The Minority Chief Whip, Frank Annoh-Dompreh, has requested that Parliament revisit the decision made by the previous government to rename the University of Ghana after the late statesman and scholar, Dr J.B. Danquah.
According to him, he was surprised at the resistance that characterised the decision made by the former President Akufo-Addo’s government to rename the university.
He said that although there was “stiff opposition” from certain segments of Ghanaian society who believed it was unwarranted, he holds a different opinion.
“I was struck when a call for the University of Ghana to be named after J.B. Danquah received a lot of apprehension and even condemnation,” he stated.
“It saddened my heart that such a personality would be treated the way he was treated.”
The lawmaker cautioned against what he described as an attempt to create divisions between the legacies of Danquah and Ghana’s first president, Dr Kwame Nkrumah.
“Oftentimes, we yield to this tendency of drawing a wedge between J.B. Danquah and Kwame Nkrumah, which in my view is totally unnecessary… They all achieved significant achievements in their rights,” Annoh-Dompreh added.
He made. the remarks on the floor of Parliament on Wednesday, February 4, 2026, during a commemorative statement read in Parliament by Abuakwah South MP Kingsley Agyemang, who hailed Danquah as a figure whose legacy transcends political divides.
“When clerks of parliament, professional bodies, academic institutions… converge in the assessment of one man, then history itself has rendered its verdict,” Mr Agyemang said.
In his view, the late Danquah was “a man whose life and work are acknowledged with respect by those who oppose him politically.”
He said, “The experience of Dr J.B. Danquah… reminds this house that the erosion of liberty rarely announces itself loudly,” it noted, concluding that “to honour him is not merely to remember his past but to ensure that the dark chapters he endured are never reopened in our present.”
On his part, NDC MP for Kwesimintsim, Fiifi Fiavi Phillip Buckman, urged for a broader celebration of other founding figures.
He admitted that the late JB Danquah played a role in naming the nation. “He traced ‘Ghana’ from the ancient Ghana empire… this current Ghana was named Ghana because of what he proposed.”
He was, however, quick to add that “We should not only cherish people according to their political sides.”
He also underscored the need for Ghana to recognise George Alfred Paa Grant, the financier of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC), to which Danquah also belonged.
“I would call upon my brothers that… they should also celebrate United Gold Coast Convention’s financier, who was Dr Paa Grant,” Mr Buckman added.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
