The Students Representative Council (SRC) at GIMPA has elected dancehall artiste Emmanuel Andrews Samini as its president for 2022–2023. The renowned musician embarked on the two-man race with several patronizing promises to the students.
At the end of June 22, 2022, he received 307 votes to defeat rival Theophilus Quartey’s 211 votes to win the contest. In his comments to the media after the election results were announced, an overjoyed Samini admitted that the journey had been intense at some point and that he was pleased that it had all come to an end. “It’s a relief. It feels good to finally come to the end of this…… it’s been a quite tensed couple of weeks and I wasn’t looking at this like a landslide”, he added.
Samini also noted that he had put in all the groundwork to win the elections and did not solely depend on his status as a celebrity to solicit votes.
“This is just the beginning. I’m going to change GIMPA SRC; make a difference, make an impact and leave it at a level where whoever is going to come will be happy to continue from,” he added.
Among other widely published promises, Samini said he would do the following;
- Establish the Onuapa SRC emergency trust fund through crowdfunding and partnership with corporations to support needy students with the payment of fees, businesses, and other worthy emergency courses.
- Create an SRC help desk to assist students with the registration of courses, NSS registration, student loan registration, and internship support program.
- Revive the student shuttle service to lessen the transportation burdens back and forth to GIMPA campus by acquiring a bus and through a partnership with other transport companies.
- Update the SRC mobile application with student-friendly features.
- Renovate the school’s sports facilities.
- Set up business incubation avenues for students.
Some additional policies he will implement include:
- Provide student-friendly data sim cards for all students
- Facilitate affordable hostels with good proximity to students
- Less cumbersome passport and driving license acquisition for students.
- Facilitate affordable student foreign exchange programmes.