Prof. Afful-Broni has been inducted into office as the new Vice Chancellor of the University of Education, Winneba, irrespective of the controversy surrounding his appointment.
Prof. Afful-Broni was the Pro-Vice-Chancellor position of the UEW before acting as the Vice Chancellor.
In his address, Prof. Afful-Broni said he was going to work to increase the University’s student population to over 70,000 by the next academic year.
He added that the University under his tenure will see a new phase in leadership, infrastructure, and a better relationship between the University and the traditional area.
In attendance President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo, Nenyi Ghartey, the Omanhen of the Efutu Traditional Area, Rev. Palmer-Buckle, the Central Regional Minister, Kwamena Duncan and other dignitaries.
However, before the induction ceremony, Professor Raymond Atuguba said the process was illegal.
Professor Raymond Atuguba has said Akufo-Addo would be abetting an illegality if he goes ahead with a planned induction of a new Vice Chancellor for the University of Education, Winneba, UEW.
According to Atuguba, a case pending at the Supreme Court challenging the removal of Professor Mawutor Avoke from office as Vice-Chancellor makes it travesty to the rule of law if President Akufo-Addo takes part in the induction ceremony today.
He writes: "When a change of government occurred in January 2017, a certain cabal (for lack of a better word) that is associated with Winneba saw this as an opportunity to change principal officers of the UEW. After acting as Lawyer for the victims of this move, I can only conclude that the only real reason for their removal was ethnocentric. So Vice Chancellor Avoke, Finance Officer Akorlie, and bearers of similar such names had to go. Note that this is not an isolated incident. At the moment, I am also lawyer for VC Dzisah of the Ghana Institute of Journalism, who, like Avoke and Akorlie bear names that are not quite “rightâ€. I must say that the whole enterprise was so revolting, distasteful and crude that I constantly had mental and tummy convulsions in conducting the cases, until I decided to withdraw my representation before I was tempted to say things in court that are unprofessional and jeopardise my clients’ cases.
"After 25 years of Constitutional Democracy, it is a shameful disgrace that Vice Chancellors of public universities will be installed and removed based on ethnocentrism. The three foremost institutions that the 1992 Constitution seeks to protect from such are: 1. The judiciary; 2. Independent Constitutional Bodies; and 3. Institutions of Higher Learning and Research (such as Universities); and for very obvious reasons. Interfering with item 3 above means that we could easily slip into interfering with the others, and there goes our constitutionalism and our democracy."