Akufo-Addo’s hint at renaming UG after JB Danquah was 'loose talk' – Nii Moi Thompson

President Nana Akufo-Addo's recent hint at renaming the University of Ghana after his late uncle J. B. Danquah is "loose talk", economist NIi Moi Thompson has said.

Speaking recently at the 75th Anniversary Thanksgiving Service of the university, President Akufo-Addo praised the Big Six member's pivotal role in establishing the institution of higher learning and suggested that such a renaming would be fitting.

"It will be wholly appropriate and not at all far-fetched, to describe Joseph Boakye Dankwa as the founder of this university," Mr Akufo-Addo asserted.

He said it is "a fact, which, on the 75th anniversary of its existence, should be vividly recalled by all of us who have been and are beneficiaries of his work".

"Indeed, in many other jurisdictions where there is less heat in their politics and more attachment to the fact of historical record, it would not have been out of place to have this university named after him," the president observed, hinting: "Who knows, one day it may well happen."

However, Dr Thompson, in an article tittled: 'Beware, the tribal supremacists: Myths of J.B. Danquah and the Big Six', said the "public’s swift and no-nonsense rejection of the president’s loose talk about renaming UG after his uncle is a pointed reminder that Ghanaians would not tolerate the bastardisation of their history by any group or tribe, no matter how powerful or privileged they might feel".

In his view, the president and his kinsmen have warped history to legendarise their ancestry.

He said through "crude concoction of facts and fiction, they tend to believe that they own the country and can do as they please", noting: "Textbooks, for instance, have been doctored and Danquah given disproportionate prominence in Ghana’s history".