Former presidential candidate of the All People’s Congress (APC), Hassan Ayariga, has accused the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) of deliberately working to damage reputations.
Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express on Monday, August 18, Ayariga questioned the Commission’s handling of its correspondence with him, describing their actions as inconsistent and harmful.
According to him, GTEC’s directive that he cease using the title “Dr.” was unreasonable. “So in that letter, they said, ‘in the light of your inability to provide the required document, you are hereby directed to immediately cease the use of the title Dr, and additionally, you must provide verifiable evidence that the title has been removed from all platforms’.”
He argued that the letter itself was contradictory. “You see clearly, this is the first letter they are writing to me, and you are writing a letter asking me to provide ABC and D. In the same letter, you are asking me to stop using A, B, C, and D. What is the essence of that letter?”
Mr. Ayariga further insisted that he had never been officially served by GTEC. “And as we speak today, let me be very honest and clear to you, I have not received the letter from GTEC to date. Until today, there has been no evidence of them serving me a letter. I don’t have a letter from GTEC, as we speak, and if you want, put them on the phone to prove to you that they have given me a letter. So you see, there’s some kind of an agenda to destroy people’s reputation.”
He cautioned that institutions must act responsibly when dealing with reputational matters. “And when you are destroying people’s reputation, you have to be very careful, because it is very difficult to build a reputation. So you must ask questions like an institution, a proper institution.”
Describing GTEC’s approach as overreaching, he stressed that their actions were unwarranted. “So you write to us, you write to Dr, and then we are requesting him to do ABC. You give him timelines… ‘We are giving you from this day…’ See, I’m not your worker. I have not come to your office, and I’ve submitted a CV, whereby you are in a rush to verify my CV, to see whether I am qualified to get that job or not.”
