Deputy Information Minister hints UG might be renamed after J.B Danquah

The Deputy Minister for Information believes it won’t be wrong to rename the University of Ghana (UG) after the late Ghanaian statesman J.B Danquah.

Pius Enam Hadzide said he “will not be surprised” should the University’s governing council take such a decision.

Although J.B Danquah was one of the primary opposition leaders to independence leader Kwame Nkrumah, he is generally regarded as one of the founding fathers of Ghana.

The lawyer and historian helped to found the pro-independence United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) party.

Reports from certain quarters claim the government may soon rename the University of Ghana (UG) after JB Danquah following a similar exercise with regard to other public universities. The deputy Information Minister, though, says he will be excited should that happen.

“I’ll not be surprised; I’ve done some reading and I would actually be excited that such doyen, not only of African politics, not only Ghanaian politics but, indeed, international politics, a trailblazer as far as the amplification of the African voice is concerned,” Mr. Hadzide said in an interview with Starr FM.

“I would be quite excited that the Governing Council will make that consideration. However, I’m not aware that at this moment that consideration is being laid I’m not a member of the board…,” he added.

The renaming of public universities is gradually becoming a constant feature of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government.

In the Akufo-Addo government’s two and half years in office, more than three public tertiary institutions have been renamed after former politicians.

First, it was the Wa and Navrongo campuses of University of Development Studies (UDS) and, now, the University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR) is also set to be renamed.

Known previously as the University of Business and Integrated Development Studies, the Wa campus of UDS has been renamed the ‘Simon Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies’.