It’ll be wholly appropriate to call JB Danquah the founder of University of Ghana – Akufo-Addo

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said that it will be perfect to describe Joseph Boakye (JB) Danquah as the founder of the University of Ghana.

Mr Akufo-Addo said it would not be out of place to rename the University of Ghana after Dr JB Danquah after expressing optimism that it may happen one day.

Speaking at the 75th Anniversary Thanksgiving Service of the University of Ghana on Saturday, August 12, President Akufo-Addo said “For me, the most poignant of those memories is the inestimable work Dr JB Dankqua did to mobilize the Ghanaian people to insist on the building of this university.”

“It will be wholly appropriate and not at all far-fetched, to describe Joseph Boakye Danquah as the founder of this university. A fact which on the 75th anniversary of its existence should be vividly recalled by all of us who have been and are beneficiaries of his work.

“Indeed, in many other jurisdictions where there is less heat in their politics and more attachment to the fact of historical record, it would not have been out of place to have this university named after him. Who knows, one day it may well happen,”he added

Joseph Boakye Danquah (18 December 1895 – 4 February 1965) was a Ghanaian politician, scholar, lawyer and statesman. He was a politician in pre- and post-colonial Ghana, which was formerly the Gold Coast, and is credited with giving Ghana its current name

Danquah played an important role in the establishment of the University of Ghana, the premier and the largest university in Ghana.

He successfully advocated for its establishment in 1948 after a British report on higher education in West Africa recommended that only one university college, to be located in Nigeria, in association with the University of London, would be feasible for the whole of West Africa.