UTAG memorandum on public universities bill to parliament - Prof Raymond Atuguba writes

Whilst thanking the UTAGs for dealing with what can only be a daunting task, I would like to stress that we have a duty to say, at the very beginning of the Memo, that the entire Bill offends the SPIRIT of the 1992 Constitution, and that many parts of the Bill offend the LETTER of the Constitution. Given that hundreds of amendments are needed to make the Bill constitutionally wholesome; and considering that the 4th Republican Parliament has a long standing tradition of requesting that Bills and Draft Regulations that contain such shortcomings be withdrawn by the relevant Minister, thoroughly re-worked, and re-laid; the position of UTAG must be that Parliament should take this latter course of action, and not proceed further with the Bill.

Professor Adomako Ampofo and Dr. Anyidoho appear to suggest that UTAG’s primary position must be that the Bill is completely unnecessary. I propose that this be the second point. Indeed, the Bill does not solve any problem. On the contrary, it creates hundreds of new problems for public universities, and is, therefore, unnecessary. If we must speak plainly, however veiled, this Bill is a crude reaction to recent sagas in the Universities of Ghana; Winneba; Science and Technology; etc, and proceeds on the assumption that governmental control of the central nervous system of the university-the University Council-and the arrogation to government of powers of appointment and dismissal of university officials, is the surest way of preventing the perceived recalcitrance exhibiting by those universities, when government sought to control them in much the same way they control government ministries and departments, and the public officers who work there.

(Un)fortunately, the framers of our 1992 Constitution foresaw this, and provided against it. In Article 68, and under the title “CONDITIONS OF OFFICE OF PRESIDENT”, the framers, in the face of competing claims for premiership amongst 9 clauses, stated in the very first clause of that article as follows: “The President shall not hold the office of chancellor or head of any university in Ghana”.

The framers knew that this was not enough to prevent a President or Minister from interfering with academic freedom, and so they added in Article 195 of the Constitution language to the effect that the President has the power to appoint officers to any public service in Ghana, EXCEPT public universities and kindred institutions. The following are the very words of the Constitution in this regard: “195 (1) Subject to the provisions of this Constitution, the power to appoint persons to hold or to act in an office in the public services shall vest in the President…(3) The power to appoint persons to hold or act in an office in a body of higher education, research or professional training, shall vest in the council or other governing body of that institution or body.”

Let us get serious here.

How can a President, who is directly, positively, and unequivocally constitutionally barred from heading a public university, turn round and appoint the majority of persons to the body that the Constitution says should head the university in place of the President? Aba!

How can Parliament vest in a President, who is directly, positively, and unequivocally constitutionally barred from appointing any person to hold office in a public university, the power to dissolve the body to which that power is given in place of the President, and the power to revoke the appointments of individual members of that body (the University Council)? Ebei!

How can a University Council, with 8 government appointees, have a quorum for meetings set at 7, so that only government appointees may meet over the application for Asso. Prof. of a foremost critic of the President (or the Minister for Education), who appointed the 7 as members of the Council? Bismillah rahman rahim.

And there are many provisions in this Bill that will ensure that our contracts, leases and mortgages, agreements, finances, grants, even simple university partnerships, are subjected to prior ministerial approval; and we all know that these will take months, if not years to come; effectively stultifying the university.     

By the way, under Clause 48, the Minister, can one fine morning, on the advice of a new creature called the Tertiary Education Commission, which creature remains undefined in the 30 pages of the Bill, by Legislative Instrument, delete “University of Ghana” from the First Schedule of the law, and from that moment, or if we are lucky, after 21 sitting days in Parliament and without any debate, the University of Ghana will cease to be a public university; all our names will be off the government payroll, together with BRA; we would not be entitled to any government funding of any kind; etc, etc, etc.  

This Bill is extremely bad news. I am surprised we are playing with it.   

As far as I am concerned, the only good thing about this Bill is that it christines the University of Ghana the “premier University” and the only university in the lot with a “global” reach. I feel sad for my friends, the Tech and Cape Vas alums.