The Minister for Energy, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, widely known as NAPO, has refuted claims made by the National Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, accusing him of obstructing the establishment of a medical school at the University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR).

According to him, such a decision was never brought to him, when he was the Minister of Education, let alone block it.

This comes after the National Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC),Asiedu Nketiah, in a GhanaWeb report on November 30, 2023, accused the energy minister of denying the people of Sunyani the opportunity to have a medical school at the University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR).

The NDC national chairman said that NAPO purportedly argued that UENR was primarily focused on energy-related disciplines, when he was the Minister of Education, therefore, a medical school was not within the scope of the university’s mandate.

However, the energy minister, in a statement dated November 30, 2023, dispelled the claims by Asiedu Nketiah.

NAPO clarified that the Minister of Education does not have the authority to approve or accredit programs and courses at universities.

This responsibility, the statement said, falls under the purview of the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC), formerly the NCTE, and the National Accreditation Board.

“For the education of Asiedu Nketiah, it is not the Minister of Education who approves and accredited programs and courses universities. This is a function of the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC), formerly the NCTE and the National Accreditation Board. The Executive Director, Prof. Salifu, an appointee of former President Mahama, predated Dr Prempeh’s stint at the Ministry of Education, and remained in office throughout his time as minister. Johnson Asiedu Nketiah could easily verify this from him,” part of the statement read.

NAPO further clarified that, during his tenure, no decision to establish a Medical School at UENR came to him for his opinion or approval.

“There was no time during the tenure of Dr. Prempeh said that, a decision to establish a Medical School as alluded to by Asiedu Nketiah came to Dr. Prempeh even for his opinion, let alone approval. The processes for establishing universities and the accreditation of programmes and courses have never been a ministerial decision.

“From the foregoing, Asiedu Nketiah will be pardoned for a genuine ignorance on the subject matter. However, if it was borne out of mischief and propaganda against the person on Dr Prempeh, given the electioneering campaign season, then it is dead ab-initio because the facts speak for themselves,” the statement added,

Background

Asiedu Nketiah in an interview stated, the minister purportedly argued that UENR is primarily focused on energy-related disciplines, and therefore, a medical school was not within the scope of the university's mandate.

Speaking in an interview on TV XYZ on November 28, 2023, the NDC national chairman expressed his discontent with this stance, stressing that the university had even admitted first-year medical students before the plan was canceled.

Asiedu Nketiah questioned the minister's decision, stating, "When Napo became minister, then he took a principled and intransigent stand that UENR is a university for energy, so he didn’t agree for them to build a medical school there. It got to a time where they even admitted first-year students, but because he canceled that, it didn't work."

He went on to compare the situation at UENR to other universities in the country, noting that institutions like the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and the University of Cape Coast (UCC) have diversified their programs beyond their original focus areas.

Nketiah raised concerns about the concentration on core business in universities, asking, "Which of the universities in Ghana is concentrating on its core business?

“Tech is about engineering, but lawyers are passing out from the school. Don't we have a political science department at Tech? Even engineering goes with a medical school.

“Cape Coast was training teachers, but now they're doing other courses, even though they have a medical school. Why is it only Sunyani?... even one of our own Kwaku Agyeman Manu was the health minister but he couldn't do anything for us,” he added.

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