Daughter of Ghana’s first President Dr. Kwame Nkrumah has described as a misplaced priority the practice by government to rename public institutions after former politicians.
Samia Nkrumah in an interview says politicians should rather focus on addressing pertinent problems facing citizens.
Her comments come on the back of concerns raised by some Ghanaians over the recent renaming of the University of Development Studies by government.
“If I were in government I wouldn’t rename institutions. I would make sure that I’m addressing problems and needs of the people and God knows they are plenty.”
President Akufo Addo recently renamed the Wa Campus of the University of Development Studies (UDS) after Simon D. Dombo and the Navorongo Campus after C.K Tedem, both stalwarts of the Danquah-Busia-Dombo political tradition.
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) government majority in Parliament used their numbers to win the vote to have the names of the two institutions changed last week, as the Minority protested that the name change had been brought in through the “back door.”
The Minority side also decried a lack of consultations on the matter.
But the Education Minister, Matthew Opoku Prempeh justified the name change.
“When you talk about stakeholders, the University Council approved. It is the University Council that nominates institutions’ [names],” he said.
Dr. Opoku Prempeh also reminded that previous name changes have been done without consultation.
“For the Thomas Sankara interchange, what was the consultation that was done for that? What consultation was done before KNUST was named after Kwame Nkrumah?”
