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Claim:On March 13, 2024, the Ministry of Information, the sector’s minister, and other sources claimed that the University Court of Sierra Leone was reconstituted.
Verdict: False! The University Court is yet to be reconstituted. Multiple sources, including the University’s Director of Communications, told DUBAWA.
Full Text
The University of Sierra Leone is a public national university owned by the government of Sierra Leone. It comprises Fourah Bay College (FBC), which is said to be the first institution of higher learning in modern sub-Saharan Africa, established in 1827. It also includes the Institute of Public Administration and Management (IPAM), and the College of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences (COMAHS).
According to Section 11 of the Universities Act 2021, a University shall have a Court which shall be constituted in accordance with the Statutes and chaired by the Chancellor. This was before the amendments of the Universities Act 2005 and when the Pro-Chancellor was the court’s chairman. The Court is the highest decision-making body with the authority to formulate and introduce new policy guidelines to govern the operations of the University.
There appears to be a rift between the University of Sierra Leone and the Ministry of Technical and Higher Education as a result of the issues surrounding the appointment of the Vice Chancellor of the University of Sierra Leone and the dissolution of the University Court by the Minister of Technical and Higher Education, Dr Ramatulai Wurie. At a recent press conference hosted by Chernor Bah, the Minister of Information and Civic Education at the New England Office in Freetown, Ramatulai Wurie, justified the decision to dissolve the court, which aggravated the matter further with students bearing the brunt, as indicated by the National Union of Sierra Leone Students (NUSS).
However, on Wednesday, March 13, 2024, the Ministry of Technical and Higher Education, led by Dr Ramatulai Wurie, made headlines by installing Paramount Chief Dr Margaret Cathrine Baio-Gbanie as the first female Chancellor for the University of Sierra Leone, which paved the way for the reconstitution of the court. “The next step in our roadmap is to reconstitute the Court,” AYV News quoted the minister to have said.
On the evening of March 13, 2024, the Information Minister shared a post on his X handle, claiming that the University of Sierra Leone Court has been reconstituted following the suspension of the industrial strike by the Union of the Academic Staff Association. A similar post was shared on the Ministry of Information’s Facebook Page on the same day, as well as other sources.
“Breaking News: University strike action called off, the University of #SierraLeone Court has been reconstituted as matriculation, exams, and graduation set to go ahead as scheduled. Classes resume tomorrow,” Chernor Bah posted.
Bah was appointed Minister of Information and Civic Education for the country in August 2023, having served as the Co-Founder of Purposeful, an Africa-rooted global hub to support feminist activism worldwide.
Section 11 subsection 1 of the Universities Act of 2021 makes the Chancellor the Chairman of the Court. Has the University Court of Sierra Leone been reconstituted?
Verification
DUBAWA reviewed posts on Facebook, X, and other platforms on the University of Sierra Leone and the Ministry of Tertiary and Higher Education but found no post made by these two institutions on the reconstitution of the University Court.
To clarify the claim, DUBAWA contacted the Director of the Tertiary Education Commission, Emmanuel J. Momoh, several times, who declined to say anything. Section 11b subsection ( ii) of the Universities Act of 2021 states that the Chairman Tertiary Education Commission (TEC ) shall be a member of the university court while section 8 of the Tertiary Education Commission Act of 2001 states that the TEC shall advise and recommend, when necessary, remedies for any lapses in the performance of any tertiary education institution.
However, on March 14, 2024, the Director of Communications University of Sierra Leone, Dr Tonya Musa, told DUBAWA in a phone interview that “they are working on reconstituting the University Court,” which implies that the court is yet to be reconstituted.
DUBAWA also contacted the newly appointed Chancellor of the University of Sierra Leone, Paramount Chief Dr Margaret Catherine Baio-Gbanie, who by law is supposed to Chair the University Court on March 28, 2024, and her response was,
“I am not in the position to say anything on this matter.” She later urged DUBAWA to contact the Minister of Technical and Higher Education or the Permanent Secretary. Although DUBAWA did contact these individuals recommended by the Chancellor, none responded to their calls and messages.
Available information to DUBAWA does not support the Minister of Information’s statement about the reconstitution of the University Court, and no formal statement or public notice has been issued by the Ministry of Technical and Higher Education or the Minister herself on any of their social media handles on the issue.
On Tuesday, April 2, 2024, at 9:25 am, DUBAWA did a follow-up with the Director of Communications, University of Sierra Leone, Dr Tonya Musa, for an update on the reconstitution of the University Court.
“The process of the reconstitution of the court is still ongoing. There is no update at the moment,” Tonya Musa told DUBAWA.
DUBAWA also spoke to Prof. Isha Fofanah, Senate Rep from Fourah Bay College, and Dr Abdul Karim Mbawah, President of Academic Staff Association, University of Sierra Leone, respectively, because their institutions have slots on the University Court till the morning of Tuesday, April 2. Both Dr Fofanah and Dr Mbawah confirmed that they were members of the Court before it was dissolved but that they need to be made aware of any representative from their organisation is a member of the new Court.
Conclusion
Based on the interviews with the Chancellor of the University of Sierra Leone as well as the Director of Communications of the University, Senate Rep from Fourah Bay College, President of the Academic Staff Association, and posts reviewed on the University of Sierra Leone and the Ministry of Tertiary and Higher Education on Facebook and X, the Minister of Information’s claim that “the University Court has been reconstituted” is false.
This report is produced for the DUBAWA 2024 Kwame KarKari Fact-Checking Fellowship in partnership with Epic Radio to facilitate the ethos of truth in journalism and enhance media literacy in Sierra Leone.
