The opposition National Democratic Congress Member of Parliament for North Tongu Constituency in the Volta Region, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has described the Public Universities Bill as one that smacks of an authoritarian agenda by president Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and government to meddle in the management of higher institutions of learning in the country.
‘’A careful consideration of the provisions in the draft bill portray a desperate authoritarian agenda to assail the pillars of insulation and thereby blatantly interfere with the management of our higher institutions of learning in flagrant violation of Article 21 of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana’’ he said in a statement.
Government believes the tertiary education policy bill will allow for the effective and less cumbersome administration of public universities and under a common law.
But the former deputy education Minister is strongly against the move saying ‘’ First of all, it is not clear what purpose the law intends to serve neither do we know what mischief it professes to cure, save to give the Government legal basis to pursue an unmitigated invasion’’.
He added that the draft bill in its current state is at best an apology as it is riddled with errors, inconsistencies, unconstitutional provisions and references to non-existent institutions such as a so-called “Ghana Tertiary Education Commission.”
Mr. Ablakwa opined further that the world’s worst tyrant would be jealous of Ghana’s President if he proceeds on this despotic and inglorious pursuit to assail academic freedom and institutional autonomy in the country’s globally acclaimed and thriving universities.
‘’President Akufo-Addo, respectfully, you do not deserve to be remembered by posterity as the General Idi Amin Dada of university education in Ghana’’ he noted.
Source: BestNewsGH.com
