Dear Albert Anum,
I write to you as your fellow in the students political discourse. As a matter of comradeship, I crave your attention to pass commentary on your recently published article on awakenewsroom.com titled “Student Leaders Must Shun Partisan Politics”. I therefore pray thee that this short but very critical letter finds you well.
I pray thee to see this letter as an interactive session between us, one that could be traced to our cordiality as members of the Drive Agenda; that campaign agenda which brought Mr. Isaac Jay Hyde into office as 53rd NUGS President. I hope by this disposition, other readers would appreciate that the writer is not by any means intending to treat your article as insensate.
Let me despatch that I am particularly pleased seeing a student leader in our days suggest or recommend or advice his colleague student leaders to shun (deliberately avoid) partisan politics. Unfortunately, in as much as I share your concern, I aggressively dare disagree with same.
I would have however agreed if you said student leaders should draw dichotomy between student advocacy/activism and partisan politics, not necessarily avoiding the latter. It is highly possible to have a student leader engage in partisan politics yet perform his duties carefully and meaningfully without prejudice. It is a self conviction of what one stands for and how he/she wants to perform his duties.
In paragraph 4 of my article published in the second edition of ‘The University Lens’ titled “When Students Politics Marries National Partisan Politics, Political Infiltration Is Birthed”; I stated without regret that “we can still agree to some extent that political infiltration is a necessary evil in students politics”. I did not end without proving beyond debate and doubt why I hold such a belief.
Majority of the great African leaders on whose glory we pride ourselves in were once student leaders. Indeed, in as much they fought for students, they were also in one way or the other infiltrated by their national leaders and sometimes beyond their borders. It is a “godfather system” and nothing more. The way and manner we allow these godfathers to coercively direct us about is what I see as problematic but not the system itself.
For instance; Ladipo Solanke, a student from Nigeria became greatly inspired by Ghanaian Intellectual Caesly Hayford. He later championed the formation of the West African Students Union (WASU) in 1925. Having formed the union, he remained under the guidance of his mentor Caesly Hayford yet dichotomized his menteeship from the activities of WASU.
Regardless also, whatever knowledge he derived from Caesly Hayford, he redirected into building up the aspirations of the union he had championed as mouthpiece of West African Students in London. He engaged in both without losing sight of who he was in terms of WASU and his advocacy as a student leader. It is conscience and nothing else.
J.W De Graft Johnson, J.B Danquah, Kwame Nkrumah, Nnamdi Azikiwe, P.L Lumumba, Balewa, W.E Du Bois, and many others were student leaders who took active and serious part in the political happenings of their countries without been swayed away by the fortunes of it.
They understood what it meant to be a student advocate/activist and partisan party advocate/activist. They most often did both concurrently but with understanding of what they wanted and where they stood at what time. This is what student leaders of our time should learn. Again, it is conscience and nothing else.
It is highly impossible for our student leaders to desist from doing partisan politics, just as you even agreed in the opening lines of your article that “…partisan politics has come to stay with student leaders across the various university campuses in Ghana”. It has indeed come to stay and at best, we can only make efforts to redirect how this infiltration should be used to the advantage of the student leaders and Ghanaian students at large. Less it, we will only be engaged in a worthless stillbirth advocacy of what we think we know yet know not.
Sir Albert, I do appreciate your time spent in scripting your article. I also wish you well in your advocacy even as you spend efforts in advising your fellow student leaders. However, I would like that you understand, accept and appreciate that it is highly necessary for student leaders to engage in partisan politics. There is absolutely nothing evil about such engagements until one is led to betray the mandate and advocacy of the students. It is just conscience and nothing else.
Kind Regards,
Reindolf Amankwa
(Meritorious Service Award Recipient; Outstanding Student Blogger And A Student Activist In 2018 / Outstanding Alumni Student Activist, UDS-WA 2019)
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