Prof. Mawuto Avoke is going down as the worst Vice-Chancellor (VC) ever in the history of UEW. His second coming into the realms of authority at UEW marked an era of retrogression rather than progress. Indeed, he came with no vision, policy direction, or statement to drive the entire university towards achieving its mission and vision.
Prof. Avoke and his team have struggled to maintain the barest minimum standards and trajectory of progress. Students can’t access their portals for their results. Students don’t have or know their index numbers; they literally depend on lecturers to determine which to use for what activity. As we speak, students are about to graduate and yet don’t know their grades. Indeed, they haven’t seen or known their results for a while. The less said about what’s happening in the College for Distance and e-Learning (CODeL) in terms of generating results for graduate students, the better. This outfit has been struggling to graduate the 2022 batch of students since November 2022 without making any headway. No wonder UEW is struggling to attract fresh students since the arrival of Avoke and Finance Officer/VC Theophilus Ackorlie.
Under Prof. Mawuto Avoke, Council Chairman, Nana Ofori Ansah 1, and Finance Officer cum Vice-Chancellor (FOVC), Ackorlie, certificates have been issued to students without going through the graduation process, the first in the history of this university and an aberration to university practice. Fast forward, these same students, who are now in possession of their certificates, can’t access their transcripts. Hello! What’s happening?
The current management is indeed setting records that no one can break. They have also set a record of wholesale promotion of Account staff in the Finance Section of the university. Those who did not even meet the criteria on the advert drafted by Ackorlie rather than the Human Resource Division were later told to apply and have been promoted by Theophilus Ackorlie. Now every staff member in the Finance Section is a Senior Member.
As a reward for their loyalty and dedication to this administration, some senior members have been beneficiaries of the overnight promotions. These include Prof. Kaakyire Frimpong Duku, Prof. David Zuure, Prof. Emmanuel Sarpong, Prof. Issah, and Prof. Jones Apawu, all of whom were promoted to the rank of associate professor. Others are Dr. Ayemba, Albert Osei Mensah, Charles Bedzra, Ing. Daniel Tetteh, Charles Cofie, Mary Dzimey, and Shine Agbevive (our love).
The likes of Dr. Goro, Dr. Evans Asante, Dr. Samuel Bekoe, Dr. Esserku, and Dr. Teye are in line, and their elevation to associate professorship is a matter of course with the kindest courtesy of Avoke, Kaakyire Duku (Chief of Staff), and Ackorlie (FOVC). Now, the associate professor level under the current Management does not go through the process of submitting papers for peer review assessment, just like everyone else is ordinarily subject to.
Prof. Avoke is going down concurrently with Nana Ofori Ansah 1, as the worst Governing Council Chairman. This man is a bully, greedy, super incompetent, and corrupt Governing Council Chairman. How on earth can he appoint Dr. Ernest Bruce Twum, a Senior Lecturer from Central University, to serve as Chair of the Search Committee for a new VC and CODeL Principal? How is it possible for one committee to superintend over the search for two different sensitive portfolios?
Where in this world can a senior lecturer preside over the search for the number one position of a university and a principal position, all of which are professorial ranks? Where is the principle of seniority at the university?
Why? Don’t we have professors in this country anymore? Statute 10 (18a) states that “the Chairperson to be appointed by Council,” and Statute 10 (20) also states that “the Council shall commence the process for the appointment of the Vice-Chancellor at least Six months to the expiration of the current term.”
All of these were violated with careless abundance. I hope we appreciate the purity of the precedent being set. I have never, in my working life at the university, heard of or seen a Senior lecturer heading a committee in search of a VC or a principal officer. Ridiculous!
Well, this isn’t a departure from what this administration has been known for. The Ag. Principal has been upgraded a couple of times to get him there; he was appointed when he was just a senior lecturer, to the neglect of several professors already in the system. He was attending Appointment and Promotion Board meetings, a position solely reserved for persons of professorial rank.
