We need amicable solution to Legon road toll impasse
We are revisiting the Legon road toll issue because we see it as a trigger for students’ unrest on campus.
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The Daily Graphic is aware the University of Ghana has begun the collection of road tolls, despite a legal challenge to its action.
The action has been brought by two students of the university against the authorities, in their capacity as Ghanaians, praying the Supreme Court to stop the university from charging the said road tolls.
The university is being sued as an entity, while the Attorney-General has been joined to the suit.
Although a date is yet to be fixed for the hearing of the writ, we believe that under the present circumstances, the university authorities should have stayed action on its plans pending the outcome of the court suit.
As things stand now, the student body is strongly against the tolls, while the leadership of the institution is bent on having its way.
Much as we believe the university has a good reason for the introduction of the tolls, which is to aid the institute to internally generate the much-needed funds to ensure its smooth running, we are against the imposition of any sort of levy that will only seek to create animosity between the school authorities and the student body.
In the not-too-distant past, we had similar instances of misunderstanding between students and the authorities, which only resulted in making the institution of higher learning ungovernable.
Such occurrences, in most cases, ended up in a complete shutdown of the university, thereby disrupting academic work.
Parents, who have borne the brunt during those unpleasant periods of waiting and uncertainty, would certainly not be enthused about the developments on the university campus
The Daily Graphic, therefore, prays the authorities to use dialogue to let the student body appreciate the need for the tolls and have a say in how the institution they attend is run.
Whenever stakeholders do not feel a sense of ownership of a programme, they see the initiative as an imposition.
We are of the opinion that we have long gone past the period when everything was imposed on the people to swallow hook, line and sinker.
What we also find very troubling is the high rate of the tolls being collected at the booths. We see the toll of GH¢2 for entry and the same for exit for commercial drivers, GH¢1 for private car drivers, including students, and GH¢3 for heavy duty trucks to be rather on the high side and an infringement on the statute.
When even the Ghana Highway Authority rates are 50Gp for cars and GH¢1 for cross-country vehicles and minibuses, we wonder what informed the rates being charged by the University of Ghana for the use of its roads.
The Daily Graphic joins the many taxi drivers who ply the university’s routes and the student body in their call on the authorities to quickly reverse their decision on the tolls, so that it does not have a negative effect on the work of both the students and the drivers on campus.
Already, the drivers who convey passengers to various parts of the campus for a fare of GH¢3 now charge GH¢6, while those who charged GH¢1 now take GH¢1.50 or GH¢1.70.
This definitely portends some grave challenges for meaningful academic work and the earlier an amicable solution is found, the better it would be for not only the University of Ghana but also other schools of higher learning which may be encouraged to emulate Legon’s example.