Folks, if your mother is dead and you claim she is asleep, as soon as the stench from her dead carcass starts singing hallelujah, you will be the first to hear it loud even in your slumber. In the same vein, if you carry a bag of pebbles on your head and pretends it is a bag of cotton, the truth will be revealed by the sweat of blood from your spinal cord.
Citizens of Kwame Nkrumah’s Ghana, I come your way not as a Spectator but as a Citizen and a patriotic one for that matter. As a [ads1]citizen who is nowhere close to the corridors of power to change or correct things when they are going bad, the best I can do in this regard is to talk or write. Therefore I have decided to talk, to draw government’s attention to their failure to announce the death of The Students Loan Trust Fund which happens to be the beloved father of most Ghanaian students both home and abroad.
Fellow citizens, we were in this country and we saw what happened to Ghana Airways. When she was sick, we all pretended all was well until she died and was silently buried at midnight only for us to join in the shedding of tears at down. Those tears remain in on our eyes till now. Meanwhile, it is still fresh on our minds how an NPP government superintended the burial and funeral rites of Ghana Airways. Then comes into mind the demise of Ghana Telecom and a couple of other state agencies and institutions. This, we know that the NPP has a history of “the mysterious death” of state agencies and institutions whenever the elephant party is in power.
Currently a number of state agencies and institutions are on their sick beds in the ICU. Mention can be made of the Ghana Railways Authority, the Health Insurance Scheme is a walking ghost and the one which is most dear to me as a student, is the “Students Loan Trust Fund”.
Some years ago, the Students Loan Trust Fund was established by visionary leaders who saw the need for students who do not have the financial resource to pursue tertiary education to leverage on the support of this scheme to pursue their dreams. The Students Loan Trust Fund was more than a saviour to thousands of Ghanaian students who, hitherto, couldn’t have gone further on the ladder of academics to become instruments of change not only for Nkrumah’s Ghana but for the world at large.
The Students Loan Trust Fund was delivering on its mandate until another history making NPP government ascends the throne of power. Just like every other year, students pursuing higher education in Ghana applied for government loan through the Students Loan Trust Fund in this academic year to enable them pay their fees for the academic year as usual. By practice, funds are released before the commencement of the academic year.
But this academic (2018/19)year, the story is different. We are in November and monies have not been released for students to pay their fees and register for exams.
Let me be quick to add that the deadline for the registration of courses has far elapsed and a lot of students in the various tertiary institutions across the country have since not register their courses. What it means is that those students are likely to defer their courses and that is likely to see the end of their education. The online portal for new registrations for loans has also remained closed, putting the fate of students on the balance.
Nonetheless, symptoms of this sickness /death was experienced last academic year (2017/2018) where loans were withheld for a long time before they were released.
To add up to this frustrating moments for some students in the country, the authorities of the Students Loan Trust Fund have not communicated to these students what actually is causing the delay in the release of the loans.
Could it be that this loan is now channelled to funding the “FREE SHS” as the response to the new financial order of the day?
Are monies going to be released for students to pay their fees or they should take it that this is the end of their education?
By this, I am asking government to come out and tell us the true state of the Students Loan Trust Fund.
Bright Nudokpo-Honu
0241839016