William Ofori-Atta Institute of Integrity launched

The William Ofori-Atta Institute of Integrity (WOAII) has been launched at the Central University College (CUC) to offer programmes that would offer space for outstanding research and teaching in leadership and governance for leaders across the continent.

Founded in September 2011, the WOAII would provide a platform for developing and grooming a new crop of African leaders, who demonstrate Christian-driven integrity, incorruptibility, courage, and ambition in transforming the continent for the greater common good of Africans.

WOAII, named after the late William Eugene Amoako-Atta Ofori-Atta, a member of Ghana's 'Big Six' and one of the eminent African leaders, is to immortalise and honour him for his sincerity, commitment to decency, integrity, and high ethics in public life, among others.

Speaking at the launch, the Guest Speaker, Most Reverend Dr. Justice Ofei Akrofi, Anglican Archbishop of Accra, commended the University College's authority for showing its preparedness to teach its students the spirit of integrity, in addition to its academic works.

The Most Reverend Dr. Akrofi explained that the WOAII should be able to nurture transformational leadership whose attitudes would not be of pride, greed, and disrespect for individuals and the state.

He observed that at a time when our country and continent are filled with property-grabbing leaders, and most professionals whose conducts are not worth emulating by today's generation, the conducts and attitude of the products of the institute should be able to transform the ill-fortunes of the country in particular, and Africa as a whole.

He charged the school to eschew empty sloganeering which had the tendency of putting a dent on the beauty of the integrity the institution was being built on.

The Most Reverend Dr. Akrofi added: 'The institute should endeavour to bring out products whose words would not divide the school and nation. Words are powerful, and therefore, ought to be carefully thought of before they are uttered.'

Ghana, he said, would rise and walk tall with its people and leaders, if it would copy the standard and values of William Ofori-Atta, the martyr and confessor who did not enrich himself throughout his political life.

Launching the institute, Pastor Mensah Otabil, the brain-child of the WOAII, expressed his joy at meeting with William Ofori-Atta, when he (Otabil) started his church, the International Central Gospel Church (ICGC), in the 1980s.

'I learnt a great a deal of integrity and sincerity from William when he first visited my 'mushroom' church to encourage me to soldier on with my ambition of transforming lives,' Pastor Otabil recalled.

The Founding Director of the Institute, Professor Ken Agyeman Attafuah, said that the institute would begin admissions of certificate and academic masters' holders in June, while the admission of ordinary students would begin in September, this year.

To operate at the CUC campus, the WOAII would run a two-tier certification system, with two post-graduate courses to run alongside.