Mahama, Akufo-Addo 'fight' over who made UDS autonomous

Former President John Mahama and his successor Akufo-Addo have locked horns in a ‘dirty little fight’ over who made the University for Development Studies (UDS) autonomous, MyNewsGh.com has filed.

President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo over the weekend revealed that Cabinet has given its approval for the Wa and Navrongo campuses of the University for Development Studies (UDS), Tamale, to become autonomous universities, speaking at the 25th-anniversary celebration of UDS.

The President told the gathering that cabinet has given its approval for the Wa Campus of UDS to become an autonomous University.

“The Bill for Gazetting is currently with the Attorney General, and, once gazetted, it will be sent to Parliament for ratification as the University of Business Integrated Development Studies,” he said.

The President indicated further that the Navrongo Campus of UDS will also become an autonomous University, once the parliamentary processes are completed, “and it will be referred to as the University of Technology and Applied Sciences. So, UDS, Tamale, will remain, thereafter, the exclusive property of the Northern Region.”

But President Mahama’s 'boys' on social media say the whole idea is a brainchild of John Mahama, sighting a Ghana News Agency report of July 8th 2016 where Mr Mahama announced a Committee of Experts working on the conversion of University for Development Studies (UDS) campuses into autonomous universities have completed their work and submitted it to him for execution.

President John Mahama said, "at the time that government would by next year (2017) declare all the three campuses autonomous as soon as decisions are finalized."

President Mahama announced this when he inaugurated an Upper West Regional Library Complex at Wa as part of his two- day ‘Accounting to the people’ tour of the region in 2016.

The UDS has three campuses at Wa in the Upper West Region, Nyankpala in the Northern Region and Navrongo in the Upper East Region.

Its enrollment figures had risen over the years thereby necessitating the call for the autonomous status to implement many other programmes that would enhance education in the three regions.