By Mustapha Sesay
The deputy vice chancellor of Fourah Bay College, Prof. Sahr Philip Gbamanja, has said that they will ban all taxis not roadworthy, from plying the road to campus on Mount Aureol. A move that has been roundly condemned by taxi drivers.
Prof Gbamanja made this statement while commissioning two new buses.
“The college will only allow 15 taxis to take students to and from the college campus [and] We are going to stop all motor bikes from coming here”, he said, adding that the decision was to minimise the "unruly" behaviour of bike riders who sometimes had attacked lecturers.
Prof. Gbamanja put the cost of the two buses at Le 680 million and stressed that the amount had come directly from the college with no government assistance.
He also said that two other vehicles were also being bought for administrative use and encouraged beneficiaries to handle the buses with care because they owned it.
President of the academic staff association, Dr. Charles Silver, called on students “to take the opportunity and make it a turning point as everything we do is being evaluated by the government based on the performance contract we signed”. He admonished them to be united irrespective of their ideological differences in a way that would enhance the reputation of the college.
Meanwhile, taxi drivers at Model Junction said they would oppose the decision.
“We feel betrayed and disappointed”, said the deputy chairman of the drivers’ association, Samuel Dauphin.
He told Politico that they had had a very cordial working relationship with the college and had provided transport service for both students and the staff for several years.
“We should be commended for our services, especially without major accidents. I don’t want to say that they are ungrateful but they are not far from being that. We are very much disappointed at the statement of the DVC and we feel betrayed" he chided, urging the college administration to reverse its decision.
Dauphin said however that they had not been officially informed by the college authority about the decision as they would usually do by calling them to find a way out in such matters. He said they had been very cooperative in the past, even when there were students’ union buses.
He explained that they didn’t only provide services for the college but they had also transported people who stayed in communities around the college with more population than the college’s.
(C) Politico 13/02/14
