The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) 2020 Parliamentary Candidate for the Oforikrom Constituency, Henry Osei Akoto, has said that former President John Dramani Mahama’s proposal to reverse Akufo-Addo’s renaming of certain public universities is a positive step.
Mr. Mahama, addressing party supporters, chiefs, and students in Zuarungu in the Upper East Region, criticised the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) for renaming universities established by the NDC government after their own supposed political heroes.
Mahama queried the notion behind renaming existing universities when the NPP had not established even one in the country.
The former Aspiring National Organiser added his voice to this call and disclosed that the country’s properties are not for the NPP, adding that the president can equally build more infrastructure in the universities and name them after his party figures.
According to him, Akufo-Addo wanted to rename UDS after JJ Rawlings as a token of justification, and this decision was rejected by Rawlings when he was alive.
He said Akufo-Addo renamed the following universities after NPP stalwarts and Ephraim Amu, of which none was constructed by him or his party.
For the avoidance of doubt, the Wa campus of the University for Development Studies (UDS) was renamed Simon Diedong Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies (SDD-UBIDS) in the Upper West Region, and the C.K. Tedam University of Technology and Applied Sciences (CKT-UTAS) in the Upper East Region. Additionally, in 2018, the University of Mines and Technology (UMaT) was renamed George Grant University of Mines and Technology.
He indicated that John Mahama is nicknamed the nation builder because of the number of schools, roads, factories, and hospitals he constructed.
He further stated that the next NDC government will rename the universities to their original names because the country has many notable heroes, and not only the heroes align with the NPP tradition.
Source: Lawrence Odoom