Avoke’s administration is indeed breaking records in UEW and has supervised wanton illegalities sanctioned by Nana Ofori Ansah 1, and Alex Bonney who have made UEW an avenue for their daily bread.
A recent rejoinder by the University to the Concerned Staff Press Statement indicated that the vehicle that conveys the Council Chairman is always parked on campus. This assertion is a palpable falsehood, as he continues to use the university vehicle, a Toyota Fortuner (GC 5867-20), as his private vehicle. Nonetheless, this vehicle, which he has hijacked, is serviced and fuelled by the university for his private use.
The GhC 7.6 million create, loot, and share saga by Avoke and his cohorts, which saw transfers in two different accounts in the same bank culminating in the withdrawal of cash-stashed boxes, is an open secret, though it was purportedly done in secret. The one who first took his share of three hundred thousand Ghana cedis (300,000) and was ranting that he was the richest lecturer in UEW was heard, and the record was kept.
If you came to meet empty accounts, where did you get money to pay yourselves allowances, including the so-called outstanding allowances for five years while you were at home? Allowances are meant for positions held. For five years at home, which positions did you hold to pay yourself those huge allowances? The payments included payments to Ackorlie’s in-law at the university printing press, one Twumasi, a casual staff, Charles Bedzra, Francis Amoani, from the Finance Section, and Lawrence Quarshie, among others.
Some staff including the head of University Legal Service Mr. Patrick Asante-Nnuro have had their salaries suspended for several months over a show of sheer power while the likes of Selasi Sosu and Emmanuel Tamanja from the Arts Department and Institute for Educational Research and Innovation Studies (IERIS) as Coordinator and Deputy Director positions respectively continue to draw salaries with allowances for close to two years without any work done. What is good for the goose is equally good for the gander. Avoke, Nana Ofori Ansah, Alex Bonney, Ackorlie, and co shall surely pay for all these one day.
For the first time under Avoke, Nana Ofori Ansah 1, Alex Bonney, Ackorlie, Whihalmina Tete Mensah, and Kaakyire Duku (Chief of Staff), both academic and administrative staff have gone for confirmation interviews and have been duly confirmed but on the same rank, while demoting others for reasons best known only to themselves.
Why do you confirm a staff member and cause him or her to remain at the same rank? What does it mean? Is this decision backed by any policy document? This decision, coupled with the appointment of a carpenter as VC, has brought tension to the UEW campus.
All hail the new kid on the block (the Ammusted Carpenter), saddled with plagiarism issues, who thinks he can be a VC for UEW. “A butterfly who thinks himself a bird”! He’d better advise himself before it’s too late. The process leading to his so-called appointment is saddled with a lot of infractions, which no serious university would entertain. UEW must arise to defend what’s just and in line with established protocols, laws, and practises.
A person whose background is wood science (Carpenter) can’t lead a teacher education university. What is the relationship, and what kind of direction does he seek to bring on board, except to do someone’s bidding? We sat here for the MP for Effutu, Afenyo Markin, to foretell the direction of appointments in the university at his local radio station in what he dubbed the Effutu dream. He publicly declared that Prof. Mitchual was going to be the next VC of UEW at the beginning of the year at his own Radio Station “Osimpam”. In the same broadcast, he declared that Nenyi Ghartey VII would be Chancellor of UEW.
When it was said that he, together with the Council Chairman, had introduced Prof. Mitchual as the VC apparent way before the request for application, there was a long release from the university to deny the same. Hello! Has anything been missed? No one should be fooled! These are the handy works of Afenyo Markin.
Some of us may sit aloof, thinking we aren’t impacted in any way. That’s fine! The consequences are dire, and we have already experienced them. We are about to be taken to the next level. We must rise to resist it with all our might (Isha Allah).
We are calling on His Excellency the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo Addo, Education Minister, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, and GTEC for their speedy intervention in the aforementioned issues before it’s too late.
Time will tell.
From K. P. Paul
Concerned Staff, UEW
kani@gmail.com
