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Presidents John Daramani Mahama’s cold but comely features and public utterances on the varied strikes and threat of protest against one treatment or the other is gradually dragging him deeper into a nightmarish scene, such that public confidence in the executive is heading into an all time low.

The latest to add on to the already sleepless nights the President might be having is the students front-Graduate Students’ Association of Ghana ((GRASAG).

The student body is threatening a showdown with government over their thesis and bursary grants, which they say has been delayed for a whole year. “We are hereby calling on government to release funds for the payment of bursaries and thesis grants for the 2014/15 academic year in the next two weeks”, the students said.

For starters, GRASAG National has instructed member institutions “not to accept or tolerate any government functionaries on official duties on their respective campuses if we do not hear from government within the said period”.

According to GRASAG, over 50% of the graduate students countrywide were unable to submit their thesis for graduation due to government’s delay in paying their thesis and bursary grants for the 2014/2015 academic year.

A statement signed by GRASAG President, Raymond Ayilu, following the Association’s 21st Annual Delegates’ Congress held at the University of Mines and Technology, Tarkwa, in the Western Region read in part, that “In our opinion, there is a conscious effort by some members of government to delay and deny post graduate students the very-necessary funding for research. We have tried relentlessly since the start of this academic year to get funds released from government for the payment of bursaries but to no avail”.

Read the full statement below:

PRESS RELEASE BY THE GRADUATE STUDENTS’ ASSOCIATION OF GHANA (GRASAG) AT ITS 21ST ANNUAL DELEGATES CONGRESS ON THE PAYMENT OF THESIS AND BURSARY GRANT FOR THE 2014/15 ACADEMIC YEAR

The Graduate Students Association of Ghana at its 21st Annual Delegates Congress held at University of Mines and Technology, Tarkwa expressed dissatisfaction and frustration at the unwillingness of government to pay thesis and bursary grant due post graduate students for the 2014/15 academic year.

This frustration and dissatisfaction were expressed as a result of the challenges and hardships students are faced with in their various research endeavours. Over fifty percent (50%) of Graduate Students have been unable to submit their thesis for graduation due to the apparent refusal of government to release funds in that regard. This is the first time bursaries and thesis grants have been delayed this long.

In our opinion, there is a conscious effort by some members of government to delay and deny post graduate students the very-necessary funding for research. We have tried relentlessly since the start of this academic year to get funds released from government for the payment of bursaries but to no avail. Our recent press conference to plead with government has obviously fallen on deaf ears. These and many more reasons have informed our chosen course of action.


To all post graduate students of Ghana and well-meaning Ghanaians, please be informed that plans are being put in place for a massive protest if there is no clear timeline for the payment of the thesis and bursary grants by two (2) weeks starting from today Monday the 11th of August, 2015.

We call on the various stakeholders in the post graduate education delivery such as Ministry of Education, The National Council for Tertiary Education(NCTE), Vice Chancellors Ghana(VCG), University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) to add their voice to our call on government to immediately release the funds allocated for the purposes of paying bursary and research grant

Also, Congress has instructed all member institutions not to accept or tolerate any government functionaries on official duties on their respective campuses if we do not hear from government within the said period.


Worst still, Members of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) have voted at crucial General Assembly meeting last Friday, to remain on strike for two more weeks.

They have however agreed not to resign en masse as threatened by their leadership two weeks ago over an absence of documents on their conditions of service.

At the meeting in Accra, 213 doctors voted for the status quo, while 148 voted to resume duty. That is by a margin of 65 votes, the doctors voted to continue the strike that is set to enter its third week.

Stay tuned.