Did the UG Professor really call for the dissolution of Akufo-Addo’s government?

I thought I was dreaming when perusing through the seemingly bizarre story attributed to a certain Professor at the University of Ghana, captioned: ‘Adentan-Madina road deaths: Dissolve Akufo-Addo government – Gyampo’ (classfmonline.com/ghanaweb.com, 9/11/2018).

Despite my initial incertitude, the story nonetheless appeared genuine. Apparently, Professor Gyampo is reported to have written the seemingly baffling and somewhat incoherent statement on his Facebook page. How bizarre?

The Professor is reported to have furiously upbraided the Roads Minister following the unfortunate , albeit avoidable accident which caused the death on Thursday, of a first-year student of the West Africa Senior High School under one of the many uncompleted footbridges over the Adenta-Medina highway.

The Professor censured somewhat angrily: “Listen to the Roads and Highways Ministry fumbling on Adom Fm. He is a total disaster and a failure. Running a ministry isn’t child’s play and propaganda. Dissolve the government like KNUST Governing Council.”

Well, I have grasped the Professor’s clever drift. But, I am afraid, I cannot buy such a sophistic thought process. Indeed, the idea of anyone seriously calling for the dissolution of the entire government is a nonstarter.

In as much as the Professor has every right to pour his heart out and castigate the individuals holding positions in government for failing to discharge their duties as expected of them, it is absolutely wrong to call for the dissolution of the entire government.

More so it is extremely fallacious for anyone to argue that in so far as the government of the day can unilaterally dissolve a university governing council over a seemingly chaotic and somewhat intractable conflict, the elected government should also be dissolved for a section of appointees dereliction of duty.

In retrospect, the university council was established by an Act of Parliament, while the government was put together as prescribed by the Constitution of Ghana.

In theory, therefore, the university governing council cannot be deemed as a “nonderogable” position. In other words, despite being existed through an act of Parliament, in case of any emergency, the elected president has the absolute power to dissolve such entity so as to protect lives and property.

Realistically, though, whereas we can easily identify and sanction the individuals whose actions and inactions caused the regrettable accident at Adenta-Medina highway which claimed an innocent soul, it was not so easy to pinpoint a particular individual amongst the university governing council who instigated the impasse at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).

In that regard, in order to protect lives and property, the elected president of the land had no option than to revoke the mandate of the university governing council.

Let us however be honest, the otherwise avoidable truculent demonstration by the KNUST students was as result of an abject failure by the leadership and management.

Human change, whether at the individual or group level, is a profound psychological dynamic process that may involve painful unlearning without loss of ego, identity and difficult relearning, as one cognitively attempts to restructure one's thoughts, perceptions, feelings, and attitudes (Schein 1995).

While changing the work values and culture of group or team can be a challenge, there is an established recognition of the importance of frameworks, interpretive models, systems and flexible methodologies in enabling groups, or specific teams, to identify common values and learn to handle challenges and work collaboratively and systematically to achieve a common goal (Checkland & Poulter, 2006).

Frankly stating, the accident which caused the life of the young student is heart-wrenching. Suffice it to stress that it would not have happened if some people at responsible positions had acted promptly.

That notwithstanding, it is boundlessly oxymoronic for anyone to call for the dissolution of the entire government, instead of holding individuals to account for their actions and inactions.

K. Badu, UK.

k.badu2011@gmail.com