John Dramani Mahama, the flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), has made a commitment to overturn the names given by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to certain public universities in Ghana, should he secure re-election in the upcoming 2024 polls.
Addressing a gathering of party supporters, chiefs, and students in Zuarungu, Upper East Region, Mahama strongly criticized the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government for renaming universities, originally constructed by the NDC administration, after their own heroes.
Expressing his dismay, Mahama questioned the logic behind the NPP government’s decision to rename existing universities when they haven’t initiated the construction of any new ones.
He stressed the importance of naming specific facilities within the universities, such as libraries, hostels, and administration blocks, after notable figures, while maintaining the core mandate of the institutions in their names.
“We are known as nation builders because of the number of schools we have built. Every public university was initiated and built by us. All NPP knows how to do is name universities that people have built. So, 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,” he added.
John Mahama added: “We can name an administration block, hostel, and library after somebody. But the university must reflect its core mandate. 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. And we will add other people and name the infrastructure in the universities after them. But if the university is the University for Development Studies, that is its core mandate. It will be called the University for Development Studies,” he added.
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Renaming public universities: I will reverse the names of public universities by Akufo-Addo-led government – John Mahama. #JoyNews pic.twitter.com/4P5LmbEc86
— JoyNews (@JoyNewsOnTV) February 3, 2024
Source: ghanaweb.live
