Emergency situations demand swift responses. We salute the decision of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) Council to lend their support to the law, to takes its course regarding the recent students-triggered bedlam on the campus of the tertiary institution.
No institution can progress without applicable laws or regulations. When freedom is abused to the extent that it threatens lives and property, it behooves authorities to step in with remedial actions as the council has done and announced.
Never again should KNUST or any tertiary institution in the country host such dangerous act of vandalism. And to think it was perpetuated by students, leaders of tomorrow, whose parents toiled to have them there and continue to spend money on them, beats imagination.
Abolishing some structures and supporting the law enforcement agency in its investigations, and the prosecution of those found culpable, is the way to go.
The measures taken by the council are intended without doubt to obviate future recurrence. There is nothing wrong with abolishing the Hall Week on campus if such dates on the students’ calendar are used to compromise the security of the university.
The ban and other measures taken should remain in force until such time that the authorities are satisfied that the unruly conduct of bad students is unlikely to recur.
As we pointed out in an earlier editorial, what unfolded on the campus of KNUST recently put the lives of innocent students and staff at risk. Indeed fatalities could have occurred considering the nature of the riots and the extent to which some of the rioters were ready to go but for the professional intervention of security agents.
The security operatives deployed to the campus operated under great strain even as their lives were at risk by students who even deactivated CTV cameras.
To be able to subdue the riotous students and restore normalcy, attested to the excellent performance of the cops.
Students should know their limits when it comes to campus freedom. Those who think being students is a licence to misbehave on campus, and go scot free should learn from how the law deals with those who will be found culpable in what happened recently.
Students should be counseled about the fallouts of overstretching the boundaries of youth exuberance lest they clash with the law as some of their colleagues are going to do soon.
With the council justifiably standing shoulder to shoulder with the laws of the land, with no option available to them anyway, external interference that could compromise the judicial process should be avoided.
Toxic commentaries on radio should be avoided as the law takes its course. Our country, after all, is ruled by laws and not whims and caprices.