Sacrifice a parliamentarian; not a ‘poor’ civil servant

Following the recent scandals that have surfaced in Ghana with regards to certain individuals such as the ex-SSNIT IT Boss - Caleb Afaglo and Osmanu Sebastian - who have either fraudulently and or ignorantly acquired a fake academic certificate or better still never owned one, Ghanaians would surmise that others will be deterred from pulling such public shame of a trick on the public.

It seems the issue is still ongoing and never would end as no high-ranking member of our society has been dealt with to deter some ordinary citizens from engaging in such unscrupulous act.

With an aim to fish out and to help put a stop to such false claims, this writer decided to painstakingly ascertain the credibility of certain academic credentials some ‘honourable’ members of Ghana’s parliament have accrued under their educational belt, just so all and could know the extent to which this canker has reached.Hailing from the Gomoa Central Constituency and having met with my MP on countless occasions, and with the latter exhibiting some suspicious signs, I decided to start my search from my very doorstep and thus to research on the background of my MP, Hon. Naana Eyiah Quansah that the team starts from the doorstep of her Constituency - the Gomoa Central Constituency.

Though article 94 of Ghana’s 1992 constitution makes no strict stipulation for the educational qualification for an MP aspirant and with educational achievement having no stringent correlation with an MPs performance, one would think that aspirants or Members of Parliaments would not be in a haste to flaunt “false” or “unofficial” academic certificate to boost their academic status. However, the Member of Parliament for Gomoa Central Constituency, Hon. Naana Eyiah Quansah has on countless occasions and websites including that of official webpage of the Parliament of Ghana boasted to be a certificate holder in Negotiation and Conflict Resolution from the Macquarie Graduate School of Management.

In fact, on ghanamps.com, there was a different subject title accorded to the ‘official’ certificate the MP claimed to have achieved. She has instead claimed to have acquired a certificate in Conflict Resolution and Project Management.

Well, maybe the website had it all wrong or perhaps, she has a better explanation to offer Ghanaians. Naana Eyiah even in her submissions to the Electoral Commission of Ghana, prior to election 2016, asserted that she attended the Macquarie Graduate School of Management.

So how did Naana Eyiah obtain her official certificate? Is she also an official certificate holder or alumni of an already-closed-down East London College which has been used by several others in education-related scams? With the aid of the StarrFM correspondent, we reached out to the MP for her side of the story but she failed to substantiate the claims made by the Macquarie Graduate School of Management. Her case is perhaps not the only peculiar case one may find in the noble house. But let’s suppose that we treat hers with all manner of alacrity and probe all the other members educational background, amidst meting out some form of punishment to any found guilty of false misrepresentation.

The only question that still lingers on the authors mind is, would others not be scared to follow suit as a sheep has been sacrificed rather than a lamb? As a relativist, I am of the full conviction that we could reduce such menace to some positive extent. The road may be rough but “omnia vincit labor”, literally with perseverance we can conquer all.
Long Live Ghana!