Summary of Political Interference in the administration of the University of Education, Winneba

Some people including the media think that the impasse at UEW is because of the case at the Winneba High Court. If you think like that then you are really viewing the impasse with a political lens. The court case is just a fraction of the entire impasse.

When NPP won power on December 7, 2016, within a few weeks, Hon. Alex AfenyoMarkin started trumpeting that the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Education, Winneba (UEW) and the Finance Officer must hand over the administration of the University of UEW to the Pro-Vice Chancellor because the council that appointed them was defunct. The University responded to this assertion of his and stated categorically that if even the council was defunct, the Pro-Vice Chancellor was also appointed by the same defunct council. There was governing council in place before January, 2017 but it was dissolved by the current government in same month

Hon. Afenyo continued his media warfare on his so called UEW defunct council and went to petition the Hon. Minister of Education on this issue.The Minister of Education set up a committee to look into the allegations raised by Hon. Afenyo accusing the top management of wrong doings. The committee started their work and did not find anything worthy of the accusations levelled against them so they were made to stop when NEC of UTAG raised legal issues regarding the committee. It is worth knowing that Hon. Afenyo normally excludes the Pro Vice-Chancellor from the wrong doing as if the Pro Vice-Chancellor were not part of the top management of UEW.

When everything seems to be okay for UEW, before jack, there was a suit purported to be filled in May, 2017 by one Supi Kofi Kwayeraasking for some reliefs from the Winneba High Court. I do not want to bore you with the reliefs, but as I write now, most of the reliefs especially the procurement allegations have been dropped by him through Hon. Afenyo.

When the legal team of UEW started raising some legal issues about the suit by Supi Kofi Kwayera, there was an injunction suit that asked the court to injunction all the principal officers until the final determination of the case. The Winneba High Court Judge, Justice George Atto Mills-Graveswas in hurry in accepting the injunction application rather than hearing the initial legal issues raised by UEW lawyers. On June 13, 2017, Winneba High Court granted the injunction in the open court. At a point in time, he told Hon. Afenyo that the ball is in your court and Hon. Afenyo said, my Lord, I have my men on the ground and I will make sure none of them goes to the office. When the University realised that there is no head of the University, deans and the likes decided and asked the registrar to inform the general public that the University is closed temporally. I learnt the Winneba High Court Judge was very hot when he heard that the University closed because of his ruling. When he was invited by the Ag. Chief Justice to justify the injunction, hmmmm, he lied. He claimed it was just some friendly chat in the court room and that there was no written record to that effect. One may asked, how can an academic institution close down when they did not consult their lawyers? It is a blatant lie by the Winneba High Court Judge, Justice George Atto Mills-Graves that he did not grant the injunction on June 13, 2017. Is the judge saying that he alone was in the court room?

Now, the political dimensions:

• On June 20, 2017, the Minister of State in charge of Tertiary Education,

came to meet the top management of UEW and some Union leaders to find out what led to the closure of the University. During the discussions, he said the University should allow the Pro Vice-Chancellor to act until the case is determined. Some union members told Prof.KwesiYankah that the so called defunct council ratified the Pro Vice-Chancellor’s Associate and Full Professorship and his appointment. Prof.KwesiYankah was shocked and asked “where is the Pro Vice-Chancellor? I am sure you would agree with me that Prof.KwesiYankah was sent. He didn’t even know the Pro Vice-Chancellor. When he realised that he couldn’t push the agenda for the Pro Vice-Chancellor to act, he promised that a substantive council will be inaugurated on Friday, June 23, 2017.

• June 23 came, no council was formed.
• NEC of UTAG asked government to form governing councils of all public Universities but that was also not done immediately.
• There were legal gymnastics at the Winneba High Court during this same time and all applications to join the suit were summarily dismissed because there was an agendumto make it look like the injunction application is now supposed to be heard. Also, the judge new that he was going on legal vacation so during one of the proceedings, Hon. Afenyo said, my Lord there is an injunction pending, my Lord, can I move it? The Injunction application was moved immediately. Still UEW governing council was not formed.
• On July 14, 2017, the judge seeing that, the University was closed down because he granted the injunction on June 13,2017 that all the principal officers should not carry themselves as principal officers, he took solace in Act 672 without recourse to the UEW Statute and said the VC and the FO are restricted and the Pro Vice-Chancellor act.There was an arrest application of the injunction judgement but the judge threw it away. It is worth to know that the plaintiff did not ask the Winneba High Court that Pro Vice-Chancellor should act. Most of the things he said in open court were not in the written judgement. No wonder, Anas was able to bring out the corruption within the court system in Ghana.
• Pro Vice-Chancellor took some days off before the court ruled on the injunction.
• Wow, just after the Winneba High Court ruled on the injunction application, the following day, July 15, 2017, UEW governing council was formed. I am sure the reader is now seeing the political and judicial interferences in higher education.
• Prof. Dominic Fobi was initially slated to be the governing council chairman for UEW and he was replaced in the last hour by Prof.E. N. Abakah because the government thinks Prof. Dominic Fobi is a level headed Prof. than Prof.Abakah. Prof.Abakah left UEW not on a good note so how can he solve the current impasse in UEW, especially when he and Prof MawutorAvoke has never had good working relationship.
• Funny enough, the UEW governing council chairman have announced that all the certificates and some appointments have been ratified whilst there was no declaration that the previous council under contention was defunct. Politically, if the current council chairman did not announce the ratification of certificates, there would have been public agitation. One may ask how can someone sign a document and the document is authentic but the one who signed the document is not authentic? The VC signed the certificates and the certificates have been ratified leaving the VC out.Even interesting is the fact that the Council Chair has instructed the University lawyers to withdraw the case from court for amicable settlement. How fair is this development? This is indeed a well planned and executed exercise.

Now, let us look at the chronology. Hon. Afenyo in the media said that the VC must handover to the Pro Vice-Chancellor. Prof.KwesiYankah requested that the Pro Vice-Chancellor should act. Then the Winneba High Court presided over by Justice George Atto Mills-Graves also asked that the Pro Vice-Chancellor acts and this is where people are of the view that the case is in the court. Justice George Atto Mills-Graves knowing that he was going on legal vacation decided to grant the injunction.

Hon. Afenyo, is it only UEW governing council that was defunct based on your claim? I will like to say categorically that the other public Universities should not say that they are not concerned because it is not affecting them directly. It is likely the current government may use the court system with the same judicial gymnastics to disturb other public Universities. I am sure no level headed lecturer will be interested in any strike without any cause. Those concerned UTAG-UEW members and other public universities UTAG members that want to teach whilst the strike is on, I hope a time will come when government will use this division to scrap the Book and Research Allowances (BRA) because if a strike is declared nationwide on BRA, you will not see a single lecturer going to teach.

Those of you who are questioning the academic freedom of Universities seems not to understand the meaning of academic freedom. Academic freedom, the freedom of teachers and students to teach, study, and pursue knowledge and research without unreasonable interference or restriction from law, institutional regulations, or public pressure. Also, Academic freedom is the conviction that the freedom of inquiry by faculty members is essential to the mission of the academy as well as the principles of academia , and that scholars should have freedom to teach or communicate ideas or facts (including those that are inconvenient to external political groups or to authorities) without being targeted for repression, job loss, or imprisonment.

The writer is an alumnus of UEW
[email protected]
By Victor K. Owusu