A lecturer at the University of Education, Winneba, Prof. Avea Nsoh has brown a hot air accusing the Vice-Chancellor, Rev. Professor Anthony Afful-Broni of planning to organize grand Special Congregation reward Education Minister, Dr. Mathew Opoku-Prempeh with an honorary doctorate degree.
According to Prof. Nsoh in an article, the VC is rewarding Education Minister for “for helping to ensure his appointment as Ag. Vice-Chancellor, then to a botched Vice-Chancellor but most importantly for keeping Prof Mawutor Avoke at bay.”
He also said the VC’s gesture towards the Education Minister is most importantly the role the Minister played in “helping to kill the report of the UEW Independent Investigative Committee report on the Prof. Avorke issue.
“Indeed, this is the prima facie reason for organizing the Special Congregation. Otherwise, why will a report that is expected to give justice to all who have been ill-treated and help restore peace be suspended for two or more months in favour of a Special congregation? I can’t think far!” – He writes
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The report of the University of Education Independent Investigative Committee we are told is ready. The long-awaited report was ready more than a month ago.
It has taken the Committee one whole year to arrive at their decisions. If my memory serves me right, it was inaugurated on October 03, 2019. But the Vice-Chancellor is not interested. The Minister of Education who received the petition of Professor Mawutor Avoke, more than a year ago and submitted same to the UEW council is not also interested. He prefers to come for an “award” in three weeks.
The Vice-Chancellor is organizing a grand Special Congregation (graduation) to:
1. reward the Minister of Education with an honorary doctorate degree for helping to ensure his appointment as Ag. Vice-Chancellor, then to a botched Vice-Chancellor but most importantly for keeping Prof Mawutor Avoke at bay.
2. But most importantly, helping to kill the report of the UEW Independent Investigative Committee report. Indeed, this is the prima facie reason for organizing the Special Congregation. Otherwise, why will a report that is expected to give justice to all who have been ill-treated and help restore peace be suspended for two or more months in favour of a Special congregation? I can’t think far!
To the public, the Special Congregation is intended to:
1. Award the Minister of Education for his contribution to the development of UEW. This is strange, isn’t it? The man who actually is behind the troubles in UEW is being “awarded” for his immense contribution to the institution. Wonders, they say, will never end!
2. Award the Speaker of Parliament of Ghana, Mike Oquaye for his contribution to human rights in Ghana and abroad. Again, is it not ironical, that a human rights advocate is going to be honoured in a University where human rights have most been bastardized, abused and least respected. This is hypocrisy at it best! Can someone help recount what is happening in UEW to the Right Honourable Speaker of the respected Parliament of Ghana? Perhaps his busy work schedule has kept him away from the glaring facts in the University.
3. And finally, to name some structures in the University after some personalities including His Excellency the former President Agyekum Kuffuor and Baah Wiredu, the very respected former Finance Minister. He should be turning in his grave.
Can someone explain to me how the report of an independent investigative committee headed by an Appeals Court judge and appointed by the Highest decision making body of the University of Education, Winneba to investigate issues as serious as those relating to the removal of a statutorily appointed Vice-Chancellor (due process was followed) and injustices visited on the university and its staff, suddenly become less important than an awards and a naming ceremony. What is happening to the University of Education, Winneba, the Ministry of Education and Ghana?
And why is it the University of Education, Winneba that is treated like this? What have we done to deserve this? Juxtapose how the Minister of Education has managed the UEW crisis vis-à-vis how he (the Minister) treated the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and technology issue. What is happening? I don’t want to be compelled to provide the reasons for the minister’s actions and inactions. It could be very interesting.
In order to nail the coffin and ensure that the contents of the investigative report does not wash, the services of His Excellency the President Nana Addo-Danquah Akufo-Addo are once again being secured. He is expected to grace the occasion and commission some projects. This invitation of the president is reminiscent of his invitation to the investiture of the Vice-Chancellor. It took the efforts of the Minister of Education, Hon. Dr. Matthew Opoku-Prempeh at the last minute to compel the President to attend after the Minister-in-charge of Tertiary Education had categorically told the president that it was not appropriate to attend the said investiture because the appointment failed to follow due process. Indeed, the Minister-in-charge of Tertiary Education did not attend the investiture. Readers may recall the article by Professor Raymond Atuguba, Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Ghana, Legon, admonishing the President not to attend the investiture because of the legal and other statutory implications. Again, you may also recall a recent video that went viral concerning the definitive actions taken by the Senate of the University of Legos, Nigeria against a similar dismissal of a substantive Vice-Chancellor and the appointment of an Acting one. I posted this video on this same page.
By bringing the President once again, the Vice-Chancellor and his cohorts intend to render the content of the report irrelevant and inconsequential. Readers who have followed the innumerable court cases will have observed that in some of their defense applications, the University lawyers have sometimes referred to the participation of the President in the investiture of the Vice-Chancellor. It’s like “the President of the Republic installed him, please stay off!. And so because of the presence of His Excellency the President of the Republic of Ghana at investiture, we have an albatross around our necks; so if the President attends the Special Congregation, no committee report can change anything even if it was supposed to do.
The invitation of the President, the intended award of the Speaker of Parliament and the naming of structures after the former President are all but a farce and grand design to perpetuate the injustices at the University of Education.
Parliamentary leadership may want to have audience with the Honourable Speaker. As for the presidential advisors, I know that is what they are paid to do and that is why the president carefully selected them. It’s over to them.
If the President wants to commission any project on campus, I think he should allow the investigative committee to first present its report and then he can make an informed decision on whether or not or even when he wants to come to UEW again. Similarly, if the Minister of Education thinks he deserves to be awarded or rather rewarded an honorary doctorate by the University, he should wait until he exits as Minister of Education, or when Prof. Afful-Broni or more particularly when peace has been restored to the University. This will include allowing the Committee to present its report, unmassaged, unscathed. You cannot be receiving an “award” in the midst of serious divisions and injustices perpetrated by the same person you are propping. And remember he is the one who is presenting the award to you.
The machinations have to stop! We cannot continue to protect one individual whilst an entire University and its staff suffer indefinitely.
I stopped talking about the UEW Issue since last year. I don’t think I can remain silent any longer!
Prof. Avea Nsoh
University of Education, Winneba
Winneba.
By: Efo Korsi Senyo / awakenewsroom.com
1 comment
They who fans injustices will have one day, one day, have his/her lineage suffer injustices in the hands of some other people.
See this: Leviticus 19:15 — “You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor.” Amos 5:24 — “But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
Again in a deep sense, Proverbs 14:31 (NIV)“He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God.
To day is for the oppressors but tomorrow will be too late for them. Let them use UEW for their personal interests. May be they may not exit this university in their lifetime.
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