The Vice Chancellor of the University of Education, Winneba, and his management, including the Governing Council, are set to ‘honour’ the Right Honourable Speaker of Parliament, Mike Oquaye, with an honorary doctorate degree sooner than later.
While such a move, in an ideal situation, ought to receive a standing ovation for all its relevant and beautific effects, same cannot be said about this one.
I find it rather demeaning for the Right Honourable Speaker of our august Parliament to welcome such an award from a group of people who flout the laws of the land with impunity.
Mr. Speaker is a behemoth in the field of human rights and same must form the basis upon which he puts this upcoming event on hold until such a time the human rights records of Rev. Father Anthony Afful Broni and his top management improve.
Reverend Professor Anthony Afful Broni, in cahoots with his top management have been abusing the rights of their workers.
This group has been engaging in the victimization of some workers of the institution who do not kowtow to their whims and caprices.
It is instructive to note that the Chairman of the Governing Council of the University commissioned a committee and charged it to look at the way forward with respect to a court’s decision reversing some unlawful dismissals handed out to some innocent workers of the institution.
The report, Mr. Speaker, has since been ready but for some grotesque reasons, the Chairman of the Governing Council has been dilly-dallying for weeks.
Surprisingly, the Chairman of the Governing Council, though claims to be busy so much so that he cannot be located to be presented with the findings of the committee he himself set up, he has been able to avail himself to organize a convocation and then this impending honorary doctorate degree they intend conferring on Mr. Speaker.
Clearly, his seemingly but manifested busyness is another ploy to continue to trample on the rights of those individual workers of UEW who have been cleared by a court of competent jurisdiction.
The Right Honourable Speaker has earned his PhD by merit and does not need an honorary one from a group of people whose hands are tainted with such poor human rights issues.
The Vice Chancellor, Afful Broni, Osei Barima and the Chairman of the Governing Council are subjects of contempt proceedings at the Winneba High Court following their deliberate moves to disrespect the orders of the court.
Mr. Speaker persevered to reach the summit of his career as an associate professor and must not dishonour this with an honorary degree from a group whose only interest is to seek credibility by associating themselves with a top class leader in the shape of the Speaker of Parliament.
Their motivation, Mr. Speaker ought to know, is to boost their image tattered by their own human rights abuses and strenuous efforts to suppress dissenting opinions.
It is my fervent hope that Mr. Speaker would put this event on hold till Rev. Father Anthony Afful Broni and his team retrace their steps, right all the wrongs of the regime for justice and fairness to prevail.
Anything parallel to this would be deemed to be an endorsement of all the human rights abuses being meted out to a section of the workers of the University of Education by Reverend Father Anthony Afful Broni and his Governing Council, and this, in my considered opinion, would blemish the unfettered record of Right Honourable Speaker, Mike Oquaye. Thank you.
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