Akroma (C/R), Nov. 28, GNA – Grounds has been broken for the construction of Obokese University of Excellence (OUE), an African centred university at Akroma in the Abura-Asebu-Kwamankese District of the Central Region.
The university, the brainchild of the chiefs of Asebu led by Nana Obokese Ampah I, Apagyahen of Asebu Traditional Area is to drive development in Ghana through higher institution of learning.
It would bring together Pan-African groups of scholars from Africa and the Diaspora to teach the next generation of students.
The OUE also seeks to support an educational transformation designed to develop students who have internalized the traditional character traits of ‘aso-dzi’(responsibility).
They must also possess exceptional skills, talents and abilities, together with deep African consciousness to further the national spirit embodied in the concept of Ubuntu.
The ceremony was jointly done by Professor Okatakyi Amenfi VII, Omanhen of Asebu Traditional Area, Mr. Sidney Collie, Representative of the Commonwealth of Bahamas to the Organisation of American States, Nana Kwamina Kra II, Provost of the OUE and Nana Obokese Ampah.
Okatakyi Amenfi described the OUE as unique dream come true for the people of Asebu, because its curriculum would be designed to produce consciously liberated Africans capable of reversing the paradigm.
“We are actually making a different history, a history that brings us together after some 400 years ago when our people were sent away and cut off from their roots…”
“…Time has come for us to bring them home and the best way of doing that is to establish this university,” he added.
Okatakyi Amenfi was optimistic that the university would teach the African history, tell the African story and provide guidance as to what Africa needed to do as a people to liberate their minds and souls.
He said it was time Africa took its own initiatives in order not to be left behind, stressing that education could be the game changer.
He said although the project was starting small, when fully functioning, the university, through its seasoned leadership, would work tirelessly towards realization of its objectives in the best interest of its students, the Asebu Traditional Area, Ghana and Africa as a whole.
Heightening the significance of the university project to the Beyond the Return initiative, Mr Rabbai Kohain Halevi, Executive Director of PANAFEST Foundation, said the establishment of the university was a manifestation of the Beyond the return initiative.
He said the OUE would dedicate itself to moulding the personality and to perfecting the minds of the African that the World awaited.
“In order to change the narrative, we must change our minds, in order to change our minds, we must have institutions that can lay a new foundation in establishing the new African,” he said.
Mr Ibrahim Kwame Baidoo, the Executive Director of the Obokese Foundation, called on the youth to refrain from all forms of violence in the upcoming elections, saying the University and other departmental projects could thrive if there was a peaceful environment.
Nana Kwamena Kra, Provost of OUE, promised to make the university a powerful institution of learning to fulfil its objective of giving knowledge and power to the African.
For his part, Obokese Ampah said the establishment of the university marked the beginning of good things for the people of Asebu, saying it was time for unity, progress and development.
In that regard, he implored the people of Asebu to provide all the necessary support to the Omanhen as he work to bring development to the area.
GNA