Former President and 2024 Presidential Candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama, has indicated his intentions to review the names assigned by President Nana Akufo-Addo to certain public universities in the country, should he be elected president again in the 2024 general elections.
Mr. Mahama questioned the logic behind renaming existing universities when the NPP had not constructed any themselves. He criticised the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government of only knowing how to rename universitiew but do not build.
“We are known as nation builders because of the number of schools we have built. Every public university was initiated and built by us”, he stated.
He said that “All the NPP knows how to do is name universities that people have built. After NDC builds a university, then they will give it the name of one of their heroes or people. We are going to rename the universities. Ghana has many heroes, and not only the heroes of the NPP tradition.
The NDC flagbearer made this declaration while addressing professional associations, artisans, and people living with disability at the Wa Technical Institute as part of his tour to the Upper West Region for policy proposals to be incorperated into the NDC’s manifesto for the 2024 elections.
It will be recalled that President Akufo-Addo, upon assuming office, undertook the renaming of several public universities mostly with names of people who had roots with the NPP.
Notably, the Wa Campus of the University for Development Studies (UDS) in the Upper West Region was renamed Simon Diedong Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies (SDD-UBIDS) while the UDS Navrongo Campus in the Upper East Region has been renamed as C.K. Tedam University of Technology and Applied Sciences (CKT-UTAS). Additionally, in 2018, the University of Mines and Technology (UMaT) was renamed George Grant University of Mines and Technology.
This Mr. Mahama said he will revert once he wins power in the upcoming election.
He underscored the importance of naming specific university facilities like libraries, hostels, and administration blocks after individuals but stressed that the overall names of public universities should align with their fundamental purposes.
“And so we will restore the original names, and the names that they have given them will be given to significant infrastructure in the universities. But if the university is the University for Development Studies, that is its core mandate. It will be called the University for Development Studiee”, he declared.
Mr. Mahama further highlighted the need to make such names nationalistic instead of just renaming them with only NPP members.
Filed by: Muniru Ibrahim
