Former Deputy General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Koku Anyidoho, has questioned former President John Dramani Mahama's intention to rename public universities when he comes into office in 2025.
Anyidoho criticized Mahama's focus on renaming institutions, arguing that his presidency should be remembered for creating jobs and advancing the "Better Ghana" agenda.
In a series of tweets, he expressed his dissatisfaction with the NDC’s 2024 flagbearer’s idea of coming back to rename universities.
"24hr economy to be used for honeymoon & University name change - not for Creating Jobs, Investing in People, Expanding Infrastructure, Governing in an Open, Honest & Transparent manner. Obviously, Opana never believed in the Better Ghana Agenda of Prez Mills. God save Ghana,” he said in one of his tweets.
He suggested that Mahama's proposal appears to be a continuation of what he describes as an "endless drab cycle" of political manoeuvring that contributes to the nation's descent into mediocrity.
He continued “How does the changing of names of universities solve the graduate unemployment and change the economic situation of Ghana?
“Isn’t it a continuation of the endless drab cycle of “do me I do you” politics which sinks the nation deeper into the throes of gross mediocrity?” he questioned.
He added "If you name UHAS, Atta-Mills University for Health and Allied Sciences, how does that affect its core mandate? Honestly, if I was President Akufo-Addo, after building Asomdwe Park, I would name UHAS after Atta-Mills and see if Opana would dare say he would change that one too.”
John Mahama has declared that if the NDC comes into office in 2025, it will revert the names of public universities.
Mahama accused the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government of merely renaming universities constructed by the NDC, emphasizing that the NPP had not established any new universities while in office.
Mahama asserted that while administration blocks, hostels, and libraries could bear the names of individuals, the core names of public universities should reflect their original purpose.
“And so we will restore the original names, and the names that they have given them, will be given to a significant infrastructure in the Universities.
“We will add other people and name the infrastructure in the Universities after them. But if the University is University for Development Studies, that is its core mandate. It will be called the University for Development Studies,” he started.
