Tension Mounts At Tamale Poly

Posted: Daily Guide |Monday, 15 March 2010

By Charles Takyi-Boadu
GOVERNMENT MAY have to intervene before deep-seated and growing tensions on the campus of Tamale Polytechnic escalate into angry demonstrations.

Credible information gathered by DAILY GUIDE indicates that both teaching and non-teaching staff of the school are gearing up for what looks like an angry demonstration over the continuous stay in office of the Rector, Dr Yakubu Seidu Peligah, since his tenure of office elapsed on February 28, 2010.

The angry staff have thus written a petition to President John Evans Atta Mills, copies of which have been sent to the Minister of Education, Alex Tettey-Enyo, the school’s Governing Council and other concerned institutions, to take steps to remove Dr Peligah or they would be compelled by circumstance to cause his forceful removal.

“Your Excellency, your early intervention in this matter is very necessary to avert the loaming mayhem in the Polytechnic,” they noted in the petition.

If the situation is not remedied before the commencement of the second semester, staff of the Polytechnic have vowed to use “all available means” to seek redress.

Whilst appreciating the fact that the Governing Council can, in consultation with stakeholders, appoint and disappoint officers of the Polytechnic, the staff noted that the unilateral exercise of power by the Council Chairman, Dr Mohammed Seidu Mustapha, to extend Dr Peligah’s term of office was unacceptable.

However, Dr Peligah has declined to comment on the petition and the series of allegations leveled against him by his own staff.

When DAILY GUIDE reached him for his comments, he noted, “Whatever anybody has done, it is left to the President”, and declined to make any further comments on the matter.

Chairman of the Polytechnic Council, Dr Seidu Mustapha, has also refused to speak to the issue.

When he was reached, Dr Mustapha said he was at a programme and therefore asked DAILY GUIDE to call him later but has since refused to answer his mobile phone.

In the petition, the staff catalogued a wide range of issues and reasons why they believe the rector must go without a renewal of his four-year mandate.

They alleged, among other things, that Dr Peligah’s tenure of office was characterized by embezzlement, wrongful terminations of appointments, student and labour unrests, and several acts of alleged financial malpractices, which they said have been proven by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO).

The staff therefore stressed the belief that an extension of Dr. Peligah’s tenure by the new chairman of the Governing Council, Dr Mustapha, will fuel the existing tension and job security of some staff of the Polytechnic who have been critical of his administration.

“The action of the Council chair has the greatest tendency of throwing the already ailing Polytechnic into chaos,” they noted, emphasizing that “from all indications, the leadership of the governing council and some individuals in the Ministry of Education wish to use the supposed unavailability of the Alemna Report to renew Peligah’s appointment for two years or more.”

Suspicions are that some members of the Polytechnic’s Governing Council are employing all available tricks to extend Dr. Peligah’s appointment whilst others are against it in view of the several issues it has generated in the campus.

According to the aggrieved staff, the Dr. Mustapha’s decision to extend Dr Peligah’s appointment is a heavy indictment on the reputations of his senior colleagues, Dr. Sulley Gariba and Professor Alemna, since according to them, before Dr. Gariba’s resignation, a professional and scholarly assessment of the problems of the Polytechnic was carried out without placing premium on religious and ethnic considerations, but purely based on Dr Peligah administrative record.

For this reason, they noted, “Circumventing the wheel is a recipe for mediocrity.”

They have therefore asked Dr Mustapha to, as matter of urgency, rescind his decision to extend Dr Peligah’s appointment since “the criterion for a second term of office is never dependent on how a Council chair is being pushed around by lobbyists but by satisfactory performance, as contained in Paragraph Seven of Peligah’s appointment letter.”

That notwithstanding, they noted, “His decision to impose the rector on staff and students of the polytechnic is overstretching people’s patience in the Polytechnic”, emphasizing, “His imposition also makes mockery of the scholarly work of Professor Alemna and others.”