The Staggering And Meanderings Of Avea Nsoh And Kaakyire At The University Of Education, Winneba (UEW)

The vain attempt by the cantankerous Victor K. Owusu Avea, to use the interview granted by the Hon. Minister in-charge of Tertiary Education, Prof. Kwesi Yankah, as a platform to as usual spew out his jibber-jabber, is not surprising.

This sorrowful character, who was sacked by President Mills as Upper East Regional Minister, bundled out of office in ‘Rambo Style’, and abandoned to lick his wounds in Atta Mills’ home Region, is a disgrace to the Professorial title! I will stop short to describe him as a maniac.

The current administration of the University of Education, Winneba (UEW), are in practice, God fearing, this is why Avea Nsoh, still squats in a UEW bungalow while reality is gradually catching up on this ‘sakawa’ guy, who is best past his shelve life, and should have been off the payroll of UEW, 10 years ago. The current investigations into his nefarious and alleged corrupt practices at the Ajumaku Campus of UEW, is most welcome. The investigations will further confirm or rebut the political decision President Mills took to ‘uproot’ him from office as Upper East Regional Minister, since he wasn’t given the benefit of an Investigation Committee by President Mills to purge himself of the looting spree he went on as Regional Minister.

Avea’s own party and President, denied him natural justice, but hey presto, he is being accorded all the constitutionally guaranteed processes by UEW, to ‘cleanse’ himself of the alleged ‘sins’ and ‘harram’, if any.

In any other public entity, this caricature, would have been dismissed and handed over to the State for criminal prosecution, long ago.

As Principal of the Ajumaku Campus, Avea Nsoh, authorised a UEW official pick-up, to drive his wife to Bolga for an unconnected business to UEW. After spending almost 10 days in Bolga, the driver returned to claim all the allowances for the ‘illegal’ trip. The pick-up’s bucket, was loaded with jerry-cans of diesel, drawn from UEW account at a designated fuel station in Winneba. And this ‘thief’ is also talking?

I quiet remember the current President, Nana Akufo Addo, saying that he came to power to protect the public purse, and therefore, the Governing Council of UEW, constituted and sworn into office by the Akufo Addo administration, has a mandate to keep nation looters like Avea Nsoh, at bay.

In a radio interview on Monday 3rd September, 2018, the dethroned UEW UTAG President, Kaakyire Frimpong Duku, claimed to still be the UEW UTAG President, despite a High Court order restraining him from holding himself out as such. And these are the characters perambulating about and accusing other law abiding citizens of contempt of court? At the appropriate time, a contempt action would be brought against him.

The President of the Republic, Nana Akufo Addo, being a respecter of the rule of law, will NOT follow the footsteps of ex-President John Mahama, and interfere unconstitutionally in the affairs of UEW, as suggested by Avea Nsoh.

The enabling Act of UEW, is Act 672, and all decisions, MUST be in accordance with the provisions of the aforementioned Act, the 1992 Constitution, and other relevant legislations.

The Governing Council is the equivalent of the Board of Directors of UEW, and in Buosiako Co Ltd v Cocoa Marketing Board, [1974], Osei-Hwere J, referred to the three-member Interim Management Committee as the “directing mind” of the Cocoa Marketing Board. The Governing Council, is therefore, the “directing mind” of UEW.

Acting illegally, is a classic trait of Avea Nsoh and his paymasters. It is not out of hatred or any other reason, other than acting illegally (procurement breaches, and initially deriving authority from a defunct council), that has led to the dismissals of Prof. Mawutor Avoke, Dr. Theophilus Ackorlie, and the others from UEW. The crip parading as Avea Nsoh, is a ‘small fry’, so cannot push President Nana Akufo Addo, or any of his Ministers to act unconstitutionally by tampering with a decision of the UEW Governing Council. The case of Ex-President Mahama, who purportedly wrote to extend the mandate of the defunct Governing Council of UEW in 2013, has been rightfully declared as unconstitutional by the High Court.

Prof. Avoke, plus his accomplices in blatant procurement violations at UEW, should forget of ever getting their jobs back at UEW. Even if the serial ‘law breaker’, John Mahama was in power, it would have made no difference. The procurement breaches, are just so glaring!!

The difference in the administrations of Prof. Avoke, and Rev. Fr. Prof. Afful-Broni, at UEW, cannot be compared. While Prof. Avoke, failed woefully to have common WiFi working effectively and efficiently in any of the 4 campuses of UEW for just a couple of hours a day in the almost 2 years that he headed UEW, the current VC, Rev. Fr. Prof. Afful-Broni, has taken just a year to solve the WiFi conundrum that Prof. Avoke had no hope of solving.

In addition, eight (8) 500 seater pavilions, are going to be put up shortly, to serve as lecture halls and examination halls.

Almost all the dilapidated halls of residence of students, inherited by Rev. Fr. Prof. Afful-Broni from the dismissed Prof. Avoke, are currently undergoing renovation, to give them a facelift befitting the status of a University.

Hundreds of laptops have been ordered and will be delivered in the next couple of weeks to retool the computer laboratories.

Salaries and other allowances of all staff, are being paid timely and at realistic rates, unlike Prof. Avoke and his equally dismissed Finance Officer, who had to periodically invest every pesewa of UEW, in order to line their pockets with the accrued interest, before settling staff claims.

Under Rev. Fr. Prof. Afful-Broni, almost all the University’s bungalows are now occupied, due to the application of ‘human face’ to the rent charged. The cut-throat rent, under the dismissed Prof. Avoke, has been banished from UEW!

A contractor is currently on the verge of fulfilling a contract for the supply of furniture to the lecture halls for a smooth take-off of the 2018/19 academic year.

Sandwich students ended their examinations for the semester, and departed the various campuses of UEW on 31st August, 2018. Regular students followed suit by reporting on Saturday 1st September, 2018, to begin the 2018/19 academic year.

Registration of students is ongoing, and lectures will start on Monday 10th September, 2018, Insha Allah!!

Anyone claiming that there are ‘clogs or fetters’ at UEW, need to be detained at a secure Mental Health Facility, in order to have their mental state, examined.

Judging from the above, it is clear that, even if UEW is handed over to the dismissed Prof. Avoke for ‘free’, there is very little chance that he can manage it. With the kind of looting spree Prof. Avoke went on during his tenure as VC, there was nothing left to undertake any feasible project. Almost all the projects Prof. Avoke attempted to undertake at UEW, are financed through bank loans, so for what use was the Internally Generated Funds (IGF), put to?

Prof. Avoke doesn’t need a voodoo priest to advise him that, it is prison he should be praying to avoid, but definitely NOT returning to UEW as VC!

From the onset of the woes of Prof. Avoke in 2016, it was boldly written everywhere that, NOTHING could save him. However, he and his bandwagon, blatantly refused to accept reality.

The person who caused Prof. Avoke downfall as VC of UEW, is Prof. Avoke, and so he has only himself to blame. He awarded all the contentious contracts without anyone pointing a gun to his head. Therefore, he MUST accept responsibility for his actions or inactions, and stop cowardly blaming others for his incompetence!! If anyone at all is to be blamed partially for the downfall of Prof. Avoke, then it should be Dr. Theophilus Senyo Ackorlie, the dismissed Finance Officer, whose word was final during the administration of Prof. Avoke. Even here, Prof. Avoke, bears sole responsibility, because he wasn’t bound by any law to accept the advice of Ackorlie.

Alhassan Salifu Bawah
(son of an upright peasant farmer)