Authorities of the University of Mines and Technology (UMAT), have rejected claims that the school prevented the running mate of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia from addressing students of the school.
There were reports that Dr. Bawumia was scheduled to address students of the school on the topic “Peace: A Pre-requisite for Economic Development” as part of the SRC week celebration, but he was turned down at the last minute.
The statement signed by the Registrar of UMAT, A.K Doku, explained that during their SRC week celebration, they deliberated with the students to have an economist speak to them after which Dr. Bawumia was proposed.
According to the statement, Dr. Bawumia was prompted and informed about the programme after which he agreed to speak.
However the decision to invite him was later withdrawn. Mr. Doku in the statement explained that the development was because a section of the students disagreed with the invitation.
The statement said some of the students argued that the SRC is a politically neutral body and should not be allowed to use its resources to host politicians.
“The University saw the wisdom in that protest and, therefore, on 31st March, 2016, management held another meeting with the SRC to decide on inviting another economist who was politically neutral to be the Speaker for the programme.”
“It is important to state that this decision was taken in the best interest of peace and harmony in the University for smooth academic work,” the statement added
He further indicated that there was an earlier agreement by authorities to host Dr. Bawumia but the NPP running mate called off the meeting “because of some technical difficulties.”
Dr. Bawumia is currently on a tour of the various tertiary institutions in the country. He had suffered similar frustrations in some of the schools he visited including the St. Francis College of Education at Hohoe in the Volta Region.
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By: Zoe Abu-Baidoo/citifmonline.com/Ghana