Internecine war in UTAG over Public Universities Bill   

The National Executive Committee (NEC) of the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) has called on its Legon branch to retract and apologise for issuing a letter to disassociate itself from the NEC’s position on the Public Universities Bill, 2020.

In a letter signed by officials of the NEC, it indicated that officials of UG-UTAG have been part of NEC’s decision on the Bill from the onset, hence finds their decision baffling.

The NEC also indicated that even if its decision was inimical to the Association, there are laid down procedures, which UG-UTAG should have used to seek redress, instead of issuing those letters.

“UTAG-UG erred in issuing the two (2) letters, as they breached both the Branch and National Constitutions. They should have resorted to laid down procedures to seek redress for their grievances, if any. They must, therefore, retract the said letters (giving the retraction the same publicity) and offer an unqualified apology to NEC for the harm caused.”

Giving a chronological account of the NECs position on the Bill and why it says UG-UTAG erred, the release indicated that in March 2020, the NEC received a gazetted copy of the Bill, which had already been laid before Parliament, from the Minister for Education, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh. At the NEC meeting held on 12th March 2020 at the University of Ghana (UG), the members present resolved to form a Committee, chaired by Dr Solomon Nunoo, President, UG-UMAT, to study the Bill, verify if all concerns of UTAG that were submitted to the Minister for Education in April 2019 had been addressed, and report accordingly with their recommendations to the NEC.

It continued that on 29th April 2020, the NEC held an extraordinary meeting at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) to scrutinise the report of the Committee. Per the mandate of the NEC, this meeting was attended by the National Officers of UTAG, all Branch Presidents, including Dr Samuel Nkumbaan of the UG, and three other people, who are former Branch Presidents of KNUST. The members present accepted the report of the Committee and offered some modifications to it, which were included.

The letter indicated that on the invitation of the President of the Republic of Ghana, a team, made up of the National Officers and Branch Presidents, visited Jubilee House on 30th April 2020 with the exception of the Presidents of the University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR) and Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ), who could not honour the invitation of the President due to other engagements, all the other Branch Presidents were present.

Among other things that were discussed was the Public Universities Bill (PUB). After carefully listening to the presentation of UTAG, the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, requested the Minister for Education to sit with UTAG to see how best to address the concerns raised at the meeting.

It continued that on Monday, 4th May 2020, the Minister for Education met UTAG at KNUST to discuss the PUB, as directed by the President of Ghana. At this meeting, UTAG was represented by the National Officers, Branch Presidents (only the President of GIJ could not make it), the three former Branch Presidents of KNUST that attended the first meeting held on 29th April 2020, and Prof Kwadwo Appiagyei-Atua, an Associate Professor at the School of Law, UG.

It is important to state that on issues pertaining to constitutional provisions, the Minister for Education sought the view of Prof Kwadwo Appiagyei-Atua to help direct proceedings.

The release indicated that before submitting the report to the Parliamentary Select Committee on Education (PSCE) on 14th May 2020, the Committee received some forwarded emails from Dr Samuel Nkumbaan that contained the views of some members of the UTAG-UG for inclusion. The views that were in tandem with the position of NEC were duly included in the report. After submitting the final report to the PSCE on 14th May 2020, Dr Samuel Nkumbaan again requested that the UG would like to make additional modifications to the report, which was also granted. Thus, the report was submitted to Prof Kwadwo Appiagyei-Atua for the inclusion of the said modifications.

In fact, the cover letter to the NEC submission to the PSCE was largely written by Prof Kwadwo Apptagyei-Atua. The report was then resubmitted to the PSCE on 15th May 2020.

The letter stated that given the role played by Prof Appiagyei-Atua, Dr Samuel Nkumbaan, and UG in general in the preparation at the document, it was baffling to see them disassociating themselves from it, hence, the call on them to retract and apologise for their conduct.

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