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| Dr. Michael Ayamga Adongo |
A Lecturer of the University
for Development Studies (UDS) Dr. Michael Ayamga Adongo, has called on
Ghanaians and for that matter citizens of the North, to question the
credentials of the ruling government if the University is dismembered by
Executive Instrument.
According to him, there was a reason why every member
of faculty in the University was engaged by the Department and not the Vice
Chancellor. “For a University and its Vice Chancellor to suddenly receive
visitors and get invitations to Accra to discuss the breakup of the faculties
is not something we could even contemplate under a military dictatorship.
“A University is more than its campuses and buildings.
Its institutions and faculties take years of painstaking processes to build.
Its credibility is borne out of a tradition of unity in diversity (university).
Therefore, the thought of universities as homogenous and regional based
institutions defeat the purpose for which they exist”, Dr. Adongo said these in
an exclusive interview with Savannahnews in Tamale.
Dr. Adongo who is a Development Economist and lectures
in the Faculty of Agribusiness and Communication Sciences at the Nyankpala
Campus of the UDS emphasised that: “It is for the purposes of protecting
academic freedoms that every course mounted in a University is initiated,
tabled and defended by Departments. Otherwise, we will be forced to mount
courses and teach government propaganda”, he pointed out.
He noted that, the decision to break up the UDS if
even necessary should be a broad process initiated by Departments through to
the University Council, Ministry of Education, Parliament and then the
Presidency. “The fact that the Presidency welcomed and initiated the processes
to break up an autonomous university is against the spirit and letter of
democratic governance”, he said.
He maintained that, flouting the constitutional
provision establishing the UDS by taking away its freedom to develop
generically was the same as flouting the entire Constitution of Ghana from
which government derives its legitimacy. “Government may bring resources to
build structures but government cannot in less than 20 years bring back the
University’s credibility that would be damaged”, he observed.
A former student of the UDS, Dr. Adongo proposed that
two new semi-autonomous University Colleges should rather be established and
affiliated to the UDS. “The UDS would then nurture and wean off these colleges.
It is as easy as that”, he said.
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| Prof. Gabriel Ayum-Teye, VC, UDS |
The incidences leading to the proposed breaking up of the
UDS, according to Dr. Michael Ayamga Adongo, gives many peace loving Ghanaians
a big reason to worry. “If indeed it succeeds it would have far reaching
implications for social cohesion and peaceful coexistence across communities in
this country. It would sow seeds of unrest and protestations. No region,
district or ethnic group should be allowed to conceive the notion that national
institutions located within their boundaries are their bonafide property and that
they could annex these institutions by putting pressure on government.
“Today it is the UDS. Tomorrow it would be the group
in the Volta Region calling for their own homeland. Other regions hosting national
institutions and strategic natural resources would soon follow suit. In any
case, the University of Ghana has worker's colleges across the regions. That
would have been a good place to start”, he noted.
“I have received calls from colleague alumni
expressing a willingness to go to the Supreme Court over this issue. I was not
too enthused with the proposal. It may be time to reconsider my stance”, he
fumed.
President John Dramani Mahama in his “Accounting to
The People” tour of the Upper West Region last week, announced that a Committee
of Experts working on the conversion of the UDS campuses into autonomous Universities
had completed its work and submitted a report for execution.
The president hinted that government would by 2017
declare three of UDS Campuses, Wa Campus, Navrongo Campus and Tamale Campus–
autonomous as soon as decisions were finalised.
The decision by government to convert these Campuses
into separate autonomous Universities, Savannahnews understands, is
to fulfil the promise by the former to provide each region with a public
University.
Established in May
1992 by the Government of Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings, the UDS exist
to blend the academic world with that of the community in order to provide
constructive interaction between the two for the total development of Northern
Ghana, in particular, and the country as a whole.
It began academic
work in September 1993 with the admission of thirty-nine (39) students into the
Faculty of Agriculture, (FOA), Nyankpala campus. The Faculty of Integrated
Development Studies, (FIDS), Faculty of Planning and Land Management (FPLM) and
Faculty of Education (FOE), Wa, School of Business, Wa, School of Medicine and
Health Sciences (SMHS), Tamale, Faculty of Renewable Natural Resources (FRNR),
Nyankpala, Faculty of Applied Sciences (FAS), Faculty of Mathematical Sciences
(FMS), Navrongo and the Graduate School now in Tamale were phased in from 1994
to date.
UDS is
unique compared to other public universities considering its location and multi
campuses which are spread out in rural Northern Ghana where the incidence and
depth of poverty is high. The UDS has four (4) campuses, seven (7) Faculties, a
Business School, one Medical School, one Graduate School and three (3) centres.
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