Vice President, Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur has
debunked claims by an NPP group called Young Patriots that he forged his 1980
MSc. Economics Degree from the University of Ghana.
He described the allegations as mere distraction to
his political career stating that his degree certificate is currently in the
academic registry of the University of Ghana.
To him, his detractors are just living up to their
name, therefore his focus is on promoting the campaign messages of the ruling
National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Speaking in an interview with Citi FM, Vice
President and Vice Presidential candidate of the NDC, Amissah Arthur, explained
the circumstances that have become basis for the allegations levelled against
him by the Young Patriots.
“My first thesis was on health economics, on the
economic costs of malaria. My supervisor, Richard Brooks, left Ghana just
around the time I was finishing, and there was nobody who was willing or able
to supervise my thesis. Dr. Buamad then offered to supervise another thesis,
which I did. Dr Buamad then left for the University of Bayero in Nigeria. Every
time I finished a chapter I will post it to him and then he will post it
back... so it took some time.”
“I finished the thesis in 1979 and then I was
offered a job as a lecturer in the Department when the degree was awarded. The
degree was awarded, I suspect or I believe, early in 1980 so anybody who is
looking at the 1980 pass list in June will not see my name there because I
would have been notified of the degree much earlier in January of 1980.”
He continued: “The problem that I have is that this
was not a foreign university degree. It was a University of Ghana degree which
was being offered and appointed in the University of Ghana. The Legon
professors knew the work that I had done so there was no problem at all about a
fake degree or whatever it is they are bringing in.”
“If somebody
is going to the end of an academic year and looking at the pass list and saying
that your name is not there, he is looking at the wrong list. He should go to
the University and they will tell him that some of these postgraduate degrees
were awarded before the final exam degrees were awarded.
Touching on his alleged forged certificate from the
University of Ghana, Mr. Amissah pointed out that “because I knew I had done
good work and it was the same university I didn’t even collect it. That
certificate must be lying in the academic registry. Now that you people ask I
am going to try to recover it.”
The emergence of forged certificates and inaccurate
Curriculum Vitae (CV) has become a topical issue in the country’s political
discourse.
Both National Democratic Congress and New Patriotic
Party have raised concerns over the authenticity of the academic background of
their Presidential candidates with the two major parties throwing tantrums at
each other.
An NDC group called Research for Advocacy Platform,
in a press conference on Monday, slammed the Presidential candidate of the
opposition NPP, Nana Addo, for failing to state in his CV that he attended
Oxford University.
According to the group, the omission might have
occurred as a result of Nana Addo’s misconduct at the University.
Convener for the Research for Advocacy Platform,
Felix Kwakye-Ofosu, accused Nana Addo of concealing information from the public
and added he had compromised his credibility.
In a rebuttal to these claims, the NPP Young
Patriots also pointed out at a press conference that the Vice President and
2012 Vice Presidential candidate of the NDC had forged his MSc. Economic degree
from the University of Ghana, thereby doubting his honesty to the nation.
They revealed that from their checks from the
University of Ghana, Mr. Amissah Arthur’s name could not be found in the list
of 1980 graduates nor the University aware of his graduation from the faculty.
Meanwhile, Vice President Amissah Arthur bewailed
the actions by the Young Patriots and insisted their actions are directed to
distract him.
Source: Adu Gyamfi Ameyaw
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