By any measure of public accountability, what is happening at the Ghana Communication Technology University (GCTU) is not a minor administrative lapse. It is a full-blown governance scandal, one that exposes the dangerous fragility of our regulatory institutions and the ease with which public law can be bent, ignored, or outright subverted when those entrusted with oversight choose complicity over courage.
At the center of this crisis is a simple, stubborn fact:
GCTU is being led by a Vice-Chancellor who has no lawful mandate to occupy the office.
This is not an allegation. It is not speculation. It is not a matter of interpretation.
It is a matter of law, record, and undisputed documentation.
And yet, the illegality continues—because the very regulator tasked with enforcing the law has instead chosen to sanitize its violation.
The Vice-Chancellor’s Authority Expired. The Law Did Not.
The Vice-Chancellor of GCTU is not a substantive employee of the university. He is a University of Ghana staff member who came to GCTU on presidential secondment—a temporary arrangement that expired in February 2025.
Under Ghanaian administrative law, only one authority can renew a presidential secondment:
the President of the Republic, with Ministerial confirmation.
No such approval exists.
Instead, the Vice-Chancellor presented a letter from the University of Ghana—a document that has no legal force whatsoever. UG cannot extend what it did not grant. UG cannot override the Presidency. UG cannot regularize a lapsed secondment.
Yet this is the flimsy foundation upon which the Vice-Chancellor continues to sit in office.
This is not a grey area.
This is unlawful occupation of a public office.
GTEC’s Role: When a Regulator Becomes the Laundromat of Illegality
The Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC), under the leadership of Dr. Ahmed Jinapor Abdulai, had one job: enforce the law. Instead, it did the opposite.
GTEC:
- Approved an extension it had no authority to approve
- Validated a UG letter it knew was legally defective
- Supported a third-term scheme forbidden by statute
- Selectively enforced transition rules to benefit one individual
This is not regulation.
This is regulatory capture—the regulator acting as the enabler of the very illegality it is mandated to prevent.
When a regulator begins to launder illegality into policy, the entire system collapses.
The Manufactured Lie: “The Transition Reset His Tenure”
To justify a third term, a convenient fiction was invented: that the 2020 transition reset the Vice-Chancellor’s tenure.
This is a legal absurdity.
If the transition reset tenure, then:
- The Registrar’s tenure would have reset
- The Director of Finance’s tenure would have reset
- All principal officers’ tenures would have reset
But they did not.
Only one person’s tenure was magically “reset.”
This is not law.
This is selective manipulation for personal benefit.
The truth is simple:
The Vice-Chancellor completed his first term through the transition, was lawfully reappointed once in 2021, and his second and final term ends in March 2025.
The GCTU Act allows two terms only.
Anything beyond that is illegal.
Full stop.
The Consequence: A University Operating Under Illegitimate Authority
Every decision taken under this unlawful tenure—appointments, promotions, contracts, disciplinary actions—is exposed to legal challenge. The university is effectively being run on expired authority.
This is not merely a procedural flaw.
It is a constitutional governance crisis.
No public university can function when its leadership is illegitimate.
No regulator can be trusted when it validates what Parliament forbids.
No institution can survive when statutes are treated as optional.
The Real Danger: What Happens When Illegality Becomes Normal
If this situation is allowed to stand, it sets a precedent that will haunt the entire tertiary education system:
- Vice-Chancellors will cling to office beyond their terms
- Regulators will pick and choose which laws to enforce
- Political convenience will replace statutory compliance
- Institutional autonomy will be replaced by institutional lawlessness
This is how systems decay—not through dramatic collapse, but through the quiet normalization of illegality.
The Path Forward: Restore the Law or Lose the Institution
The solution is not complicated:
- The Vice-Chancellor must vacate the office immediately.
His secondment has expired. His tenure limit is exhausted. His authority is void. - The position must be declared vacant and advertised.
A lawful search process must begin. - GTEC must be investigated.
A regulator that enables illegality cannot be trusted to supervise its correction. - The Ministry of Education must issue a clear directive.
GTEC cannot override Acts of Parliament. Never !
This is not about personalities.
It is about the survival of institutional integrity.
If We Cannot Enforce the Law in a University, Where Can We Enforce It?
Universities are supposed to be the guardians of truth, legality, and intellectual honesty. When a university is run on expired authority, and the regulator helps make it possible, what message does that send to the nation?
If we cannot uphold the law in our institutions of learning, then where, exactly, do we expect the rule of law to stand?
This is the moment to draw a line.
Not for politics.
Not for personalities.
But for the principle that no one—no Vice-Chancellor, no regulator is above the law.
Because if illegality becomes the norm at GCTU, it will not end at GCTU.
The release is signed by Prof. Eric K. K. Abavare, President of UTAG‑KNUST, and Prof. Akwasi Afrifa Acheampong, Secretary of the branch.
See details in the PDF attached:
