Members of the Alumni Association of Unity Hall also known as Continental Hall of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) have vowed to end the political ambitions of Education Minister Dr Mathew Opoku Prempeh (Napo).
According to the group, Dr Prempeh who is an alumnus has betrayed the oath he took to defend the interest of the hall at all times.
“We today by this communiqué as the alumni association of Unity Hall revoke the hall’s blessings bestowed on Mathew Opoku Prempeh and wish him the opposite for the rest of his political path; Unity Hall will forever mobilise thousands of Alumni to campaign against him on all occasions and we assure him that we would play roles to end his political ambition,” the group said in a statement.
The threat comes on the back of moves by the university authorities to convert Unity Hall and Katanga Hall, both all-male halls into mixed halls.
While addressing the brouhaha over the conversion which has been strongly opposed by alumni of both halls and sparked renewed protest, Dr Prempeh in a statement backed Katanga to remain a male hall without stating any position on Unity Hall.
The alumni of Unity Hall say they feel betrayed and will resist any attempt to convert the hall into a mixed one.
Similarly, the Alumni has also striped the Vice Chancellor Professor Kwasi Obiri-Danso off his affiliation to the Hall. According to them, Professor Obiri-Danso is the “main enemy of Unity Hall” and “the man who started all this confusion”.
The group said they will take their next step after the verdict of the committee set up by the Chancellor of the university Otumfuo Osei Tutu II to look into the matter is announced.
Below is the full statement:
UNITY HALL (CONTI) PRESS RELEASE ON CONVERSION MATTERS We, the Unity Hall Alumni Association at an emergency meeting held on Sunday 8th September, 2019 to address the emerging issues regarding hall conversion on the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) campus, where the emerging issues being, a purported letter from the Minister for Education directing the University Council to revert the decision against one hall and still intends to convert Unity Hall, a hall expressly established by a regulation in 1968 as an all-male hall into a mixed hall.
In our deliberations, we present the following as our take on the entire matter:
The Genesis
The University for the 2018-19 academic year with its intention sent female students into Unity Hall in line with a purported Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) policy.
The STEM was intended to increase female intake, so the University argued that there was the need give more accommodation to female students on campus.
So argument that University needs accommodation space but did not build structures towards this pretty agenda and not intending any time soon.
However, the truth is that it is few members of the University administrative hierarchy, who genuinely want the obliteration of such structural institutional legacies, and we know this because majority of the University staff are alumni of Unity hall and Katanga hall and would appreciate, strict reforms than obliteration of live monuments.
Steps Taken
Conti petitioned Education Ministry and the ministry did nothing.
Conti then went to Court, and applied for an injunction to halt the conversion for the matter to be determined by the State of Ghana but a judge dismissed same and let the whole country down.
Judicial Blunder
Ghana must hold responsible the High Court judge who dismissed Unity hall’s injunction application, a judge who showed more excitement in helping the University alter Unity and Katanga halls, which decision is responsible for the series of events that came after.
Conti later gathered that this judge is a ‘diehard Commonwealth hall affiliate’, and thus, it was clear that he felt, if Unity Hall and Katanga Hall are altered, Commonwealth Hall would remain some kind of mystery, as he displayed such undertones during the hearing of the application.
But when the Commonwealth conversion attempt came up, Nana Akuoko Sarpong, Supreme Court Judge Justice Anin Yeboah and others were some notable affiliates who disagreed with the attempt, including Former President Mahama, where all these personalities presented that the hall’s legacy, must not be obliterated.
So this chauvinistic judge, who was glad to see Unity and Katanga halls altered and let Ghana down by ignoring to keep the status quo, until the court had looked into the matter for final direction regarding hall conversions, must also be blamed forever by posterity, he is the cause for the unrest that followed after his judicial blunder.
Matthew Poku Prempeh and Obiri Danso Striped Off Alumni Status
Matthew Poku Prempeh, the current Minister of Education and Obiri Danso, the current VC of KNUST, were all inmates of Unity Hall during their days in KNUST and by extension, took life time oaths to defend the interest of the hall at all times. However, it is clear, these two persons have betrayed the historical course of the hall, as the main persons hoping to obliterate the legacy of the spiritual mother that sheltered and nurtured them to be educated humans; you can’t bite the hands that fed you, they ought to know.
In 2008, before Matthew Poku Prempeh finalized his intention to run for Parliament, he sent his little sister for permission to come pay homage to have the hall’s blessings, same was honoured and he appeared before the JCRC and accordingly was blessed for victory, as one of our own.
However, we today by this communique, as the Alumni Association of our great Hall, revoke the hall’s blessings bestowed on Matthew Poku Prempeh and wish him the opposite in the rest of his political ambitions, Unity Hall would forever mobilize thousands of Alumni to campaign against him on all occasions, we assure him. His politics has ended.
And for Obiri Danso, he is the main enemy of Unity Hall, as he is the devil who started all this nonsense. Unity Hall wishes for same pain and daily frustrations meted on other Alumni by his betrayal, on his household and generations unborn, they must also see and feel what pain is.
We hereby stripe Matthew Poku Prempeh and Obiri Danso off their affiliation to Unity Hall with immediate effect. And by this, the Old Continentals Association would forever resist any attempt by these two ungrateful and betrayals of Unity Hall to lay claim of affiliation to Unity Hall for any gain whatsoever, be it moral or any such goodwill that stands in Unity Hall’s glorious name. And not even their future generations would be allowed to make such claim, as their cut off from Unity Hall would be made public for posterity to know.
Continental Unity Hall Established as All-Male Hall
We have argued time and again that Unity Hall was expressly established by a regulation in 1968 as an ‘all-male’ hall and so is in a league of its own. And that any attempt to change its nature by an administrative officer would be fiercely resisted. Only Africa Hall is the hall in the same league with Unity as expressly established.
Matter still in Court – this point to be looked at
Matter is currently in Court and only halted because Otumfour, the Chancellor of the University stepped in to resolve the matter. So we patiently, await the Chancellor’s final verdict and not give currency to the so-called communique from the Minister of Education going round. It’s after the Chancellor’s verdict that Unity Hall will take the next step, which surely would be of great national concern.
Source: classfmonline.com