of the Brikama campus conducive for teaching and learning. With that amount of money, the SMT could have set up student business centres such as photocopying services, groceries and bookstores or stationery supplies among other income generating services to address student needs. With that amount of money, the SMT could have provided entertainment and sporting facilities and other social services with a standby generator necessary to enhance student life.
Eighteen years ago I finished my studies at the University of Ghana in Accra. My campus had reasonably well-kept and excellent sporting facilities, minimarkets, radio stations, bars and restaurants, nightclubs, banks, decent hostels, conducive classrooms and beautifully lush landscape among others. Today when I visit Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, I see such facilities and services. But when I visit UTG campus, I am disheartened that my daughter has to contend with such non-existent or poor facilities in 2017! The issue is not that the resources are not available at the UTG. Rather the resources are available, just that some educated adults in the SMT think that these kids do not deserve these same facilities they themselves enjoyed ages ago when they were in university. How could these SMT folks therefore deny our children these basic facilities only to divert the resources to satisfy their own greed? This is criminal.
SMT Resign Now.
God Bless The Gambia.
