The Bedlam And Mobocracy In Some Public Universities In Ghana Spearheaded By Prof. Kojo Yankah And Dr. Matthew Prempeh And Their Necromancer Stalking University Council Members

I have closely followed the unfortunate interference of the Minister of Education and his cohorts in the various University councils across the nation, in their hunt to compulsorily eliminate substantive Rectors and Vice-Chancellors from various institutions that they feel are not members of the NPP or do not ascribe to their nationalistic agenda. The chief goalmouth is to supernumerary them with flunkies so that they will be able to fill various positions and at the same time have access to the finances of these institutions.

These hoodlum preemptive acts are done under the façade of so called rupturing of procurement regulations. Unfortunately, all the forensic analyses of these so called breaching of procurements have not amounted to fissures. If there was clear confirmation that those in trust had breached any of the laws or regulations, it was up to the Attorney General and other governmental agencies to reconnoiter and impeach these officials. However, till date, no such thing has been done because there is no authenticity to all these contentions of clefts.

Council members appointed to various boards are supposed to have the interest of the universities supreme. These members are to be dispassionate, broad-minded and must have some rudimentary knowledge of how universities are managed. Members must be able to ensure that the affairs of these universities run efficiently and to safeguard academic independence, support the university community, protect and refrain from witch hunting to guarantee that bigoted politics is absolutely jettisoned. Regrettably, some of these members who are appointed are only interested in the creation of chaos, divide and rule and the promulgation of tribal and political sentimentalities. Furthermore, some members lack the basic educational qualification to even become members of council. Be that as it may, one would have expected that before one is appointed a member of council, such an individual would be expected to have gone through an orientation and to be tutored on matters governing the configuration, rules and laws of these institutions. Unfortunately, majority of members are appointed based on their political affiliations. What business does a local chief have serving on a council? The only reason I perceive is that it is because a university is located in their vicinity. What purpose do we have asking a retired associate professor who is almost eighty years old being appointed as a Council chairman knowing very well that this individual retired from the same university as a disgruntled and an unsuccessful academic? The motivation for such an appointment strokes my imagination.

A Rector goes on his annual leave, returns from vacation and the Council sends him a letter that he is fired. Another Rector is asked to proceed on leave based on cooked up charges and not allowed to defend himself. A Rector buys a car and it becomes an issue. What is the big deal about a Mercedes Benz? In most European nations, most taxis are Mercedes Benzes because they are reliable cars. What about the fleet of cars that politicians have at their disposal? Have Ghanaians blocked the paths and streets when these political leaders zoom past our pot holed roads? Do we complain that that Ministers and government representatives should be driving Toyota corolla’s instead of luxury cars because we still have schools under trees and inadequate hospital facilities? Do we complain that the President and his team travel first class or fly in private airplanes because we do not have proper roads or unemployment is very high? My question is why are we so quick to attack other individuals. It was facetious yet pitiable to see people who intrinsically are supposed to impact knowledge and prepare our future leaders blocking roads with logs and chasing a Rector around the campus. If the Rector has done something wrong, was that the way to express your anger?

It has become very easy to accuse and attack heads of institutions these days. In the history of higher education, I have not witnessed such unashamed injustice by any of the past governments. Ironically, NPP is on record as the shining light on the hill when it comes to Human Rights and Justice. Inappropriately, University councils are now replete with gangsters, nationalists and agents of discord and chaos. A Rector recently sued a university for 25 million Cedis for being wrongly terminated. If I were that individual, I would have sued for 100 million Cedis instead of a paltry 25 million Cedis. I will also encourage Rectors, aggrieved faculty and Vice Chancellors who have being inequitably aspersed and indicted without having the opportunity to defend themselves in court to sue for at least 100 million Cedis each. In effect, by the time these cases are adjudicated and judgement is passed, the NPP government will owe several millions of Cedis.

Despondently, these diabolical Council members appointed by the NPP government will not be held responsible for the payment of these judgement debts. At the end of the day, the universities, technical universities and the NPP government will be lumbered with the payment of these judgment debts. I want to trust that the President Nana Akuffo Addo is a self-sacrificing and an honorable man. I also know that he is a firm believer in Human Rights and believes in the notion that one is innocent until proven otherwise. I also want to believe that he or the people around him are reading the tea greeneries to realize that his two appointees (Prof Kojo Yankah, Minister of State–in-Charge Tertiary Education and Dr. Mathew Opoku Prempeh, Minister of Education) are setting up the NPP government to nose-dive in the arena of flinging universities in Ghana into the league of highest ranked universities in Africa and beyond. Coupled with this, are the imminent copious court actions and the possibilities of payments to the aggrieved individuals that the government will be indebted to as a result of successful law suits against these Public Universities and their gangster Council members.