Students eat faeces at Legon daily - VC

Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Professor Ernest Aryeetey has disclosed that foods prepared on campus contain “faecal matter”, and there is therefore the need to put effective measures in place to protect the lives of students. Speaking at a students’ durbar on campus Sunday, the Vice-Chancellor said research conducted by the Noguchi Memorial Institute, as well as reports of some graduate studies, shows that food eaten by the university’s students on daily basis are prepared in unhygienic conditions and pose serious health hazard.

“We don’t have to wait for some of our students to die of cholera or other infections as we have seen people dying through accidents, Noguchi and some graduate students, they have done various tests on water used to prepare the food… and you want to know the result… it contains faecal matter,” Prof Aryeetey told the well attended durbar of students and authorities of the two new halls named after Dr. Hilla Limann, President of the Third Republic, and Prof Alexander Kwapong, a former Vice-Chancellor of the university.

The durbar, dubbed ‘Vice-Chancellor’s Interaction with Students’, is the second to be held as part of measures to educate the students on new policies and programmes being undertaken by the university.

Prof Aryeetey announced that beginning from next academic year, the university will roll out ‘Meal Plans’, which will ensure that students of the university are given decent meals in their halls.

‘You will eat breakfast and lunch in your halls and still pay for it at a price which is almost the same as the one you buy from the Night Market. You don’t need to worry about hygiene. There will be zero faecal matter.”

According to the Vice-Chancellor, Level 100 students will have to sign on to the new plan.

“They will select their menu; sometimes it could be a buffet. We will not force any of the continuing students to sign onto the plan, but it will be difficult for students to cook in their rooms,” he emphasized.

Prof Aryeetey noted that the meal plan was not new; it was a return to the original plan of the university.

“The university was built from very quality materials. The infrastructure is the best in Africa. If you look at the canteens at Sarbah Hall, it is very nicely built. We want to return to them for what they were made for,” he said.