Interfering in student politics
Never in recent times has this country witnessed outright inferences in student politics by the central authority than this period when students’ union elections on campuses have always turned out to be very violent with their attendant consequences.
If it were not students’ elections at the Fourah Bay College campus, it will be at Njala or the Milton Margai College of Education and Technology or some other tertiary institution in the country.
Behind the veil of student politics lies the criminal involvement of some key members of the ruling elite who always forced their way through these elections to ensure that ‘their own’ candidate emerged as winner.
They start by manipulating the choice of a candidate, influence the voting process and where their candidate is losing ground will employ every trick at their disposal to disrupt the said election and declare it null and void.
In the process, the students either erupt into violence, causing bloody harm onto themselves or other innocent ones.
To complete their cycle of interference, these so-called political elites will forcefully impose a candidate of their choice on the body of the students through naked thuggery, thereby creating unnecessary tension which often leads to violent unrest in these college campuses.
The broader outcome is disruption of classes as the cases may be or individual students are made to pay the price through suspension or the like.
As a medium, we totally deplore this state of affairs regarding the violence associated with students’ elections.
Politicians should stop meddling in student politics. Give them the free hand to conduct their own affairs. It should not be the practice that each time students want to conduct their union elections members of the ruling party would unduly determine the flag bearer or who to be elected student leader.
There is always this foolish notion among politicians that it is only when they have their ‘own man’ at the helm of affairs in these colleges that their government becomes popular within the student community or can easily influence student policies to their advantage.
The recent incidents at MMCET and Njala, Bo campuses respectively demonstrate how petty but dangerous these politicians can be when it comes to elections of some sort.
Little surprising that general elections of any nature are never wholly free of violence, and the 2012 elections are no exception. Its high time politicians change this habit of interfering in students’ politics. Please, give democracy a chance!
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