Historic meeting: Vandals , Katangese, Continentals and Casfodians

What has been described as the historic meeting amongst the tertiary students in Ghana as social media went wild on the alleged conversion of University Hall and Unity Hall into a mixed Hall.

This meeting was aim at ending the rivalry and clashes amongst the Male Tertiary Students and refocus the attention to National and Students activism.

Sources shows that, the Alumni body of the Male Halls in the respective Universities had no rivalry whatsoever. This was evident in the 2017 Old Vandals reunion get together in the United Kingdom where some Alumni of Unity Hall and University Hall were present to celebrate the reunion.




Surprisingly, most of the current students to a large extent have friends and families in the other Universities.

Speaking to one of the participants at the meeting who noted his name as Kojo Benson, he expressed his appreciation to all the various leadership of the Male Halls in the Universities for taking the initiative to resolve such clashes and also stand with University Hall and Unity Hall as KNUST Management plans to convert the Hall into a missed Hall.

“Am very much excited to see these day. We are one people, however we find ourselves in unhealthy rivalry. Some of us came from the same Senior High Schools , some of us have brothers in Vandal City , Katanga among others. I must thank the leadership of the various Hall present for just bold step to curb those clashes and also standby Katanga and Conti to kick against making the Halls a mixed Hall” Benson said.

Meanwhile, the leadership of the Halls after the meeting issued a press release for a United Front.

Check below:

Press release
UNITED FRONT; TOGETHER AS ONE
UNIVERSITY HALL, COMMONWEALTH HALL, UNITY HALL AND CASLEY HAYFORD HALL

Universities worldwide are centers and engines of growth but the general politicization of the educational system of Ghana, has polarized the gains of advance education to the detriment of the nation and citizenry. The climax of this, are the numerous social problems we face as students and Ghanaians.

As students and affiliates of these male Halls and other sister Halls, our inputs to these problems cannot be overemphasized. The unhealthy rivalry that has over years weakened our core values, have shattered the dreams of most students who get paralyzed or injured whenever there are clashes. It has also undermined the security of students making our campuses and universities unsafe for inter-halls and inter-university programs.

Similarly, the life of student leaders of these Halls are a living hell since most of them are either rusticated or their certificates are withheld as scapegoats.

The scars of these negativities, if not curtailed will plunge the nation into a national crisis that will divert our resources from nation building to unprofitable expenses.

Today, this conference has ushered us into one fraternity in an attempt to halt these unhealthy rivalries. In view of this, the male Hall fraternities throughout the country, with the aid of Young Africans for Opportunities, will deliberate and consider possible plans of forming an all-male Halls fraternity.

Secondly, there will be recreational activities between these Halls as the genesis of promoting healthy relationship between these Halls.

A general platform will also be created to bridge the communication gap between these Halls. The fruition of this platform will offer other rivalry Halls the opportunity to attend programs of other sister Halls without fear of being injured.

Also, Capacity building initiatives would be enrolled to make sure that member institutions equip themselves to be effective in discharging their duties as well as championing the cause of this conference. A committee has will be formed to champion the course of this fraternity.

As affiliates of these Halls, we cannot pretend to be ignorant of the recent developments in KNUST. The political attempts by university authorities to convert the University Hall and Unity Hall which are all-male Halls into mixed Halls under the beguiling intents of promoting female education.

As a nation, the culture of reactivity has decayed far too deep into our cultural fabric and we believe our institutions of higher learning should rather be proactive. The attempt to convert these male Halls is solely to facilitate managements’ dictatorial regimes across our universities since the SRC, NUGS and USAG have failed as students’ mouthpieces.

As was attempted in UCC and UG, the current happenings in KNUST if not overruled, will make our wards orphans in KNUST because when the going gets tough, it is these Halls that lead the emancipation call.

The beauty of KNUST which is the only university currently with two male Halls is about fading. The male Halls have been the only source of activism for student organization which includes NUGs and SRCs. These student associations were formed to champion students course but in reality they have been very bureaucratic in dealing with students’ issues for their own political gains, even though its purpose is not for political gains but students’ welfare.

As a wake-up call, we are calling on NUGs, SRCs as well as USAG to revisit their core objectives by serving students interest, the conversion of Katanga and Unity Hall is no different.

Long live Vandals,
Long live Katangese,
Long live Continentals and
Long live Casfordians.