KNUST Brouhaha: Vice Chancellor to be reinstated on Friday

The Vice Chancellor of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Prof. Kwasi Obiri-Danso, is set to be reinstated on yet-to-be reconstituted Governing Council this Friday.
This were among the major outcomes of a meeting between the government and the Chancellor of KNUST, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II as well and some stakeholders at the Manhyia Palace in Kumasi.
Deputy Education Minister, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum on Citi TV’s Point of View on Monday indicated that until the reinstatement of Prof. Obiri-Danso, the Pro Vice-Chancellor of the school will be in charge of the day-to-day affairs of the school.
The National President of the University Teachers Association of Ghana, Dr. Eric Opoku, who had earlier hinted of the reinstatement of the Vice Chancellor said the lecturers are excited about the decision, and are pleased that the Chancellor of the school is now leading efforts to reconstitute the school’s council and address all challenges that plunged it into a crisis.
He further announced that the KNUST chapter of UTAG which was striking over the exclusion of Prof. Obiri Danso from the school’s council will now back down and return to the classroom.
The government constituted an interim University council last week after it closed down KNUST over a violent student protest. It gave the council a three-month tenure to work towards addressing the impasse between students and the university management while making sure the University reopens before November 8, 2018.
The new council, which had seven members, was without the Vice Chancellor of KNUST but had the student body represented.
This generated a lot of controversies and caused agitation among various stakeholders including the lecturers, administrators, senior staff and education workers of KNUST with the lecturers and administers declaring an indefinite strike over the matter.
They insisted that they will not return to work until the Vice Chancellor was added to the council.
The government however surprisingly announced a day after the strike that it had added a representative each of UTAG and TEWU to the interim council.
Reports later suggested that both associations had rejected the offer from the government.
The aggrieved stakeholders, therefore, staged a demonstration on campus on Monday, October 29, 2018, as government issued a statement indicating that it had ordered the embattled Vice Chancellor to vacate his office at the University and hand over to the Pro Vice-Chancellor.