The Principal of Mampong Nursing and Midwifery Training College is continually flouting ministerial directives

It’s so sad, if not highly disrespectful of the principal of the Nursing and Midwifery Training College in Mampong in the Ashanti region, Mrs Gifty Helena Amoah, to continually relish in her obstinate refusal to abide by the ministerial directives to her about the one hundred and sixty-eight students she has unprofessionally or incompetently demoted and or, sacked.

The current information available to me, one among many, from a reliable source, discloses how the Minister of Health, Hon. Kwaku Agyemang-Manu, after thorough investigations into the demotion and sacking of about 168 students at the Mampong Nursing and Midwifery Training College by the principal, has issued official directive to the principal to recall all such affected students and get them back into classes without delay.

From the information made available to me, the letter directing the principal as stated above was copied to the Board of Governors of the college, if the information stands credible. If that is the case, why is the principal still behaving autocratically irresponsibly, treating the minister’s directive with disdain, while the Board of Governors seem incapable of enforcing the implementation of the wise decision taken by the minister?

I am sure the Board of Governors could well be said to be oversight board. If that is so, what are they doing, seeing that the principal has been acting waywardly, not only towards the affected students but the sensible directives to her by the Minister of Health?

What is an oversight board, one may ask, to better understand why I am using it in this publication? “An oversight board is a governance structure, responsible for ensuring compliance with the law or other standards”.

The Board of Governors is duty-bound to exercise that responsibility. Therefore, if the principal, an “Iron Lady” or a similitude of the biblical Jezebel, is stubbornly not abiding by the directives issued to her by a higher authority, thus, the Minister of Health, upon the findings of an investigating body appointed to look into the problem, what should the Board of Governors do? To sit down looking without reacting as demanded of them by their functions?

The principal, according to my latest information, has invited only those students she dismissed among the 168 to attend a meeting with her on the school campus on Tuesday, 7 June 2022. Barely had the information been placed on the students’ WhatsApp platform when it was announced to have been rescheduled for Monday, 20 June 2022.

I am a bit concerned about all that is going on. Therefore, I will like to have someone, either the Minister of Health, the principal or a member of the Board of Governors, answer the following questions to address my concerns.

1. Why are only the dismissed students, but not also the demotees, invited to attend the meeting now rescheduled for Monday, 20 June 2022?

2. One hundred and sixty-eight (168) students, both dismissed and demoted, constitute the affected students about whom the Minister of Health has issued a directive to the principal to recall. The demotees are not on campus and were never allowed into classes, hence technically dismissed. Why are they not also being invited?

3. Why should the invitation be done via the students’ WhatsApp group platform but not by letters addressed to them, their parents or guardians as the school may hold their individual records?

4. Is it every student that is on that nominated WhatsApp group? What if the dismissed students had since deleted their contact from the group, how can they get to know that they are to attend a meeting with the principal?

5. Should any of such affected students not get the information regarding the invitation hence does not attend, who is to blame and how can justice be done to such a student?

6. The affected students made a direct appeal to the Minister of Health among many other important personalities and bodies. Why did the Minister not directly copy any of the students about his final directive to the principal to call back all the students?

7. Is the principal doing exactly as she has been instructed by the Minister, or she is doing what she feels she should do, stubbornly of course?

8. Is the Board of Governors performing to expectation as regards the problems faced by the affected students vis-à-vis the final directives by the Minister of Health to the principal and her stubborn opposition?

I can keep on asking questions on end but I feel it is very unnecessary doing that. However, I may expect both the Board of Governors and the Minister to up their oversight responsibility to ensure that the principal does the right thing according as she has been directed.

What annoys me which I see as suicidal for NPP is the principal’s alleged bragging that she was sent to the school through her political connections so nobody can do her fuck all. Could this explain why she has been so disrespectful, obstinate and doing what she wants, although completely unprofessional and out of order?

I shall write to warn NPP leadership about the attitudes of such bad nuts among them of whom the principal is one, as the terrain is too slippery for them in their aspirations to “break the 8”. People of the character and disgusting attitudes of the principal will surely cost them their chances of breaking the cyclically-alternating 8-year rule between them and the NDC come election 2024.

To conclude, let the Board of Governors whom the Minister is said to have sent his communique on the investigations into the affected students issue to, that “A board of governors is a group of highly qualified individuals that are responsible for overseeing and managing an institution”. If that is so, are they managing the Mampong Nursing and Midwifery Training College as they should, seeing the way the principal has been conducting herself to cost some students their future career?

Rockson Adofo

Saturday, 4 June 2022