Parliament has passed the University for Business and Integrated Development Studies Bill 2018.
The main contention before approval of the Bill was the proposed name of the institution which is S.D. Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies.
But the Majority MPs had their way after the vote in Parliament on Thursday despite the Minority complaining that the name change had been brought in through the “back door.”
The Minority side also decried a lack of consultations on the matter.
The Education Minister, Matthew Opoku Prempeh justified the name change arguing that it was a university’s council that approved school’s name thus no Bill was needed.
“When you talk about stakeholders, the University Council approved. It is the University Council that nominates institutions’ [names],” he said.
Dr. Opoku Prempeh also reminded that previous name changes have been done without consultation.
“For the Thomas Sankara interchange, what was the consultation that was done for that… what consultation was done before KNUST was named after Kwame Nkrumah? That is not the point.”
The passage of the Bill will transform the existing campus of Univesity of Development Studies (UDS) campus in Wa into a fully-fledged university.
The Wa and Navorongo campuses of UDS were recently made autonomous through an Executive Instrument.
The campus was separated from UDS in 2002 as the Faculty of Integrated Development Studies to give easy access to people in the Upper West Region to tertiary education.
The university’s new name is after Simon Diedong Dombo, who was a Ghanaian politician, teacher and king who belonged to the United Party (UP) tradition, of which the New Patriotic Party has its roots.
Simon Dombo was a Member of Parliament during the First Republic of Ghana.
He was also one of the founders of the Northern People’s Party that subsequently merged with the United Party after a ban on parties formed along ethnic lines.
During the Second Republic, he served under the governing Progress Party as Minister for Health and then Minister for Interior.
He died on March 19, 1998.
