we are writing as a team to inform the public that certain actions taken by Prof. Ahmed Jinapor Abdulai, Director-General of the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC), exceed his authority. We also aim to shed light on an unwarranted intervention by the Vice-Chancellors of Technical Universities of Ghana (VCTU-G) regarding developments at Bolgatanga Technical University (BTU).
All the tertiary institutions are governed by a Governing Council. The Governing Council has got appointees of government. The Chairman of the Council is an appointee of the President. Once it is a public institution, it is controlled by government.
When Governing Councils are inaugurated, it is done by the Minister of Education on behalf of the President. The Governing Council, through the Chairman, speaks to the President through the Minister of Education.
The Governing Council can speak directly to the President; but on a day-to-day basis, they speak through the Minister. That is how the structure is. So, you would find out that even in most of these Councils, they would tell you that if the Council Chairman is absent, it is one of the government appointees who assumes the position of Chairman of Council. So, without the government appointees, you cannot have a Council; it does not operate.
The GTEC Director-General is an appointee of government, just like the GTEC Board also has an appointee of government. How can one appointee of government be directing another appointee of the same government or President? The GTEC Director-General is there to regulate, not to control, not to direct. As a Director-General, his duty is to come out with the regulations. The first question is: what are the regulations? The second question is: how did those regulations come out?
Call for investigation
The information we have is that even Prof. Ahmed Jinapor Abdulai’s own board is not aware of most of the things he does.
He does most of the things unilaterally and this must be investigated about him. These things, for that matter, do not qualify as a regulation because they are his own opinions. Personal opinions do not qualify as regulations.
If it is a proper regulation, it goes with the criteria, the formula and everything, and it is passed through the process. It is like a Legislative Instrument (LI). And, then, people would give their pros and their cons before you can come out and say this is the rule.
That is why the GTEC Board is made up of all kinds of people. Besides the government appointees and so on, there are also representatives of the universities and other entities, so that by the time they are making any decision all those things have been factored into the process. That is how the regulation is done. If you as a GTEC Director-General ignore all of those things and do your own thing alone, then you are coming out with your own rules.
What is expected of GTEC and what is not
As a GTEC Director-General, you are supposed to advise government on tertiary education; that is true. That is part of your role.
But do you advise government on a matter that you have little or no knowledge about? You have never been in university management at that high level. The truth of the matter is that an individual cannot understand university management unless they have been there. Anybody who has never been at the rank of dean and above does not know much about university management. Even with deanship, sometimes, you are still at the periphery.
The GTEC Director-General’s lack of experience is telling in how he is poorly handling the affairs of the Commission. He has no business instructing or directing a university when there is a Governing Council. If he were clothed with such authority, then what is the use of the Council? A GTEC Director-General can only advise the Minister of Education. He or she cannot instruct or direct the Governing Council of any university in Ghana.
If you advise a minister and the minister agrees with you, the minister can write to Council. The speed at which Prof. Ahmed Jinapor Abdulai writes his directives makes it so obvious that there would be no prior consultation; because, sometimes, if somebody writes a letter on 17th, and 18th you have already replied, the question is when did you consult the GTEC Board before writing and issuing that letter?
GTEC cannot control universities
We all remember that when somebody raised an issue about Prof. Ahmed Jinapor Abdulai’s own promotion, ‘GTEC’ replied the following day. How was that done?
The letter was addressed to the GTEC Board Chair and ‘somebody’ in GTEC is replying. Is the person a board chair? This is so ridiculous. You cannot tell us that all the people in GTEC, the staff of GTEC, are more qualified than the staff in the universities. Absolutely not. So, how can they be controlling us? It should be more of consultative; then, we all agree and you get it done through the right process.
Prof. Ahmed Jinapor Abdulai should not sit somewhere and be giving instructions in a bullying manner as if he is higher, superior or knows better. Even the ministers of education do not direct universities. No education minister directs universities. He who has the power does not direct us. Then, GTEC?
The problem is that, very often, when the GTEC Director-General does these things, people do not question the things he does. He thinks that he is good with the media and can always have his way. This will not continue.
Governing Council of Bolgatanga Technical University should remain focused
We wish to at this juncture state that we have sighted a copy of a letter written by the ‘Vice-Chancellors of Technical Universities of Ghana (VCTU-G)’ to the Governing Council of the Bolgatanga Technical University.
VCTU-G says in its own letter that it has “carefully observed” the “recent governance developments” at the university and “the growing tension” between the Chairman of the university’s Governing Council and the Vice-Chancellor.
VCTU-G goes on to urge the Governing Council to comply with the directive given by GTEC, which mainly is to stay the decision that the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Samuel E. Alnaa, should proceed on his accumulated one-year leave.
The letter did not come as a surprise to anyone because it was expected that VCTU-G would only be seeking to protect the interest of one of its members, Prof. Samuel E. Alnaa. We did not expect anything different from VCTU-G. What we find so shocking is the silence the same VCTU-G had maintained for years and the indifference it exhibited when Prof. Samuel E. Alnaa, a member of VCTU-G, was taking the questionable decisions that led to the recent governance developments and growing tension involving the Governing Council, the Vice-Chancellor and GTEC.
When petitions from staff, groups and residents of Bolgatanga were flooding the university against the Vice-Chancellor, VCTU-G did not show any concern and did not see the need to call its own member to order. It did not even bother to go through any of the petitions so it could advise its member, Prof. Samuel E. Alnaa, accordingly. But the same VCTU-G, seeing the lawful action being taken by the Governing Council against the Vice-Chancellor in the interest of the public, suddenly has seen the need to ask the Governing Council to comply with the baseless order from GTEC regarding the Council’s decisions.
Conclusion
We urge the Governing Council, chaired by the venerable Dr. Bishop Akolgo, not to be swayed by the bullish statement from GTEC and the hypocritical letter from VCTU-G.
We urge the Governing Council to be steadfast and execute its decisions as pronounced because the decisions are in the good interest of the university community and beyond.
We understand GTEC Director-General, Prof. Ahmed Jinapor Abdulai, is scheduled to meet with the Governing Council on this matter. We urge the Governing Council to be firm and put the interests of the university community and the public first and above any personal interests. The Governing Council has got its own good name, integrity, credibility, reputation and public image to protect at all costs. The Governing Council is not answerable to GTEC.
No reasonable individual or group would disagree with the Council’s decisions after following the past actions of the Vice-Chancellor and the contents of the petitions filed against him. If the Vice-Chancellor has no skeleton hidden in his cupboard, why is he is resisting to go on his own accumulated leave to pave the way for further investigations into his administration?
GTEC has no authority to direct a Governing Council and we do not expect anything else from VCTU-G with respect to this matter other than throwing its irrelevant weight behind its own like-minded member. We are of a strong belief that both Jinapor-led GTEC and VCTU-G have been personally invited into this matter by the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Samuel E. Alnaa, to help him cover up what the public must hear about.
While we conclude by reminding the Governing Council to be firm in placing the interests of the university community and the public first in all engagements related to this matter, we also wish to commend the Governing Council for promoting accountability and transparency and for fostering peace and order among the staff and students of the university.
This viewpoint was put together by a team of senior members of public universities in Ghana.
Publisher: Media Without Borders/mwbonline.org/Ghana/ West Africa
