Former President John Mahama has stated that he plans to reverse the names given to certain public universities by President Nana Akufo-Addo, if he wins the upcoming election later this year.
Speaking to party supporters, chiefs, and students in Zuarungu in the Upper East Region, the NDC flagbearer criticized the NPP government for renaming universities set up by the NDC government after their political figures.
Mahama questioned the rationale behind renaming existing universities when the NPP had not established any themselves.
Upon assuming office, President Akufo-Addo undertook the renaming of several public universities.
Notably, the Wa campus of the University for Development Studies (UDS) was renamed Simon Diedong Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies (SDD-UBIDS) in the Upper West Region, and the C.K. Tedam University of Technology and Applied Sciences (CKT-UTAS) in the Upper East Region. Additionally, in 2018, the University of Mines and Technology (UMaT) was renamed George Grant University of Mines and Technology.
Mahama pledged to revert these changes if he comes into power. He emphasized the significance of naming specific university facilities like libraries, hostels, and administration blocks after individuals, but stressed that the overall names of public universities should align with their fundamental purposes.
“We are known as nation builders because of the number of schools we have built. Every public university was initiated and built by us,” said Mr. Mahama.
“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,” he added.
“We are going to rename the universities. Ghana has many heroes, and not only the heroes of the NPP tradition,” Mr. Mahama further added.
“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,” he emphasized.
“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,” Mr. Mahama reiterated.
