UDS honours Chissano, four others
The University for Development Studies (UDS) has conferred honorary doctorate degrees on a former President of Mozambique, Mr Joaquin Chissano, and four other distinguished personalities at a special congregation organised by the university at its Tamale campus at the weekend to climax this year's African Leadership Lecture series.
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The four personalities were Prof. R. B. Bening, a member of the presidential taskforce that was set up to work towards the establishment of UDS and the first Vice Chancellor of the university and Naa Prof. Abubakr Al-Hassan, an Architect and chief of Gushei who was also a member of the presidential taskforce on the establishment of UDS. He was the chairman of the technical sub-committee of the taskforce.
The others were Prof. Ebenezer Laing, a lover of, and great contributor to the UDS School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS) and also a member of the first Governing Council of UDS; and Dr Hakeem Wemah, a former Chairman of the UDS Council, an industrialist and crusader of peace and equity.
Aside the honourees, a total of 116 graduates from the UDS School of Graduate Studies also received their degrees at the ceremony.
Three out of the 116 graduates were awarded Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Pure Mathematics, Computational Mathematics and Statistics while the rest received Master of Science (MSc.) degrees.
Mr Chissano was honoured for his exemplary leadership which had transformed and developed Mozambique. A citation accompanying the honorary doctorate described him as a leader, an outstanding negotiator for peace and stability, an avowed promoter of social, economic and cultural development, high achiever and a distinguished reformer.
The lecture series
The Africa Leadership Lectures series is organised by the UDS annually to contribute to national and transnational discourse on productive leadership culture that will support and enhance Africa's development.
Education and the country’s development
President John Dramani Mahama in an address read on his behalf by Alhaji Collins Dauda, the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, stated that the government recognised the important role education played in the development of the country and would, therefore, continue to support education to ensure that schools in the country produced the skilled human resources needed for the country's development.
He commended the UDS for its community engagement programme and community-based learning approach in training its students, and called on all universities and other institutions of higher learning to run development-oriented programmes that would help solve the problems in the society.
President Mahama urged experts, scholars and academics in the country to move closer to their societies so that they could work towards providing answers to the challenges facing the country.
Resolving ‘dumsor’
The President gave the assurance that the government would not relent in its efforts to bring the power crisis to an end by bringing in two power badges within the next two months and also pursuing the use of solar energy as a long-term solution to the energy crisis of the country.
He commended the UDS for its decision to set up an energy centre to harness solar power for the benefit of the country, adding that solar power stands would be one of the best solutions to the power challenges faced by the country today.
Congratulations
The President congratulated Mr Chissano, now an alumnus of the UDS, and the four other personalities on the honorary doctorate degrees conferred on them for their immense contributions to their countries, humanity and the UDS and urged the younger generation to learn from them.
He urged the fresh graduates to use the knowledge they had received to solve the problems faced by the society and for the development of the country.
The Vice-Chancellor of the UDS, Prof. Haruna Yakubu, also congratulated the five personalities for their priceless contributions to their communities, the Ghanaian society, the international community and to UDS and thanked Mr Chissano for speaking at the three-day lecture on the issues of liberation, good governance and conflict resolution in Africa.
Mr Chissano thanked the UDS for the honour done him and dedicated his honorary doctorate degree to the people of Mozambique, saying it was the collective efforts of the people that had made him who he was.
