The media alleged that some students who were not fortunate to get beds were buying beds from their fellow students at prices ranging between ¢3 million to ¢8 million.  The news was so disturbing that it attracted the attention of the ordinary man in the street to comment on the situation.

As a fresh graduate from the same university, the news did not come to me as a surprise at all.  My initial reaction was a chuckle.  Sometimes, the pretense and the shear hypocrisy by some members of the civil society are simply amazing.  The issue became the focus of discussion as if we were hearing it for the first time.

The issue of students selling beds has been with us for the past six or seven years and all we do is to make deafening noise about it in the media, then the matter dies.  It is sometimes not only annoying but simply gut-wrenching to hear university authorities claiming that all efforts are being made to punish those involved.

Unfortunately for those who make such claims, we see nothing but a repetition of such exploitative acts by some students in subsequent academic years.

The haste with which the civil society sometimes criticize students who are engaged in such exploitative acts is rather unfortunate.  What is bad obviously must be condemned but in our haste to condemn, our approach must be holistic and fair to the issues.  What some of the students are doing is obviously bad but who created the environment for them to operate in such a manner?

Where are the authorities that are to ensure sanity, fairness and discipline in the school?  It appears that the university authorities have lost control over events unfolding on the campuses and they appear to have no answers to them at all.  W. B. Yeat’s assertion; “Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold, mere anarchy is loosed upon the world”, sounds to me like a prophecy being fulfilled on the University of Ghana campus.

If for the past five years this problem has been with us and there are no indications that it will ever go, where lies the genuineness of our leaders when they tell us that plans are under way to forestall such occurrences.  What is going on is simply terrible and there is no way we should throw our hands in despair.  Probably, the laxity of our university authorities to deal with the issue as a major crisis is contributory to its escalating condition.

Like the Nigerian proverb says, “The horns cannot be too heavy for the head of the cow that must bear them,”  if there is a time for the authorities to hold the bull by the horns and deal with the situation, then it is now.  

I believe that the time has come for the alarm bells to be ringing signalling those unscrupulous students involved to take heed lest they fall.  What is going on at Legon is like a black market trade, which should be foiled with immediate effect.  Just think about this! What kind of leaders would such students become in the future? 

God help us!!
Philip Acquaye,
Student, G.I.J.