A Former Deputy General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress NDC), Koku Anyidoho, has asked whether the NDC built all public universities as claimed by former President John Dramani Mahama.
Mr Mahama indicated that every public university was initiated and built by the NDC but the New Patriotic Party (NPP) only comes in to rename those universities.
Unlike the NPP, he said, the NDC is known for nation-building through the provision of infrastructure.
“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 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.
“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,” the flagbearer of the NDC said while addressing party supporters, chiefs, and students at Zuarungu in the Upper East Region.
It is recalled that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo renamed the University for Development Studies (UDS), Wa campus after Simon Diedong (SD) Dombo, a politician from the United Party tradition.
In a post on his X platform, Mr Anyidoho, also a former presidential spokesperson under the Mills’ administration said “Did NDC really build all Public Universities? Prez Rawlings established UDS, President Mills established, UHAS, Volta, UNER, B/A, USD Eastern. Which one did [Mahama] establish? Rather he created a green book and sought to appropriate all projects of Prez Mills.”
He added “24hr economy to be used for honeymoon and University name change – not for, Creating Jobs, Investing in People, Expanding Infrastructure, Governing in an Open, Honest & Transparent manner. Obviously, [John Mahama] never believed in the Better Ghana Agenda of Prez Mills. God save Ghana.
“How does the changing of names of universities solve the graduate unemployment and change the economic situation of Ghana? Isn’t it a continuation of the endless drab cycle of ‘do me I do you’ politics which sinks the nation deeper into the throes of gross mediocrity?
“If you name UHAS, Atta-Mills University for Health and Allied Sciences, how does that affect its core mandate? Honestly, if I was President Akufo-Addo, after building Asomdwe Park, I would name UHAS after Atta-Mills and see if [Mahama] would dare say he would change that one too.”
