General News of Tuesday, 13 August 2019

Source: mynewsgh.com

Rename University of Ghana and there will be disaster – Kwaku Azar warns

Prof Stephen Kwaku Asare Prof Stephen Kwaku Asare

U.S-based Ghanaian influencer, academic and activist, Prof Stephen Kwaku Asare, popularly known as Kwaku Azar has herald looming danger if the current New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration dares to rename the University of Ghana.

There are sources from the grapevine that the premier university is likely to be named after Nana Joseph Kwame Kyeretwie Boakye Danquah, a former Ghanaian statesman, pan-Africanist, scholar, lawyer, historian and one of the founding fathers of Ghana.

But the renowned lawyer in a post warned “It will be disastrous to attempt to rename University of Ghana!DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT attempt it. Da Yie!”

Deputy Information Minister Pious Enam Hadzide has said he will not be surprised if the University of Ghana (UG) is renamed after the late Ghanaian statesman Joseph Boakye Danquah.

“I’ll not be surprised, I’ve done some reading and I would actually be excited that such doyen not only of African politics, not only Ghanaian politics, but indeed international politics, a true blaze as far as the amplification of the African voice is concern. I would be quite excited that the governing council will make that consideration. However, I’m not aware that at this moment that consideration is being laid I’m not a member of the board…”

Senior lecturer at the University for Development Studies (UDS), Dr. Michael Ayamga Adongo has however taken on President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo over his renaming spree.

The Development Economist advised the President against what he termed as honour grabbing adding with the renaming of national assets after deserving citizens without broader consultation.

“Stop the honour grabbing. It is good to name national assets after deserving citizens but such actions must be informed by wide consultations and broader consensus. The partisan and veiled ethnocentric approach we are witnessing in Ghana today will eventually bring dishonour to those we sought to honour especially when such actions are reversed. I am more alarmed by the grabbing of university names as if we were sharing sacrificial meat to clans in a frafra funeral”, he revealed.