The Private Universities’ Students Association of Ghana (PUSAG), has denounced the heckling of public officials by the youth and students across the country and appealed to them to exercise restraint.
Speaking to the Ghana News Agency in Accra, on Wednesday, Mr Raphael Apetorgbor, the Media Relations Officer of PUSAG, said “what happened recently to Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, Vice Presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party and Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Deputy Minister of Education in-charge of Tertiary Education, should be condemned because such behaviour towards public officials is not right”.
It would be recalled that some students of the Akatsi College of Education and Ho Polytechnic last week disrupted a planned lecture by Dr Bawumia on their campuses.
Dr Bawumia was scheduled to give a lecture on the impact of the International Monetary Fund bailout on the Ghanaian economy at the schools, as part of his tour of the Volta Region. However, some students started a protest against the lecture even before it could take off.
The action came days after some government officials including Mr Ablakwa were heckled and stopped from addressing some teacher trainees at the Wesley College in Kumasi.
Describing the incidence as “indiscipline”, Mr Apetorgbor said: “Whether it is our friend or foe who have refused to listen to our grievance from government A, B or C across the length and breadth of this country, everybody needs to exercise restraint.”
He urged the youth “not to allow violence either in their physicality or language to become a power in addressing their grievances or political discourse”.
“Every student movement has a responsibility to maintain the discipline in channeling our grievances in an effort to build comradeship, peace and support with our leaders,” Mr Apetorgbor noted.
He said as leaders of tomorrow, students and the youth should not allow themselves to be used by anybody for selfish interests.
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