An open letter to the president of Ghana and the police council

We wish to draw the attention of the Police Council of Ghana and the President of the Republic of Ghana to the continuous disregard for the legal instrument of the National Accreditation Board (NAB) by no mean a person of the land than the current Inspector General of Police (IGP) (Dr.) John Kudalor and his associates. Readers would appreciate our humble efforts to educate the public and to impress on the IGP to discontinue the use of his unrecognizable doctoral title as others such as Ms. Gifty Anti and the NDC Chairman, Mr. Kofi Portuphy, have done. However, it has become very clear that the IGP, aided by the Daily Graphic and his men in uniform, is continuing to flout the laws of the land with impunity simply because there does not seem to be any consequences for such actions.

On September 22, 2016, the IGP (Dr.) John Kudalor paid a working visit to the Ghana Ports and Harbors Authority (GPHA), where he met with the Director-General of the GPHA and the entire management of GPHA. Contrary to the position of the National Accreditation Board (NAB) to the effect that (Dr.) Kudalor’s so-called earned Ph.D. is from an unaccredited institution, thus unrecognizable by the State of Ghana for public service, the Director of Public Affairs of the Ghana Police Service, DSP Cephas Arthur, introduced the IGP as a (Dr.) to the loud murmurs of those present (For the NAB position on the IGP’s doctorate degree issue, please follow the link here: https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Accreditation-board-surprised-by-IGP-s-acceptance-of-fake-degree-461316).

We wish to remind the Ghana Police Council and (Dr.) Kudalor’s appointing authority that the continuous disregard for the rules of the land by the IGP and his associates has consequences. First of all, it should be noted that in some “civilizations,” this act of the IGP would have called for a thorough investigation and if it can be proven that the IGP used public funds to pursue this degree, he would have been pursued to refund such monies to the State and honorably resign if such an award had any consequences for his promotion to the high office of IGP, the number one (1) police officer of the land.

However, instead of recognizing his recklessness and apologizing to the Ghanaian public, (Dr.) Kudalor, aided by the Daily Graphic and his subordinates from the police service, is continuing to disregard the laws of the land, an act we consider as bringing the high office of the IGP into disrepute. What at all is it about doctoral degrees, including a Ph.D., that makes (Dr.) Kudalor so desperate to be addressed as such? If (Dr.) Kudalor is so desirous to be addressed as a Dr., no one is stopping him from pursing a well-constituted Ph.D. and earning the accolade via the proper channels. But hiding behind an unrecognized institution to want to be addressed a Dr. is not only reckless, but it is also fraudulent. The question is: how would the IGP be able to arrest and prosecute quacks who also employ similar means to hoodwink the public into believing that they are medical doctors, lawyers, and even academic professors?

Once again, we wish to remind the IGP that both the Dayspring Theological University and the Transworld Accrediting Commission International (TACI) are not institutions recognized either by the Office of Post-Secondary Education (OPE) of the US Department of Education (US DoE) or the NAB of Ghana. It is for this reason that the Executive Secretary of NAB, Mr. Kwame Dattey, publicly denounced the IGP’s doctoral degree and castigated him to employ some discretion in this matter. Our humble advice to the IGP is to shelve that so-called doctoral degree and refrain from parading it as one of the accolades that adorn his official designation. The IGP can choose to create a monument of his so-called doctoral degree in his living room for the admiration of his wife and children, and we would have no qualms with that. But the attempt to use the Daily Graphic and other media outlets to continue to validate what is considered even by the state accrediting body, NAB, as unwholesome will be tantamount to fraud.

By this letter, we also wish to remind the National Media Commission (NMC) and the Ghana Journalist Association (GJA) that they have a duty to ensure that the Daily Graphic in particular, and the media in general, do not become conduits via which unscrupulous but influential members of the Ghanaian society foist their unscrupulous behaviors on the public as the IGP is continuing to do.

Let’s set the right examples for our countrymen and women and desist from this disgraceful acts of deception. Particularly, in the case of the IGP, this does not augur well for the service he leads. The police service is rather supposed to be the one enforcing the legal instrument of the NAB not its leadership flouting its authority.


Prosper Yao Tsikata, Ph.D

A. Kobla Dotse, Ph.D