Claims Of Insecurity In The Country Inaccurate – President Akufo-Addo
President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, says claims by certain persons in the country that there is insecurity due to increasing criminal activity cannot be true because on the contrary, crime rate in the nation generally is on the decline.
“There has also been talk about the state of insecurity prevailing in the country following reports by some sections of the media. A cursory glance at the statistics from the Police Service shows that on the contrary, crime case, at least, for the first quarter of 2021 are coming down as compared to the same quarter in 2020. For example, there was a nationwide reduction in robbery case from five hundred and twenty-five (525) during the period under review in 2020 to four hundred and ninety-five (495) in 2021 and still declining”.
This President Akufo-Addo said when he addressed a special congregation at the University of Cape Coast (UCC) today the 29th of May 2021, where a Doctorate Degree (Doctor of Philosophy in Educational Leadership) was conferred on him.
Police Empowerment
Notwithstanding the decline in crime rate in the country, President Akufo-Addo indicated his “Government is determined to work with the Police Service to guarantee the security of persons and protection of lives and property in accordance with the rule of law”.
To achieve this, The President noted that his administration will continue to empower the Police Service with all the tools and logistics it needs to carry out its constitutional duty of maintaining the security of the interior.
“Government is determined to give whatever support is required to ensure that we have a Police Service that the people of Ghana deserve” President Akufo-Addo said.
Doctorate Degree
Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast, Professor Johnson Nyarko Boampong, in his address ahead of the conferment of the Doctorate Degree on President Akufo-Addo noted that despite the economic hardship that were prevailing in the country in 2017 when the President took office, he still made the Free SHS vision of his political party a dream come true.
“It is instructive to know that over the last 4 years, more than a million graduates from the Junior High School have benefitted from this policy. By the conferment of this degree on his Excellency the President, he becomes an alumnus of the University of Cape Coast and the second to occupy the high office of president of Ghana. The first being President Agyekum Kufuor” Professor Johnson Nyarko Boampong said.
The University of Cape Coast
The University of Cape Coast was established in October, 1962 as a University College and placed in a special relationship with the University of Ghana, Legon. On October 1, 1971, the College attained the status of a full and independent University, with the authority to confer its own degrees, diplomas and certificates by an Act of Parliament – The University of Cape Coast Act, 1971 [Act 390] and subsequently the University of Cape Coast Law, 1992 [PNDC Law 278].
The University was established out of a dire need for highly qualified and skilled manpower in education. Its original mandate was therefore to train graduate professional teachers for Ghana’s second cycle institutions and the Ministry of Education in order to meet the manpower needs of the country’s accelerated education programme at the time.
Today, with the expansion of some of its Faculties/Schools and the diversification of programmes, the University has the capacity to meet the manpower needs of other ministries and industries in the country, besides that of the Ministry of Education.
From an initial student enrolment of 155 in 1963, the University of Cape Coast now has a total student population of 74, 720. The breakdown is as follows: 18949 regular undergraduate students, 1445 sandwich undergraduate students, 1014 regular postgraduate students, 2773 sandwich postgraduate students 48989 distance undergraduate students and 1540 postgraduate distance students.