Prospective Opposition flagbearer’s thoughtless remark about university course stirs chaos

Words when not carefully said have the potential to set the whole world of the speaker on fire. Words are a loaded pistol. If not cautiously used, it could hurt even the owner. This is what has happened to Dr. Kandeh Yumkella, the man aspiring to contest next year’s elections as a presidential candidate of the opposition.

Kandeh Yumkella may not have meant harm, but his words have  created hard feelings.

 

During an interview with the VOA, Mr. Yumkella said :

“…60-70% of our young people are unemployed. People graduating from the university – three years later – no jobs. What do you do? First of all, the type of education matters. You have so many of our youths graduating in the Peace and Conflict Studies. What’s that going to do for you in life? We need them in other professions that can make them employable. The type of education we are giving them have to make them employable.” A press statement issued by the students reads, “This statement simply implies that the Peace and Conflict discipline is irrelevant and graduates with Peace and Conflict degrees are not employable.”

This remark has annoyed students of Fourah Bay College taking the course and some other citizens.

HERE ARE RESPONSES TO DR. KANDEH YUMKELLA :

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*That Kandeh Yumkella statement over VoA on Peace and Conflict Studies: A critical appraisal*

By C. A. C. Jengo Snr

I now have the audio of KKY speaking on peace and conflict studies. I think I am now well placed to wade into this debate. The beauty about the Sierra Leone social media is, week after week, we have issues of controversy or perceived controversies to deal with. And the debates can be so interesting and informative that one cannot cease to bless (ironically) the whiteman for this technological revolution in the blackman’s life. But all too often matters are spoilt in the ensuing debates by the quick degeneration of same into hate, mistrust and distrust, the very condiments for a relapse to a fractious, senseless war.

Against this backdrop and further stretched in context is the overwhelming fact that peace and conflict studies are necessary in our universities, mindful that it is a welcome consequence of a decade long war that had a lot to do with the complete breakdown of a society.

The Abidjan Accord and the Lome Accords that ended the Sierra Leone war were the first international documents to underpin that for reconciliation to stand the test of time, peace and conflict studies were needed because of the potential for such academic ventures to help in future to “hold the tide” against any potential swell of conflicts that may lead to another breakdown of the State of Sierra Leone. The TRC’s recommendations captured these same sentiments in many of their public hearings and, not surprisingly, well articulated the relevance and resonance of such studies on the future generation to not only consolidate peace but, like most agreed during and after the conflict, to serve as a tool to document the activities of those of us who tomorrow could be held to answer for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

_So much on the relevance of this course at our universities._

The point I want to make, though, is that if one followed the line of Dr Kandeh Yumkella in that VoA interview, if one looked at his statement from the point of view of his context (at the time it was *unemployment among the youths*), one would find nothing wrong with his contribution. It is his contextual meaning of his allusion to conflict studies as being ‘redundant’ that seems missing in the arguments of those who have seized it up against him.

His sight were set squarely on disproportionately high levels of youth unemployment where graduates go without jobs for up to three years, he said. And in that context, when one looks at the newspaper vacancies and the academic requirements let alone the job experience required, one can convincingly vindicate him. It is not “every quarter” in the year you see the need for a political scientist and, for that matter, a peace and conflict studies graduate. And the consequence has been a field day for expats to bring in expatriates and professionals with the right qualifications and experience to fill many well paid jobs that could otherwise be for Sierra Leoneans. Now, these days, when you open the papers what you see are loads of vacancies advertised by mining companies. What you see are loads upon loads of consultancies in health and agriculture and health. What you see are start-ups looking for professionals with computer skills and application development. Amidst that plenty you, once in a while, come across vacancies in the humanities and which attract the majority of the applications. And this gives (over all) a distorted unemployment deficit relative to requisite qualifications for the available jobs.

Who can deny the overwhelming majority of our graduates (Popular Expression News puts it at 65%) graduate on courses in the humanities, in Theology, Sociology, Politics, Philosophy — you name them. There are far too many Peace and Conflict studies students than are needed. In the same way there are too many of the listed and unlisted others.

This has to change. This skills deficit has to be functionally and structurally addressed. Youth unemployment is now the greatest threat to our peace and stability. And it is in that context I understood Yumkella.

I wasn’t wearing my party cap when writing this. I decided to put Sierra Leone first — _this one time_.

Barry Honnah I totally disagree with this piece. KKY committed a faux pas that exposed his lack of political maturity and gravitas. In the UK graduates in chemistry and other science subjects end up as career administrators in the Civil Service while graduates in the Classics end up as accountants and CEO’s. What is lacking is to the relevant a of Peace and Conflicts studies but rather the ability of our education system to mould aptitudes to suit the relevance of modern day business. In this schema of things, then, there is no reason why someone with a degree in Peace and Conflict studies cannot be trained in advanced Excel spreadsheets and data analysis or in Marketing and so on. Unfortunately KKY has looked at this whole issues with an incredible hackneyed and traditional lens. And that makes him seem pretty light weight in my view.

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Breaking News!!

Reports reaching us say one Peace and Conflict Studies student at FBC attempted to commit suicide this afternoon in his home at Kissy Mess Mess. He was reportedly caught with a can of caustic soda which he was about to consume inside his bedroom.

The final year student, Alimamy Goba was said to have left a note in which he expressed frustration over derogatory comments recently made by Kandeh Yumkella about his course of study.