By Newman Anthony Levey in Bo
A planned protest by students of Njala University Bo campus was foiled by the Sierra Leone Police who stormed the two locations of the campus in the city on Tuesday.
The police who said they were acting on intelligence, prevented the students from gathering.
The planned protest is a result of an ongoing industrial action by the Academic Staff Association (ASA) of the university, which was itself provoked by allegations that the Ministry of Technical and Higher Education flouted the University Act of 2005 with regards the appointment of two of their colleagues as Deputy Vice Chancellors for the two campuses in Bo and Njala.
The staff association, in a January 30th 2020 press statement, signed by its Secretary General, Abubaker Sheriff, warned its membership to resume their earlier staged strike action since the relevant authorities had failed to address their concerns.
The statement cited a letter written by the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Technical and Higher Education to the Vice Chancellor and Principal of Njala University, affirming the appointment of Dr Saidu Challey as Deputy Vice Chancellor for Bo campus and Dr Joseph Sherman Kamara as Deputy Vice Chancellor for the Njala campus.
“This clearly shows that the Ministry of Technical and Higher Education is not ready to reverse the appointment to the DVC’s office of Njala University and because of the gross violation of the University Act, ASA has no other option but to resume industrial action,” it reads.
The ASA statement ordered all its members, including executive, plenary, deans and heads of departments and directors to resume full industrial action at 7am on the 31st of January. It said the strike action should remain until the “illegally appointed DVCs” were removed from office.
The students considered the development as a setback to their academic activities, with some of them preparing for their convocation ceremony.
Continuing students were expecting to start their first semester examination in March.
The students said they wanted to send a message to the government about the implication of the lecturers’ strike on their academic journey.
Semion Williams, a student, said: "I am not happy with the strike action. We never knew of the strike. I only knew when I went to campus on Friday. The more the strike prolongs, the more we stay home and we are expecting first semester exam in March," he lamented.
The students called on the government to speedily look into the issue, noting that it was unacceptable that there was no learning going on even though they had paid their fees.
Aminata Kanneh, a parent, wondered why Njala University lecturers were frequently on strike, even when the former ASA President, Dr. Turad Senesie, is now Deputy Minister of Technical and Higher Education.
James Musa, Local Unit Commander (LUC) of Bo West Police station, told Politico that they understood that the students were only intending to gather to make media statements. He said there were no arrest made because there was no protest.
“I contacted one of the students who told me that they gathered for the media houses to hear their concerns and nothing else. No arrest was made as the protest did not hold,” Musa said.
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