The Bible in 1 Samuel 2: 9 says ‘He will keep the feet of his saints, and the wicked shall be salient in darkness; for by strength shall no man prevail’. Also, Job 21: 30 says ‘That the wicked is reserved to the day of destruction? they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath.’
To be brutally frank, Prof. Mawuto Avoke, Theophilus Ackorlie (FOVC), Prof. Kaakyire Duku (Chief of Staff), Mrs.Wilhelmina Tete-Mensah (Mrs. WTM), Alex Afenyo Markin, Nana Ofori Ansah 1, and Alex Bonney are the reasons the University of Education, Winneba (UEW). is on its knees. The administrative crimes orchestrated and committed by these people under this administration in the guess of reconciliation have more to them than meets the eye.
A little over a year into the second coming of Prof. Mawuto Avoke as Vice-Chancellor (VC), he and his looting brigade have dissipated all the gains made by the university over the years. Once a beacon and the number one teacher education university in sub-Saharan Africa, it has now been reduced to its lowest ebb, with students complaining about their results, grades, registration of courses, and index numbers. The students are frustrated on all fronts, and it’s not surprising that the university is struggling to attract freshmen. The frustrations of students are typified by the pointless queues they are put through to complete routine clearance for level 400, fee clearing, and course registration for levels 100 to 300. Many of these students paid their fees way back in the first semester. How come these payments haven’t been reflected in the university accounts yet? What steps has the Dean of Student Affairs, Dr. Mrs. Edinam Avoke, with her two deputies, Dr. Teye and Dr. Latipher Osei, taken to abate the frustrations of these poor students who are writing their exams? How well can we reasonably expect the students to perform amid these frustrations? The university’s image is already badly bruised, and such ineptitude coupled with insensibility when foisted on students only aggravates the situation.
Under the Avoke leadership, eight (8) staff members and counting have been dismissed for no apparent reason. For a group of people who claimed to have been dismissed unfairly and fought vehemently for their reinstatement, albeit through a cooked court ruling, it is strange that they are dismissing other staff of the university for fun. They were offered a fine opportunity to unite the university, but what did they do with it? They simply chose to use it to settle personal scores with others and hurriedly constituted kangaroo committees and boards, which, though shambolic, were truncated by certain powers that be to make way for the dismissal of persons whose alleged infractions were never established. The actions or inactions of this cabal and right-thinking members of the university have plunged us into a deeper crater, the repercussions of which are yet to surface. Posterity will judge us!
Prof. Avoke is on record as having said during the second session of the 27th Congregation that he had completed some eleven (11) projects at UEW since his return. Where are these projects? Are we hearing it right? Prof. Avoke, Ackorlie, Mrs. WTM, and co not long ago claimed UEW’s coffers had been emptied by the administration; they had succeeded. Now, can they be humble enough to tell the university community and stakeholders they suddenly found the funds to sink into those projects? Please don’t claim glory that does not belong to you. Now, students and staff have seen the difference between the current and previous administrations. It is like day and night! Everybody is complaining about Avoke, Ackorlie, Kaakyire, and Mrs.WTM’s administration.
For very strange reasons under Prof. Avoke, several staff had their confirmation deferred; others were confirmed but remained on the same rank; lecturers have been turned into administrators; and some have been transferred from their original departments to other departments without due regard for policy. The African Studies Department has recently become a dumping ground for most transferred lecturers. These lecturers hold all the requisite qualifications to teach at their original departments, but they have had to suffer this due to some supposedly powerful hands who don’t like their faces. These things are being orchestrated by the beneficiaries, such as Prof. Kaakyire Frimpong Duku, Prof. David Zuri, and Dr. Harrison Golo. Dr. Michael Subbey of the Department of Early Childhood Education masterminded the dismissal of a young, promising lecturer, Mr. Mark Gyapong, for mysterious reasons. Dr. Latipher Amma Osei is dancing to the tune of Avoke, and Wilhelmina, and feeding them with concocted and malicious information on others for favours. She, for her “brilliant job,” received “plaudits” during the first session of the 27th congregation, as the best and most hard-working staff. We leave it to the entire university community to best judge.
As indicated in my earlier write-up, Prof. Avoke is going down as the worst-ever VC in the history of UEW. He is superintending over illegalities and sheer wickedness. He has given himself a five-year post-retirement contract at UEW. Avoke has been appointing senior lecturers as opposed to professors; a typical example is the appointment of Dr. Albert Wornyo as Dean of the School of Communication and Media Studies. The choice is strange, and the reasons behind it are bogus! Is it because of his name? Another laughable appointment is the appointment of Mrs. Wilhelmina Tete-Mensah, the Ag. Registrar as Registrar. Will she die if her name does not go into the records showing that she was the Registrar of UEW? She knows that the position does not belong to her, and it’s only a matter of time.
As iterated in my earlier article, now every staff member in the finance section is a senior member, contrary to Ackorlie’s own drafted advertisement. This advertisement indicated that there were ten (10) vacancies. Those who did not qualify based on his own advertisement end up being promoted, including those who hold master’s degrees in project management and public administration. It is noteworthy that these degrees are unrelated to finance or accounting. The other dangerous development is the promotion of staff to senior management positions, contrary to the established procedure based on publications and work done.
