Open letter to His Excellency President Nana Akufo-Addo, Abaawa radio and Nana Akufo-Addo’s Ladies Fan Club

Dear President, Abaawa and Nana Akufo-Addo Ladies Fan Club,

It is with the greatest concern that I publish this open letter for your attention, Your Excellency the President, Abaawa and Nana Akufo-Addo’s Ladies Fan Club. The needfulness and urgency of the message therein contains demands that I include certain people to ensure that it reaches the president, whatever the situation is, hence including Abaawa of the Abaawa radio UK and the Nana Akufo-Addo Ladies Fan Club of the UK and the world over.

You may somehow have been made aware of, or heard about, from rumours, the unfortunate fate of some 168 dismissed/demoted students at the Nursing and Midwifery Training College in Mampong in the Ashanti region, of whom one has shockingly passed into eternity and buried on Saturday, 16 July 2022.

The dismissed/demoted students subsequently addressed as the “affected students”, failed their Level 100 final year exams. This was because they could not physically attend normal classes or lessons owing to the strict enforcement of the Covid-19 protocols put in place by Your Excellency the President, where they were required to stay home. Nevertheless, they were from time to time invited to school by the school authority to take their exams.

The inability of students passing their end of year, or final year, school exams, was not unique to the students of Mampong Nursing and Midwifery Training College but almost all schools in many a developing or developed nation.

In the United Kingdom and the United States of America, the students did not sit for their final school year exams. However, they were accepted for promotion based on assessment and award of grades by their subject/class tutors as sanctioned by their governments in agreement with their National Examination Boards. Such grades awarded were accepted by universities for the students admissions.

The principal of the school, Mrs Gifty Helena Dwamena Amoah, in consensus agreement with the stakeholders, allowed for the promotion of the students to Level 200 on the basis of granting them an amnesty. The amnesty was granted them on the condition of each student signing an undertaking to pass their Level 200 semesters 3 and 4 exams. Any student failing those exams would be demoted or dismissed from the school as per the agreed undertaking signed.

The students did pass their exams as required of them in their Level 200 semesters 3 and 4 exams. Nevertheless, the principal, instead of promoting them to Level 300, reneged on the terms of her amnesty agreement to rather demote and or, dismiss them.

The principal decided to strike the average of their Levels 100 and 200 semesters 1 and 2, and 3 and 4, respectively. However, they had been granted amnesty for their Level 100 semesters 1 and 2 examination results that they performed poorly owing to the Covid-19 pandemic and its attendant instituted protocols.

Even by striking the average in what was a Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA), each student had 1.5 marks, more than the pass mark of 1.0 that was required of them by the principal for pass and subsequent promotion.

The affected students have since January 2022, made all the necessary efforts and even conveyed their plight to the attention of the Minister of Health, Hon. Kwaku Agyemang Manu but to no avail.

I had personally chatted on WhatsApp with the Deputy Health Minister, Hon. Tina Mensah, regarding the predicament of the students. She promised to investigate it but finally did nothing.

I am compelled by the fear of the political harm the principal of the school is causing to the NPP, to have decided to inform you of what is going on at the Mampong Nursing and Midwifery Training College as regards the affected students.

The principal has categorically stated that it is through her strong political affiliation with the NPP that she was brought to the school hence nobody can do anything to her, or reverse any decisions she takes, regardless of their nature.

The last straw that broke the camel’s back, thus, the news I heard that necessitated the writing of this letter to you without fail is when a tutor of the college was requested by one of the affected students to provide her with certain proofs to enable her write to Your Excellency the President. The tutor however said, the length the principal has gone with her political connections on the issue, not even the president of Ghana can help with their attempts to see justice unless they were to take the case to court; the only way the principal can be compelled to provide all the needed documents to prove the students right.

I said to myself, why and how on earth should a principal of a school be that powerful that even the President of the Republic cannot call her to order?

There are so many alleged unspoken bad things going on in the school affecting the tutors but these are not my urgent concern at the moment but the plight of the students and the political damage the principal is causing to NPP. She is purportedly attributing the fact of getting away with her stubbornness and illegalities at the expense of the students to her NPP political connections. How is that possible?

I have intentionally added Abawaa and the Abawaa ladies in the hope of them coming by this letter to subsequently forward it to the attention of Your Excellency the President, or alert you to it, in case you happen to not read it online as published.

I want to confirm whether Your Excellency the President will be supportive of the intransigence and abuse of power by the principal and her clearly mistreatment of the students once you become conversant with the ongoing situation as reported above?

The member of parliament for Mampong constituency who doubles as the Deputy Foreign Minister, Kwaku Ampratwum Sarpong (Hon), has played a slyly instrumental role to culminate in the inability of the Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyemang-Manu (Hon), to fairly, firmly and professionally investigate to resolve the issue of the students. He has always been feeding the Health Minister with false information, according to my investigations.

One thing that calls for immediate investigation is how the principal of the school and the academic officer, Mr Paul Antiarefe, have categorically refused to issue interested affected students with academic transcripts. Some of the students have since March 2022, paid the correct fees for the issuance of academic transcript to them, into the designated Ghana Commercial Bank account, taken the receipts to the academic officer. Nonetheless, he has completely deliberately denied them the academic transcripts till date.

Without the academic transcripts, they can hardly enrol in any Nursing and Midwifery Training College in Ghana to continue with the pursuit of their career education from where they have been stopped through their unlawful dismissal from the Mampong college.

As a father of the nation in the capacity of president of Ghana, and a renowned human rights lawyer, is it fair on the students to be treated the way they have been, by a principal of college who claims to be a well-connected member of the NPP?

Your Excellency the President, to make sure this letter reaches you, however it does, and with emphasis on the urgency and seriousness attached, I will forward it to, or copy in, Eugene Arhin, your Director of communications at the Office of the President. This is to have him draw your attention to it.

I am ready to liaise Your Excellency the President with the leader(s) of the affected students who will be able to provide you with all the necessary documentary proofs and better explanations.

In the meantime, I can be reached on the email address that I will use to send a copy of this letter to Eugene Arhin, if Your Excellency the President, may be willing to consider the plight of the students in a fair manner without going through third parties who will feed you with lies. By communicating your readiness to know the absolute truth to me, I shall then disclose the contact details of the student leaders to you to be in direct liaison with them.

The current president of the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS), Mr Larbi-Ampofo, may be in the know about the students and their problem and can provide you with some useful contacts.

I am certain Your Excellency the President who seeks formal education and career for every Ghanaian youth, will not sit down doing nothing while a principal of a school has intentionally criminally decided to truncate the future career of so many students, the would-be future breadwinners for their respective families. These students were coming to be of service to their people and nation, were they not treated cruelly as stated all along.

I count on the fairness and readiness to ensure justice for all by Your Excellency the President, to read or hear favourably from you on behalf of the affected students.

May God Almighty guide you, shower His blessings upon you and steer you through these trying times.

Yours Sincerely,

Rockson Adofo