What Is This UEW Litigation All About?

I have been reading off-and-on about the ongoing litigation at the Winneba-based University of Education, a former institutional satellite of the University of Cape Coast, with little understanding, because the issues so far put into the public domain by the media do not seem to necessarily reflect the crux of the problem, which appears to be that the UEW has been operating with a Governing Council whose mandate expired in November 2013 (See “Supreme Court Throws Out Anti-Atuguba Suit” Classfmonline.com / Ghanaweb.com 10/26/17).

There is clearly a political edge which, not surprisingly, reflects the gross administrative incompetence of the Mahama-led regime of the National Democratic Congress (NDC). This is curiously ironic because ever since the Akufo-Addo-led New Patriotic Party (NPP) assumed the democratic reins of governance, on or about January 7 this year, operatives of the main opposition National Democratic Congress have been haranguing President Addo DankwaAkufo-Addo about the supposedly slow pace at which the Chief Occupant of the Flagstaff House has been constituting the various governing boards of public enterprises and corporations and tertiary academies.

It is also ironic that during the 3-year period that the University of Education, Winneba, Central Region, operated without a properly constituted governing council or board, it was Prof. Naana Jane Opoku-Agyeman, the former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast, who served as the substantive Minister of Education. The Ministry of Education, we are told, is constitutionally mandated to regularly constitute the governing councils of our public universities and other tertiary academies.

Where I have my beef is the apparent interference of university administration by some local traditional rulers, such as Supi Kofi Kwayera, whose locus vis-à-vis the operation and/or management of the UEW is not very clear to yours truly. In other words, what is the locus standi of SupiKwayera for him to so cavalierly presume to sue the Vice-Chancellor of the UEW and cause university activities to effectively grind to a screeching halt? Of course, I know some local residents may be involved in husbanding the activities of these tertiary academies, but to what extent ought they be allowed to interfere with campus culture and administration such that academic activities get so adversely affected?

We must quickly point out here that our universities and other tertiary academies are the indisputable brain-trust of the country. And any attempt to disrupt their lawful activities, such as SupiKwayera has been widely reported to be doing, seriously undermines the intellectual and cultural development of the country, especially when the government has also had to deal with the perennial problem of unattractive conditions of service of the faculties of these academies.

If this does not already exist, then maybe Parliament needs to look into ways of amending the Constitution to enable a governing council whose mandate or terms of reference have expired to continue to legally operate until another one has been constituted, without having to unhealthily accommodate the pathologically litigious likes of SupiKwayera. I also unreservedly agree with the quite studious observation that sometimes decisions handed down by some of our judges inordinately and unwisely tend to interfere with academic freedom and the progressive and smooth-running of these major tertiary academies.

The attempt by Dr. Samuel Ofori-Bekoe, former President of the UEW branch of the University Teachers’ Association of Ghana (UTG), to disengage the services of Dr. Raymond Atuguba as the UEW’s legal counsel, may very well be politically motivated and one that has more to do with the proverbial changing of the guard, or government-of-the-day, than merely the fact of whether Dr. Atuguba qualifies to serve in such capacity or not. But it is a matter that falls outside the purview of our present discussion.

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