UEW’s dismissal of Nigerian professor appropriate – Mensah Bonsu

The Majority Leader and Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu has backed the decision of the University of Education Winneba to terminate the contract of the visiting Nigerian professor who was seen in a video inciting Nigerians against Ghana.

Speaking to Francis Abban on the Morning Starr Thursday, the Suame MP said the professor’s conduct was inappropriate.

“What the university has done is appropriate and we can’t continue to have such persons in our midst. No country will encourage that sort of thing in its backyard,” he said.

The decision to terminate the contract with academic was taken after a disciplinary Committee of the university conducted a probe into the content of the video. Starr News sources say the professor told the committee the video was doctored.

“The University after subjecting Prof. Augustine Uzoma Nwagbara to internal disciplinary process finds him culpable of gross misconduct and has, accordingly, dismissed him,” the university said in a statement.

Content of the video has been widely condemned by Ghanaians over fears it could further polarise the recent tensed relationship between locals and Nigerians residing in the country.

Below are details of a statement issued by the university

PROFESSOR AUGUSTINE UZOMANWAGBARA DISMISSED FROM UEW

1. The University of Education Winneba wishes to inform the general public that it has taken a very serious view of the video circulating on social media, involving Prof. Augustine UzomaNwagbara.

2. Augustine Uzoma Nwagbara, a Professor of English Language, has been on sabbatical at the Department of Applied Linguistics since October,2018.

3. In the said video, Prof. Nwagbara makes several unsavoury, unethical and damning comments about our country, its history as well as its educational system. The University totally dissociates itself from the grossly irresponsible comments and condemns it in no uncertain terms.

4. The University is highly disturbed by the huge embarrassment his unguarded statement has brought to the institution, the Ministry of Education, and, indeed, Ghana as a whole.

5. The University, upon receipt of the video, immediately invoked its internal disciplinary process to fully examine his conduct relative to the content of the video.

6. The University wishes to indicate that it has in the past hosted several scholars on sabbatical leave from various countries, including Nigeria, and same have conducted themselves with high degree of decorum and professionalism during their stay. Prof. Augustine Uzoma Nwagbara’s behaviour is totally deviant and an aberration that runs contrary to those of his predecessors or the others currently at post.

7. The University after subjecting Prof. Augustine Uzoma Nwagbara to internal disciplinary process finds him culpable of gross misconduct and has, accordingly, dismissed him.

8. The University apologises to Ghanaians for Prof. Nwagbara’s disparaging remarks about this country’s educational system and further indicates that the comments were full of factual inaccuracies.

Thank you

Signed

Registrar