University of Ghana should be renamed after Busia – daughter advocates

Nana Fremah Busia, a daughter of Ghana’s former Prime Minister, Dr. Kofi Abrefa Busia, is advocating for the University of Ghana to be renamed after her father.

According to her, Dr. Busia deserves the honour due to his immense contribution to tertiary education in the country.

“There is a university that should have been named after him, it is called the University of Ghana, Legon. He was the first African professor there,” she told Accra-based Citi FM.

“He established the sociology department; he incorporated the African studies department in sociology. Today when you go to Legon, there is an African studies department named after Dr. Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah, who the University of Science and Technology is named after.”

Fremah Busia believes successive governments have not given enough credit to her father, despite is early contributions to education in Ghana.

She, therefore, wants the University of Ghana renamed after Dr. Busia as acknowledgement for his contributions to the country’s education.

“Kofi Abrefa Busia was the first African professor at Oxford University, at a time when most people had not seen classrooms, so are we going to honour him now with some universities that do not have gravitas? What about Legon.

“The African studies department for a very long time had the head of the department, Dr. Bami, who is Dr. Busia’s brother. But for politics, he would have been the first vice chancellor of the university,” Frema Busia added.

Her comments follow a draft bill from the Education Ministry which seeks to rename four public universities after some past politicians.

The University of Development Studies (UDS) has been earmarked to be renamed after former president Jerry John Rawlings.

The draft bill also seeks to rename the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA) after the university’s own founder, Nana Opoku Ampomah.

The University of Health and Allied Sciences is also set to be renamed after former member of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), Komla Agbeli Gbedemah.

The University of Energy and Natural Resources would also be renamed after Ghana’s second Prime Minister, Kofi Abrefa Busia.

Meanwhile, Rawlings has turned down the proposal to rename UDS after him, insisting he does not want the university or any other national monument to bear his name.