The Pro-Vice Chancellor for Academic and Students Affairs of the University of Ghana, Legon, Professor Kweku Osam has dismissed assertions that the introduction of a GHC 400 UG sticker is a means of getting back at commuters who vehemently opposed the toll system.
The University has restricted access into its campus to prevent commuters from using the institution as a thoroughfare.
The University suspended the tolling system which was introduced to control the number of vehicles using its roads and also to raise funds to pay off a bank loan acquired to rehabilitate the roads.
The tolling policy sparked an outrage which caused National Security officials to demolish the toll booths.
However, the school introduced a sticker system with the price pegged at GHC 400 for the public and GHC 50 for students with vehicles.
The implementation of the new policy which began on March 15 once again generated a public uproar as commuters and parents with their wards at the school’s primary section opposed the policy.
Members of Parliament and the Ministry of Education have all expressed concern about the new policy. The Ministry of Education asked the University to explain why it closed some of its roads to the public.
Even though the University has since responded to the Ministry, commuters claim the sticker policy is to extort money.
But speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show on Friday, Prof. Osam clarified that “this is not a warfare; the university has always had a sticker policy.”
He however bemoaned suggestions that the tolling system and the new sticker policy were mainly for generating funds to pay off their loan facility.
“We did it for three reasons; one was to try and control access, the second one was to raise money to pay the loan we had contracted and it was also to generate revenue to make sure that other roads within the campus are taken care of and other infrastructure,” he explained.
The Legon Pro-VC was of the opinion that there have been “too many knee-jerk reactions to this. When you take anybody’s convenience away from them, they will complain.”
He stated that it is imperative for government to balance “the interest of people who are seeking convenience as against the bigger interest of the institution which we should all be committed to building.”
By: Efua Idan Osam/citifmonline.com/Ghana