The Students鈥� Representative Council has held the 2018 edition of its Leadership Summit for students of the University on the theme 鈥淭he Role of Student Leaders in Nation Building鈥�..
Speaking at the summit on the topic 鈥淪tudent Leaders as the Pioneers of Sustainable Development鈥�, the Minister for Information, Mr.聽Kojo聽Oppong聽Nkrumah, noted that in every society, leaders emerge adding that 鈥淚t is the nature of men to have leaders鈥�.
Elect Responsible Leaders
Mr. Nkrumah advised students against electing parochial interest in leadership saying 鈥淎 leader, who operates for parochial interests, will not be successful in this sustainable development exercise鈥�. 聽He indicated that it was only leaders who operated in the best interest of their group and were cognizant of the interest of other stakeholders would be successful in moving their people towards sustainable development. 鈥淎pproaching Democracy from this point of view will ensure that various positions of various stakeholders can be respectful, properly articulated and in the end each stake holder鈥檚 view can be accommodated in the final solution,鈥� he noted.
Leaders must Factor the Views of Stakeholders in Decision-Making
The Minister for information stated that 鈥淓xtremism and grandstanding has never been a model for building sustainable development. He said the best nations were built on accommodating divergent views. He stated that in his opinion, 鈥渢he true role of leaders, not just student leaders but all leaders in all facets of national life, ought to consistently engage with all stakeholders in accommodation each other鈥檚 positions, in finding middle ground so that we can move our various communities towards an improved quality of life without negatively affecting each other鈥檚 eco-system鈥�.
According to him, unfettered insistence on one鈥檚 position would often lead to conflict. To him, the sure way to avoid this was by grooming leaders to be able to satisfy multiple stakeholders. However, he noted that 鈥渙ver the years, the model of student leaders has been the model of the agitator, the聽championer聽of the cause, and the leader of the cause to oppose policies.鈥� He lamented that hardly do we highlight the model of the leader who was focused on building consensus, finding middle ground between entrenched positions, making progress, and focusing on the important substantive matters as against holding everything to ransom often over little side issues. He noted that the consequence was that 鈥減eople are demonstrating to future generations that leadership is about聽Aluta聽Continua, no compromise, and middle ground鈥�. He said such positions would lead to the creation of 鈥渦ngovernable society鈥�.
Government鈥檚 Position on Re-constitution of聽KNUST聽Council
Explaining government鈥檚 stance on the聽Kwame聽Nkrumah University of Science and Technology incidence, he stated that government had no intention of dictating who should serve on the Council of the University. He stated that government鈥檚 intention was to ensure that the parties involved in the incidence did not become judges to preside over the very incidence they were involved in. He also explained that government was engaging all parties in order to understand their stance and also let them understand that of the government for common ground to be reached.
The聽SRC聽honoured聽Mr. Nkrumah with a citation for his outstanding contributions to knowledge and human capacity building.
Chairman's Remarks
The Provost of the College of Agriculture and Natural Sciences, Prof. L. K.聽Sam-Amoah, who chaired the event聽 in his address thanked the Minister for Information for coming back to his alma mater to inspire his junior colleagues. 聽He noted that the keynote speaker for last year's Summit was the then Minister for Information, Dr聽Mustapha聽Abdul聽Hamid聽who is also an alumnus of UCC.聽
Prof.聽Sam-Amoah聽urged the students to put into practice the knowledge they have gained from the summit so that they could impact society in a positive way with their leadership skills.
Dignitaries who graced the Leadership Summit
The summit was graced by the Dean of Students鈥� Affairs, Eugene K. M.聽Darteh; legal practitioner, Dr. Lawyer Maurice聽Ampaw, former Director of UCC聽Counselling聽Centre, Prof. Linda聽Forde; Coordinator of the Fellowship of Evangelical Students, Mr. Victor聽Gyabaah, student leaders, some lecturers, traditional leaders, and students.
Courtesy Call on Vice-Chancellor聽
Earlier, Mr. Nkrumah paid a courtesy call on the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Joseph聽Ghartey聽Ampiah. Mr. Nkrumah assured the Vice-Chancellor that government would partner the University to introduce cross cutting聽programmes聽to help revamp the public sector.
Date of Event:听Friday, November 9, 2018