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Sierra Leone: Between Njala University College And Education Ministry
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Concord Times (Freetown)
OPINION
25 July 2008
Posted to the web 25 July 2008
Pel Koroma
The 26th of May 2008 was the last day lecturers at Njala University received their salaries. Since then, the ministry of education has failed to understand that the lecturers and the university should be treated with primacy and respect.
These lecturers, though still performing their academic roles at the university, are very unhappy with the ministry of education for not paying them their salary since the month of May saying they have been denied their rightful dues.
Even though the education ministry has advanced reasons for the delay, most of the lecturers affected believe it is political.
The rift reportedly stemmed from the strained relationship between the Chancellor of the university, Professor Alghali and his deputy, Professor Kpamanja.
These two key figures have not been conforming to each other. Some blame have been partially allotted to Prof. Alghali who is believed to be highhanded and authoritative.
These attitudes of Prof. Alghali are said to have hindered his good working relationship with his colleagues.
It was alleged that in one of the senate meetings, Prof. Alghali attempted to humiliate Prof. Kpamanja to the surprise of the other members. Some say the bone of contention was really trivial that it should not have warranted Prof. Alghali to come down so hard on his colleague. On the other hand, Prof. Kpamanja did not take the behavior of Prof. Alghali kindly especially the insults rained on him.
It was gathered that Prof. Kpamanja wrote a letter of complaint to the university authority regarding the incident where he highlighted the misuse of words on him by Prof. Alghali.
As a result of this petition, Prof. Alghali came under very serious pressure from the powers-that-be which is never unconnected to his sacking. It is believed that political weight descended on the matter to propel the acceleration of the case levied against Prof. Alghali. It is also believed that Prof. Kpamanja's affiliation to the Vice President and the First Lady gave his case more impetus.
According to sources, all university senators who were present when the scuffle ensued between the two professors were summoned before the university authority to trash out the impasse.
It was Dr. Sandy Boakry who had the guts to say the truth of what really transpired on that fateful day because judgement was passed based on his explanation. He confirmed that Prof. Alghali was unruly to Prof. Kpamanja. At this juncture, Prof. Alghali was instructed to write a letter of apology to Prof. Kpamanja. But Prof. Alghali refused to apologize onto his dismissal as head of the university.
His denial to write and say sorry to Prof. Kpamanja opened the Pandora's Box. Prof. Alghali was immediately asked by the ministry of education to provide vital information pertaining to the running of the university.
According to sources, documents provided by Prof. Alghali did not correlate with those produced by his deputy. The difference led to the ministry's decision to shelve some masters' degree courses from Njala University curriculum.
The argument is that these courses are offered at Fourah Bay College and Institute of Public Administration Management (IPAM). The masters' programme in social sciences will have a setback on Njala University for no tangible reason other than political.
The decision has angered the deans who painstakingly designed these programmes based on international standard. In fact, people strongly believe it is a violation of the University Act - which prohibits ministry of education from such a draconian act of shelving courses from universities at will. It is clear that the ministry can recommend for or against a course but not out rightly taking the decision to remove a programme unilaterally.
The university has, in turn, presented all their masters programmes in the social sciences, list of lecturers as a proof that the programme is within their reach. Njala University is capable of handling all their courses if it has the utmost free hands in the running of the university.
I think the political interplay among senior lecturers is disturbing the lives of people including the lecturers themselves.
Now lecturers have not been paid for the month of June and their hope for July is very slim and most of them believe it should never be like that. It is all political. The fact of the matter is, the verification has been done since last year and there should not be any reason for the delay.
Lecturers argue that there was an agreement with the last government that they should repudiate any arrangement for salaries spanning the fifth day of any subsequent month. Suffice to say that these lecturers have the right to down tools.
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Most lecturers are pleading for fair play in the pursuance of education as a development agenda. Sources indicate that the newly appointed head of the university, Prof. Rowe, is not too keen about taking the job. It was disclosed that his research programmes are more challenging to him than leading the university. It is not yet clear whether he will yield to the call of the president.
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