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.
