Is Prof. Gyampo fit to lead after sex for grade scandal?-His former student Dr Keskine asks UTAG

Dr. Kesine Owusu Poku, a member of Ashanti Regional Communications Team of NPP

Dr. Keskine Owusu Poku, a leading member of the Liberal Institute for Policy Studies, has criticized Prof. Ransford Gyampo’s suitability to lead demonstrations in Ghana.

This follows Prof. Gyampo’s stance on the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) strike against galamsey.

Dr. Keskine cites Prof. Gyampo’s past controversy, exposed by the BBC, where he allegedly demanded sexual favors for grades.

“He would hardly have a voice in most academic institutions worldwide,” Dr. Keskine notes.

In a scathing letter, Dr. Keskine urges Prof. Gyampo to address the “sex for grade” issue at the University of Ghana, where students have complained of falling victims.

Dr. Keskin believes the strike is politically motivated, accusing Prof. Gyampo of pushing a hidden agenda.

Instead, he advocates for UTAG to collaborate with the government to find pragmatic solutions.

Read full letter below

Dear Ransford Gyampo (Ph.D.),

Good Morning.

Sir, my concerns are in two folds; the reasonability of the UTAG strike you energetically influenced and a question of conscience of society as indicated in point 5 of your piece.

First, Organised Labour presented a set of issues to government and every objective mind can see and read the interventions from government in that regard. The position of UTAG, though surprising, leaves some questions reverberating:

1. How will a strike by UTAG resolve galamsey?

2. ⁠Are Universities not on vacation till January?

3. ⁠You may have other duties you perform when your active students are on vacation but what will be the cumulative effect of striking at this time?

Sincerely, any sound policy mind knows that no government can win this fight without the support of the mining communities where galamsey happens. This requires a lot of stakeholder engagement and public education. As UTAG, should you not be taking up such a noble role rather than jumping from one station to another and trying to influence other unions to join this obnoxious strike? After striking, what next? Sincerely, this is zero productivity.

If you indeed want to help solve the issue, UTAG should help government around the policy table and not in their homes (strike). If UTAG wants to help fix this problem, develop a plan for community engagements as part of Organised Labour’s collaborative efforts with government.

On the second leg of my concern, in point 5 of your piece, you made mention of ‘the conscience of society’ and it brought many ‘questions of conscience’ to mind.

Permit me to be brutally frank here. In most academic institutions in the world, you would not have a voice after your ‘sex for grade’ escapade. That is even a bigger scar on the conscience you seek to project. How has UTAG assisted in dealing with this well documented cancer of demanding sex from female students for grades? They rather promoted you to be the President of UTAG, the University of Ghana branch. What an example to young lecturers. Conscience indeed!

1. Demanding sexual favours from students (notably female students) by lecturers remain a major concern in tertiary institutions in Ghana. This bad academic practice erodes hardwork while promoting promiscuity among students and lecturers.

2. While allegations of such were replete among colleague students about you, the BBC’s undercover documentary exposed what you had nursed and allegedly subjected many female students to.

3. You were seen and heard making sexual advances towards the lady who played an undercover role as a student in need of academic assistance. From asserting to kiss the undercover lady violently, you demanded for an amorous relationship with the female student. Her only sin was that she approached you for academic assistance.

4. Your defence was that it was an entrapment. Sorry! That was a silly reason. Can you entrap lions with kenkey? You were caught pants down.

5. It confirmed the ugly truths and allegations about your abuse of female students for sex. While some quarters whitewashed your ‘sex for grades’ scandal, you remain a scar and a good reference point for sexual assault policies in most Universities in Ghana and an emblem of the cancer in our tertiary institutions.

Now on the question of ‘conscience of society’, are you sure you can uphold yourself as one? Are you even part of that conscience at the University of Ghana? And, do you sincerely appreciate that expression? To hold yourself as one is an insult to all right thinking persons. What you did would have left you jobless in most universities around the world.

Prof. Gyampo, we all know you have your political motives to pursue with this obnoxious strike and you do nothing for free. That’s fair but stop shopping for non-existent reasons to justify it.

Let’s divert our striking energies into productively assisting government to solve the problem for which we want to strike.

Have a good day.

Keskine Owusu Poku , PhD

Your Former Student

2007 – 2011

Source: Ghana/otecfmghana.com