Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh
THE Ministry of Education has asked former President John Dramani Mahama to verify facts of information relating to education before going public to make unsubstantiated claims.
The ministry said claims by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) flagbearer that an agreement was reached to set up a satellite campus of the University of Environment and Development Studies (UEDS) at Donkorkrom in the Afram Plains in the Eastern Region were completely false.
The ministry said its attention had been drawn to a news item in which Mr. Mahama stated that President Akufo-Addo had “relocated” the second campus of UESD from Afram plains to his (Akufo-Addo) hometown.
A statement signed by Rodney Nkrumah-Boateng, Press Secretary to the sector minister, indicated that UEDS campus project, like all other public projects, was a national one, and that it was, therefore, unfortunate that “the former President seek to put a partisan, ethnic spin on the location of its campuses and attempts to cause disaffection for this government in certain parts of this country.”
“The Ministry of Education wishes to state unequivocally that Mr. Mahama’s claim that an agreement had been reached to set up the university with Donkorkrom as one of its campuses and that government had reneged on it, is completely false, preposterous and without merit,” the statement emphasized.
The statement added, “It must be stated for the avoidance of doubt that in making decisions on the siting of the project and the disbursement of public funds in this country, the government under the leadership of President Akufo-Addo is solely guided by the public interest above everything else. This is the only way to build a fair, equitable and prosperous country.”
The ministry asserted that it was a common knowledge that President Akufo-Addo hailed from Kyebi, which is 20 miles away from Bunso, the site for the proposed satellite campus of the university, and therefore the assertion by the formal President was actually false.
The ministry explained that the framework agreement signed between the Government of Ghana and Exim Bank of South Korea for the construction of the university stated specifically that the found faculties of the university would be sited in Somanya.
“Indeed, prior to this, Donkorkrom had been considered as a site by the bank at the suggestion of the previous government and rejected. The previous government reneged on this agreement by bringing in a contractor from Brazil to do the work Exim Bank had been contracted to do,” it said.
According to the ministry, Exim Bank protested strongly against “the breach of faith and decided to abandon the project as it did not intend to share the site with the Brazilian contractor.
“Exim Bank requested another site for a campus of the university, failing which it would pull out of the project altogether. Eventually, it settled on the Bunso Agricultural College as the nucleus of another campus of the university, and in agreement with the government, moved to commence work there.”
“In its handover notes during the transition, the previous government did not mention Donkorkrom as a prospective site clearly because there had been no agreement to site a university campus there,” the ministry pointed.
“Indeed, on page 22 of the handing over notes, it is stated: Following the enactment of the University of Environment and Sustainable Development Act 2015 (Act 898), Parliament has approved a loan facility of €45,575,000.00 for the establishment of the proposed university at Somanya in the Eastern Region.”
It will be recalled that on August 5, 2020, President Akufo-Addo commissioned the completion of Phase one of the construction of various facilities at the UESD in Somanya and cut the sod on the same day for the commencement of Phase two of the project, which includes a main library, lecture halls, laboratory for which government secured another loan valued at €49,891,098.00.
“Indeed, on November 8, 2017 the ministry had cause to respond to Mr. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, a former Deputy Minister of Education, who made claims similar to that of his flagbearer, and in respect of which records were set straight,” it said.
By Ernest Kofi Adu