Kumasi, June 22, GNA - Dr Bukari Ali, a lecturer at the Department of Geomatic Engineering of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), has called for programmes to mentor Ghanaians on the essence of time management. He said he was not happy with the lukewarm attitude of people towards doing things on time and condemned situations where events are delayed unnecessarily.

Dr Ali was speaking at a graduation ceremony for 15 students who underwent a three-year course in Islamic studies organised by the Muntada Foundation for Social Services, a non-governmental organization (NGO) under its Students' Welfare Project in Kumasi on Sunday. The students are all products of the KNUST and the course was tailored to educate them on the relevance of Islam in their career, physical and spiritual developments. Topics they treated during their course included basic Arabic language, management and leadership, science of Quran recital, Tawheed and Hadeeth.

Dr Ali said lack of respect for time by most Africans had derogatorily come to be known as the "African Punctuality" citing the late start of the event even though participants were notified earlier on the scheduled time.

"Time wasted is money and resources wasted", he said and added that the time had come for traditional and church leaders as well as the leadership of the nation to wage a campaign to educate Ghanaians to have a positive attitude towards time management. Sheikh Salis Husein, Director of the Foundation, said the programme was sponsored by the NGO and its partners in Sudan and that it was necessitated by the ambition of the foundation to inculcate into the Muslim graduates the Islamic teachings in their overall development. He said 176,307 Ghana cedis was spent to sponsor the programme and called on stakeholders in Islam to be supportive to help promote the religion.