Yagbonwura Bii‑Kunuto Jewu Soale I, the Overlord of Gonjaland and Life Patron of the Savannah College of Education, has appealed to President John Dramani Mahama for intervention in the college’s ongoing strike, which has entered its fifth day.
The industrial action, involving about 170 teaching and non‑teaching staff from the Colleges of Education Teachers Association of Ghana and the Colleges of Education Non‑Teaching Staff Association of Ghana, is centred on demands for migration onto the public payroll system and the establishment of a college Management Unit to facilitate that process. Staff have also complained that they have not received payment since the college was absorbed by the government in March 2025.
Yagbonwura said the strike has escalated to kitchen staff, disrupting food services and leaving students without meals prepared on campus. He noted that both the kitchen and pantry had been locked, forcing students to seek food off‑campus. “I heard the cooks are also on strike, and it becomes a double problem because the chiefs I sent to the college came back and told me that the school doesn’t even have food to feed the students. This is very serious,” he said in an interview with JoyNews through the Secretary to the Wasipe Traditional Council, Jantonwura Peter Awusi Yakubu, in Daboya.
He appealed to the president, saying, “I know and believe that my Son, the President, says yes, the challenges will be solved. So, what we need to hear from him now is to talk to his officers to address the workers’ grievances, if not all, but the major ones.”
The strike has also led to the departure of 17 teachers to other colleges of education and heightened tension on campus, raising concerns about student welfare and the need for an urgent resolution.
As the dispute continues, stakeholders await a presidential response that could bring the workers back to work and restore normalcy at the college.
