Opinions of Sunday, 17 September 2017

Columnist: Alhassan Salifu Bawah

What the reality deniers are refusing to acknowledge!

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I write on the UEW issues, not in support of a specific person or individual, but based on the position of the law.

The voodoo priests and their bunch of incompetent and ignorant lot, should deny the following;

*Did the Vice Chancellor (VC) and Finance Officer (FO), not seek audience with ex President Kufour, to plead with the current President, Nana Akufo Addo, on their behalf, to use his position as Chief Executive of this country, and stop the court action instituted by Mr. Supi Kwayera against UEW?*

*Did the VC and FO, not solicit the assistance of the Minister of Education, Hon. Dr. Mathew Opoku Prempeh, by paying him a visit at his residence one early morning, to plead with him to use his position and end the suit of Mr. Supi Kwayera against UEW?*

*Did the VC and FO, pay separate visits, to the Paramount Chief of the Effutu Traditional Area, and member of UEW governing council, and impress upon the Paramount Chief, to help end the UEW legal tussle or not?*

It is interesting to note that, the VC and FO, throughout their working lives in Winneba, never knew that the Paramount Chief existed until their alleged financial malfeasance landed them in court.

*Did the VC and FO, call an old acquaintance of Hon. Afenyo Markin and ask him to talk to Hon. Afenyo Markin to spare them because they are his tribe mates?*

*Quite recently, did the FO visit Parliament House, just before it went on recess, to meet Hon. Afenyo Markin or not?*

Whether Hon. Afenyo Markin granted him audience or not, is besides the point.

*Did Dr. Ahmed Jinapor, a key ally of the VC, call a member of the National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE) to grant him audience to enable him discuss some 'issues' of UEW with him or not*?

Sadly, he missed this appointment because a Metro Mass Transit Bus rammed into his car while enroute to meet this 'mover and shaker' of tertiary education in Ghana.

*Did Dr. Ahmed Jinapor, not personally confide in me at a UTAG UEW meeting that he personally arranged a meeting between Hon. Afenyo Markin and the VC, Prof. Mawutor Avoke, when Hon. Afenyo Markin started questioning some of the alleged illegalities at UEW?*

Hon. Afenyo Markin turned up at the meeting venue much earlier than the agreed time and left after it became apparent that the VC had set them up. The VC did not turn up and failed to pick Dr. Ahmed Jinapor's subsequent calls to alert him that he and Hon. Afenyo Markin were waiting for him.

There are more overtures the VC and FO did to settle the case out of court but for now, the above will suffice.

The case is not grounded on one tribe, race, creed, or ethnic group or a political party against the other. Ghana, it must be pointed out, is not governed by 'tribal laws', so alleged wrongdoing cannot be settled along tribal lines.

Am a Northerner and a Moslem. The Acting VC, Rev. Fr. Prof. Afful Broni, is a Southerner and a Catholic Priest.

However, I throw my support behind him because he didn't 'Machiavellingly' influence the top hierarchy of a trade union to support him in his bid to become the VC of UEW. He has been appointed the Acting VC of UEW, by the High Court, which the NPP government gave effect to.

Whether his qualifications are questionable or not is a matter for anyone who has evidence with regards to the genuineness of any of his qualifications to head to court and prove, instead of making vain noise.

Anyone, who believes that he or she is going to award public contracts to cronies without due regard to the Public Procurement Act, 2003, Act 663, and its amendments, go further to pay executed contracts cheques into personal bank accounts instead of the phoney Company's bank accounts, and blindly believe that courting the support of an autocratic trade union leadership will spare him or her a court ordeal, needs to be advised to re-strategise.

UTAG can declare a 'worldwide' strike, and public universities shut down for years, the judicial process is the only avenue to resolve the current UEW litigation tango.

Acts 663 and 914, made no provisions for violations of the said Acts to be settled amicably.

Since the VC proceeded to obey the High Court's order, barring him from office until the substantive case is disposed off, he has risen from being the third highest fuel consumer at UEW to the first position. I believe he is now using an articulator truck. This is why his official car needs to be taken away, since it is impossible for a car of such engine cubic capacity to guzzle the huge quantities of fuel within such short period.

Article 41 of the 1992 constitution provides me with the right to protect the public purse against wanton dissipation by any manager of a public entity. It can be my father, mother, brother or sister, it makes no difference. Threats of physical violence, or spiritual destruction directed at me (voodoo and shrines) only increases my resolve. It will be advisable for the alleged wrongdoers to save their looted funds towards refunding the misappropriated funds with interest to the state, instead of wasting their ill-gotten funds on voodoo. There are certain instances voodoo doesn't work and the stand some of us have taken is one of such instances.

Why should the VC and FO, stress themselves to meet all the above mentioned, in their bid to have Mr. Supi Kwayera's suit against UEW settled out of court, if they did no wrong?

I patiently await the 'deniers' rebuttals to the above submissions.

Alhassan Salifu Bawah (son of a peasant farmer)