Veep's Son To Face Dismissal From KNUST

... ... As Aliu's daughter abandons US University for marriage

The news item last week on Joy FM was as abrupt as it was dramatic.

Farouk Malik Mahama, son of Vice President Aliu Mahama, a second year student at the KNUST, had failed five of his examination papers and had been put on probation pending possible dismissal!

The news item, attributed to a Registrar of the University, went on to talk about the riotous living of young Farouk on the campus and his love of revelry, and that he had been warned that he risked being expelled from the University if he did not pull his weight.

But the fate that is about to befall young Master Mahama should not come as a surprise to his Vice President father who appears to have condoned his son's undisciplined and lavish lifestyle on campus, despite his own collapsed Campaign against Indiscipline.

At least on two occasions, Ghana Palaver has had cause to express worry about the way the young man was comporting himself on campus.

In our issue Vol. 9 No. 52 of Wednesday, April 23-Thursday, April 24, 2003, we published the story of a big, birthday bash that young Farouk had at the new SSNIT block at KNUST.

We detailed how Farouk, then a first year student, turned the University campus upside down and inside out in one big jamboree of a birthday party and he and his colleagues boogied the night away from 9.00 p.m. till 4.00 a.m, with almost the entire KNUST student population in attendance.

We reported how there was food, booze and girls aplenty and there were "Bacchanalian Orgies" galore, Vandal City style.

Prophetically, we wrote that it would appear that for that night, young Farouk had been granted an exemption from his father's "Campaign Against Indiscipline".

We followed up with another publication in our issue Vol. 9 No. 53 of Friday, April 25-Monday, April 28, 2003, in which we reported that Farouk had failed his first year Interim Assessment examination but had been allowed to stay on against laid-down regulations.

We revealed that Farouk had scored very low marks far below the admission grades, but managed to be "considered" for the continuation of the course following orders from above and at the expense of more qualified applicants.

And now this!

But the Vice President's problems with domestic indiscipline are not restricted to his son.

Selma Mahama

Readers will recall that early this year, the daughter of the Vice President, Selma, then a student at the University of Atlanta, Georgia, conned mummy and daddy into believing that she had completed her course and was due to be awarded her degree.

Mummy therefore flew all the way to Atlanta where she organised a big pre-graduation party bash for Selma and her friends, only to be hit with a bombshell the next day!

Little Selma had only not graduated, but she had actually abandoned her course and was living as the common law "wife" with her long standing Ghanaian boy-friend, Habib.

This was too much for the Aliu Mahamas to take, so they brought Selma and Farouk down to Ghana and before one could say "Jack", the "mother of all weddings" had been arranged between the two.

The venue? State House Banquet Hall.

Readers should recall, because your authoritative Ghana Palaver provided a blow-by- blow account of the wedding that was carried in about three consecutive issues of this paper.

Selma and Habib

The latest "filla" is that Selma and Habib are back in Atlanta, Georgia, not working, but living like real millionaires.

Daddy Aliu Mahama allegedly carried enough funds last month when he went to address the UN General Assembly in New York and to open the flopped 'Ghana Expo 2004' exhibition in Atlanta, to purchase a house in Atlanta for daughter Selma and husband Habib.

Aliu Mahama

Ghana Palaver has learnt that the academic problems that the Aliu Mahama children are facing may not entirely be of their making. It could be genetic.

Ghana Palaver's historical research has revealed that in his time, father Aliu Mahama, the Vice President, did not actually qualify to enter the University.

At a time when the minimum entry requirements were just two "E's". Aliu Mahama passed with only one "E". However, the Registrar of Scholarships at the time, one Mr. Benson, had a soft spot for students from the Northern regions because of the relatively disadvantaged environment that they came from. He therefore practised his own personalised version of "Affirmative Action" in favour of Northern students.

It was under this scheme that he packaged Aliu Mahama, the unqualified student, to gain entry into KNUST to pursue a course in Civil Engineering.

We hear that like his son, Aliu Mahama the student also really struggled before he managed to complete his course.