President Mnangagwa has been described by University of Cape Coast (UCC) Vice-Chancellor, Professor Johnson Nyarko Boampong, as a bold leader whose “we can do it” spirit will propel the country to greater heights.
Prof Boampong said he was fascinated by the resilience displayed Zimbabweans amid the economic challenges caused by sanctions and climate change.
He was speaking during a visit to the Bindura University of Science Education (BUSE).
Prof Boampong said Ghana was linked to Zimbabwe after the late founding father and former President, Robert Gabriel Mugabe, studied and married in the West African country.
“Listening to President Mnangagwa, he is bold and the ‘we can do it’ spirit is what we like most about Zimbabwe people,” he said.
“We urge you to continue, you can do it looking at the environment and what you are doing. I studied in Japan in 1945, the country was devastated by World War 2, but today they changed their circumstances. Nobody will do it for Africa except Africans themselves.
“With this mindset and working with people who have a common purpose, we should be able to develop Africa. With the relationship that we established, we will nurture it so that Ghana and Zimbabwe will continue to train human resources to develop our countries.”
Prof Boampong said the first President of Ghana, the late Dr Kwame Nkrumah, believed in African Unity and the entire liberation of Africa.
Hence, Dr Nkrumah declared that the independence of Ghana was meaningless unless it was linked with the total liberation of the whole continent.
BUSE collaborated with UCC in setting up a degree program in optometry, with the first cohorts having graduated in 2022.
The graduates were the first locally trained optometrists in Zimbabwe.
UCC was established in 1962 by Dr Nkrumah to develop education and train teachers from West Africa.
Prof Boampong said Ghana has a lot of secondary and tertiary education teachers.
He added that when a country is self-sufficient, what happens elsewhere does not affect you.
UCC, which is ranked fourth in Africa, is celebrating its 60th anniversary.
BUSE Vice-Chancellor Professor Eddie Mwenje said they deliberately chose UCC over European universities to assist them start their optometry programme because of the founding principles of Ghana, “which had always been like a mother to Zimbabwe”.
“We were established as a teacher education institution and we believe that we still have to collaborate in teacher education so that we can be able to prepare our teachers because teacher education is very vital.
“So, we want to have more collaborations. We saw that you have industrial chemistry and we would also like to see what you are doing there,” said Prof Mwenje. – The Herald