Lecturers at UEW were shortchanged on the payment of invigilation allowances, which had been delayed for five months for reasons best known to FOVC. The Finance Officer, Theophilus Ackorlie, despite the prevailing UEW approved rate of twenty cedis (¢20) per session, the lowest amount among public universities in Ghana, decided to use his discretion to slash it to half the amount due invigilators. The talk all over campus is that he is trying to save money for Avoke’s retirement this month. No wonder this semester’s examinations are struggling to get invigilators at the various centers. The same Machiavellian tactics were employed during the payment of sandwich claims. Under the previous administration, payment of such claims was done with alacrity and in accordance with policy. Payment of internship supervision, medical claims, expenditure refunds, and imprest has been delayed unduly. Let’s arise UTAG UEW; arise the staff of UEW. We have been taken for granted by this administration for far too long. Let’s forget about not getting positions and allowances. Man shall not live by bread alone.
There is a subtle development that perhaps is not attracting the attention of members of the university community. Have we asked ourselves how two (2) retired professors, Prof. Jonathan Armah and Prof. Asiedu Addo, are presiding over almost all committees in the university under this administration? From the Vice Chancellor’s and CODeL Principal search committee, numerous investigative committees, disciplinary boards, and other committees, these two retirees have been at the centre of the action. They are also lobbying for positions for their cronies. I wonder why retirees should dominate the decision-making process, with consequences for those in active service. Is it an indication of a lack of capacity on the part of those in active service? The answer is a big no! It is rather a mere avenue to create jobs for the boys, but the decisions taken by these retirees have far-reaching consequences for those in active service. Please let the retirees play less active roles so those in active service can grow!
Can you believe that one of the kangaroo committees set up by Prof. Avoke to dismiss some top management members was made up of Prof. Victor Antwi as Chairman in his capacity as the Pro Vice-Chancellor and some professors like Prof. Emmanuel Sarpong and Prof. David Zuuri, who had barely been promoted overnight to serve on it? Even more startling is the appointment of a Junior Assistant Registrar, Ms. Evelyn Kukuwaa Gorman (sweetheart to Ackorlie), as Secretary to the committee. It appears this committee had all the makings of mischief all around it. Do you also know that the legal person on the committee was not a lawyer but a judge? A criminally minded job of the highest order!
We want to know from Finance Officer Theophilus Ackorlie, who owns the Low-Price Masters shop at the commercial center. Has he employed a family member as a facility manager? It isn’t surprising that he has single-handedly pumped staff pension funds into non-value-for-money projects like the commercial center. What’s the justification for pouring people’s hard-earned pension funds into this project without recourse to laid-down structures? What do the contributors to the fund stand to benefit from this valueless investment?
Nana Ofori Ansah 1 and Alex Bonney, immediate past council chairman and a member of the council, respectively, only exploited the existing challenges at the university and, with the connivance of lawyers Paa Kwesi Abaidoo and Roland Kesson Hamilton, milked it. Where there was no problem, these two former Council members created one so they could come to campus for some allowances. In anticipation of a fightback on these unpopular decisions, actions, and policies, the university recently issued a whimsical circular warning staff to desist from taking them to court. Why does the university implement policies in a whimsical and capricious manner to compel people to act? Whoever calls for equity must come with clean hands. You can’t approbate and reprobate. You can’t be seen intentionally creating confusion to benefit from it.
We want to know if the disciplinary committees or boards set up by the University Council to investigate staff who were asked to step aside have submitted reports after being slapped with injunctions. Did the committees or boards state in their reports that they were unable to continue the investigations due to an injunction application filed and served on the university? What was the advice of the legal persons on the committees or boards? It would be interesting to know! So, on what basis did the Council dismiss the staff asked to step aside? The decision of the Council in their meeting to sack some officers was born out of bad faith and a clear demonstration of vindictiveness.
The Carpenter from the Akenten Appiah-Menka University of Skills Training and Entrepreneurial Development (AAMUSTED), Prof. Mitchual, should better advise himself before it’s too late. The seat is not vacant. Even if the seat is vacant, the composition of the search committee, chaired by Dr. Ernest Bruce Twum, a senior lecturer at Central University, renders the whole process void. That position should have been occupied by a person of professorial status. No amount of absurd explanation can fix it. I join all right-thinking members of the university in asking His Excellency the President to reverse that staged appointment. Everything about it was foretold prior to it happening, like how some people came on live radio to tell us what was going to happen way before the processes were activated. It makes it intrinsically irredeemable. Mr. President, kindly stop all those meddling in the affairs of UEW and steering off course on their personal interests to stay far away from it.
I will continue to call for the intervention of all the stakeholders, especially His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo Addo, Minister of Education, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, and GTEC Director Mohammed Salifu, until help comes to save UEW from collapse.
God bless UEW!
From K. P. Paul
Concerned Staff, UEW
[email protected]