Author: K. P. Paul
The University of Education, Winneba (UEW) continues to be subdued by forces within and outside, fixated on running this hitherto beautiful public institution for the public good on rather personal parochial interests. It is safe to say that this institution has been ceded to some political interests, for lack of a better word: self-distraction.
Students at the UEW continue to be subjected to daily frustrations, but who cares about them? It appears that it is an orchestrated act by someone to punish these innocent students. They delight in the suffering of students. As I write, some students in levels 200, 300, and 400 have been unable to register their courses for either level 100-300. Some cannot find their results or grades; their portals have incorrect courses, and nothing is being done about it.
These students cry every day without any help in sight. Jesus Christ! Could anyone imagine that in the 21st century, students will have to go and sleep at the Student Centre just to queue for clearance and to register for their courses? Where did they go wrong to be subjected to this inhumane treatment in this modern day? What is their crime as UEW students? In the not-too-distant past, UEW was a beacon of hope and the shining star in Ghana’s educational sector. This fact, the 2018–2021 students’ admission, bears ample testimony. Fast forward: the university is struggling to attract fresh students because of some of the aforementioned issues. Within two years, the university has become unattractive to the public.
Prof. Avoke, Ackorlie, Kaakyire Duku, Wilhelmina Tete-Mensah, Nana Ofori Ansah, Alex Bonney, Afenyo Markin, and cohorts on the back of politics have used less than two (2) years to destroy all the gains made by the previous administration. Could you imagine that at his maiden meeting with convocation, an alien practice, the former Council Chairman, Nana Ofori Ansah literally came to tell convocation that some people had enjoyed under the previous administration and so it was the turn of others to enjoy. If this wasn’t criminally minded, then I don’t know what else is? True to his words, one-by-one he proceeded to execute his agenda which led to withdrawal of appointments, termination of contracts, and dismissals in the stead of wholesale restoration of every disciplinary measure taken by the previous administration under the guise of reconciliation. He and his Council brought fear and panic to the university. They were so vindictive and merciless in their modus operadi.
We hear from the grapevine that the appointing authorities are entertaining the idea of bringing back the clueless Nana Ofori Ansah 1 and Alex Bonney duo to the UEW governing council. What for? Let the so-called appointing authorities account for the policy direction this duo brought to UEW. If you asked them, the only thing they would mention would be reconciliation. This so-called reconciliation, honestly speaking, is a sham.
It only tilted the scale for some aggrieved persons to have the upper hand over their perceived adversaries so that they could also, in turn, butter the bread of these duo with the chief orchestrator. So, who has been reconciled? This fact should be known to the various security agencies in the country if only they are on top of their jobs and have the nation and the university at heart.
By the way why hasn’t the former governing council chairman returned the official vehicle assigned to his office since his tenure elapsed in August 2023? In any case the vehicle was supposed to be stationed on campus and moved only on official assignment.
These good-for-nothing and frustrated old men have turned UEW into their cash cow, turning themselves shamefully into day-to-day administrators. It is rather sad that the Minister of Education has become a willing tool for Afenyo Markin to whitewash due process to achieve his own selfish and parochial interests. Why?
Afenyo had detailed to the Effutu community what was going to happen in UEW concerning the appointment of the Chancellor, the Vice-Chancellor, the Chairman of the Council, and government appointees on the Council, and so far, everything has gone according to the script. Never mind the qualification or procedure! The university is Afenyo’s private property, though it is a public institution, and he will do whatever he wants with it. When UEW collapses, it does so on all of us.
Avoke continues to also walk down the annals of the university as the worst Vice-Chancellor of UEW, superintending over a highly discriminatory, heartless administration. He has been conjuring up some overnight promotions for family and friends. He started with the promotion of his long-time ally, a senior lecturer, to a Principal of CODeL and immediately sought to regularise the glaring breach of the UEW statutes with an overnight promotion of this ally into the professorial rank.
This person cannot boast of a single peer-reviewed paper or attend any conference or seminar of international repute. Any interested person can simply Google search the name Kaakyire Frimpong Duku (Chief of Staff) to see if there are any publications of his works. What you’ll see are issues related to the courts, as though he’s a law professor.
Prof. Avoke is in the business of appointing unqualified persons as deans, vice deans, HoD’s, among others. A typical example is the appointment of Mrs. Christiana Armah, wife of Prof. Armah, as the Dean of the Faculty of Applied Behavioural Sciences in Education, while professors and senior lecturers with PhDs in the faculty are, for some strange reasons, ignored. If you want someone to transform a new faculty like the School of Education and Life-Long Learning, do you appoint Prof. Hinneh Kusi as Dean?
The less said about him, the better. Even in Avoke’s last days of office, he’s still organising meetings to promote his people. Will they be the right fit in the eyes of the incoming VC?
There’s word out there that Prof. Avoke is planning to take away a one-year-old Mercedes-Benz bought for his official use, contrary to laydown procedures. The Mercedes-Benz was bought only in October 2022. If he’s fantasising about this idea, let the world know that he doesn’t qualify to take the car home.
I have also learned that Prof. Avoke wants to commission some projects on campus. That is also so far from reality! How do you commission uncompleted projects? Is it because you want your name to be on the plaques? Don’t take glory where it is not due. You have no doubt played your part, but we ain’t there yet.
Now everybody in this university is complaining about Avoke, Ackorlie Kaakyire Duku, and Wilhelmina Tete-Mensah’s administration. The Ag. Registrar, Mrs. Tete-Mensah is simply clueless on the job. She’s just being used by the power brokers for their parochial interests.
Avoke and Ackorlie are now dissipating the last set of resources in their last days in office through foreign travels on per diems.
While under the tenure of another management, foreign management travels were scraped to save scarce resources to build an ultra-modern student centre, in which we all pride ourselves, Avoke and his paddy have swiftly turned back the hands of time to once more milk the institution in this unholy act.
Have you now seen the difference between a prudent, progressive, and transformational leader and the current myopic and mediocre leadership? The difference is crystal clear. Whoever Jah blesses, no one cures! What legacy is Avoke leaving behind? Legacy of destroying all the gains made in the past few years or promoting mediocrity?
The pension funds of GUSSS members are in jeopardy, as Ackorlie has decided to manage them all alone as though they were his personal funds. He alone has invested these pension funds in worthless projects. GUSSS members should not sit down for someone to drain their hard-earned pension funds on someone’s fantasies.
Ackorlie has turned the Finance Division into the Human Resource annex, recruiting workers (his country’s people) for GUSSS-financed projects. Who gave him that mandate? The funds belong to members, and therefore, he must always consult members for their input on any major decision(s).
The carpenter is still lurking around! It appears that Prof. Stephen Jobson Mitchual does not desire to live in peace.
If someone is pushing him to UEW, which we’re fully aware of, he better think twice. It isn’t too late. He has no place in UEW and so should remain at AMMUSTED, Kumasi. UEW will explode if care is not taken to weed out Afenyo Markin from the affairs of the university; we’d certainly collapse it. He is responsible for the decadence of UEW, period!
We continue to call upon His Excellency President Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo Addo, Minister of Education, Dr. Yaw Adutwum, and Prof. Muhammed Salifu of the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) to come to the rescue of UEW from Prof. Stephen Jobson Mitchual as VC, Nana Ofori Ansah 1, as council chairman, and Alex Bonney, council member, being imposed on UEW before it’s too late.
Time will tell
God bless Ghana
God bless UEW
From K.P. Paul
Concerned Staff, UEW
kani@gmail.com
