Belated Initiative But Most Welcome

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

Garden City, New York

April 24, 2015

E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net

The announcement that a bevy of scholars and intellectuals on the faculty of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) intend to marshal their professional acumen in a bid to helping the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) return to power in 2017, ought to come as good news to all progressive-minded Ghanaians (See "KNUST SeniorLecturers Join NPP 2016 Campaign" 4/20/15).

The wonder here is that these members of the country's brain trust should wait this long in order to help stem the tide of Ghana's abysmal and apocalyptic downward spiral. And so it comes as very refreshing, however dispiritingly belatedly such a healthy gesture may be. It is equally refreshing that the KNUST professors, led by Dr. Kwabena Boadu, intend to operate as a think-tank by focusing their attention on the formulation of policy alternatives in order to facilitate the country's socioeconomic development.

We must also hasten to add that in terms of individual participation in national politics, this is not the first time that KNUST faculty members are stepping into the government policy-shaping sphere. What is even more significant is the KNUST NPP Frontliners' decision to simplify the implication of government policy initiatives to ordinary Ghanaians, the very people who constitute the overwhelming majority of the electorate. In this context, therefore, the KNUST NPP Frontliners cannot be reasonably accused of being inordinately partisan in their initiative. They may well shape up to become ideal models of what it means to be labeled as statesmen and women.

On the latter score, one anticipates the ranks of the KNUST NPP Frontliners to remarkably teem with the active involvement and participation of women academicians and professionals. At any rate, as bona fide citizens of Ghana, these KNUST scholars and intellectuals have a civic responsibility to vote in all elections, be they local or national. By extension, this also means that these members of our national brain trust have an inalienable right to belong to any of the recognized political parties in the country if they so choose. And so, really, it would be nothing short of the downright preposterous to accuse the KNUST NPP Frontliners of being inordinately or illegitimately partisan.

What they cannot do as KNUST professors is turn their classrooms and lecture halls into a propaganda wing of the New Patriotic Party. But, of course, if they happen to teach humanities and social science courses which call for a contextually relevant discussion of ideological or political issues, then it is all-too-natural to expect these KNUST NPP Frontliners to interject their individual and personal perspectives into topics of pedagogical discourse, as long as they do not foist their views on their students. As well, when it comes to evaluating the work of their students, adequate care ought to be taken not to penalize students who may be envisaged to virulently disagree with any of these KNUST NPP Frontliners.

Needless to say, it makes for a healthy and progressive academic environment for lecturers and professors to be able to clinically distinguish their personal opinions from the right of their students to hold divergent albeit equally valid opinions and perspectives. I must also respectfully acknowledge Mr. Michael Ayensu, a self-confessed avid reader of my columns, who brought this news item and controversial subject to my attention for my input, which he deems to be quite refreshing and significant.

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