Majority Leader in Parliament, Mahama Ayariga, has revealed that the Cabinet has issued a directive for the government to change the names of all public universities that were given individual names under the previous Akufo-Addo administration.
Speaking on the floor of Parliament yesterday, Tuesday, October 21, 2025, the Bawku Central MP noted that the Mahama Cabinet has given a directive for such action to be taken, and announced that a bill will be submitted to Parliament to this effect to reverse the names of universities, which will be changed back to their original names.
The state facilities were named after partisan figures who played various roles in the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) tradition. They included George Grant, Simon Diedong Dombo, and Clement Kubindiwor Tedam, alias “C.K. Tedam”, who, until April 2019, was the Chairman of the NPP’s Council of Elders, an advisory body within the party.
In his State of the Nation Address on 27 February 2024, Nana Akufo-Addo announced that Tamale Airport would be renamed Yakubu Tali International Airport. Yakubu Tali, Tolon Naa Alhaji Yakubu Alhassan Tali (1916–1986), was another partisan figure and a founding member of the Northern People’s Party (NPP), which later merged into the United Party (UP) and eventually evolved into today’s New Patriotic Party (NPP).
His political career included serving as a Member of Parliament for the Tolon constituency during the First Republic. He was High Commissioner to Nigeria (1965–1968), Ambassador to Yugoslavia during Ghana’s Second Republic, and High Commissioner to Sierra Leone, with concurrent accreditation to Guinea.
Renaming Tamale Airport faced significant opposition and calls for reconsideration. Interestingly, in March 2025, Yaa Na Abukari II (Overlord of Dagbon) appealed to President John Mahama to rename the same airport Naa Gbewaa International Airport instead, citing cultural and historical reasons, but this has yet to occur. Kumasi Airport, in the Ashanti Region, is, however, named Prempeh I International Airport, after an Asantehene.
“Mr Speaker, there’s been a Cabinet directive to change the names of all the universities that were changed to individuals back to the names that they were given. A bill will be brought to this House to change and reverse all the changes of the names of the Universities,” he said.
The Akufo-Addo administration renamed several public universities and polytechnics. Examples include renaming the University of Mines and Technology (UMaT) to George Grant University of Mines and Technology, the Wa Campus of UDS to the Simon Diedong Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies.
Additionally, the University of Mines and Technology in Tarkwa was renamed the George Grant University of Mines and Technology (UMaT), and the Navrongo Campus of the University of Development Studies (UDS) was renamed the C.K. Tedam University of Technology and Applied Sciences.
The Ho Technical University was renamed Ephraim Amu Technical University.
The changes were severely criticised by the opposition NDC, accusing the Akufo-Addo government of honouring specific figures from a particular political tradition.
The Majority Leader also announced that the House will consider ratifying the deportation agreement with the United States if there is appropriate legal advice to do so. The Bawku Central MP noted that the Majority side approves of the agreement and further commended the government for its negotiation with the United States, which led to the removal of the visa restriction on Ghana.
“If the appropriate legal advice to this House is that we should ratify it, we will consider so, but I can say with authority that the Majority approves of the arrangement and highly commends the government for negotiating the removal of the US visa restrictions on Ghanaians.
“Given our business and social ties with America, these restrictions were going to be extremely burdensome to many Ghanaian businesses and families,” he stated.
In September 2025, Ghana agreed to accept non-Ghanaian West African nationals deported from the United States, sparking controversy and legal challenges.
The agreement was announced by President John Dramani Mahama, who said Ghana would not receive deportees with criminal backgrounds.
The first group of 14 West African deportees, including Nigerians and a Gambian, arrived in Ghana in September 2025. The government has since facilitated the repatriation of the non-Ghanaian nationals to their home countries.
The Minority Caucus in Parliament opposed the deal and called for the agreement to be suspended, arguing that it is unconstitutional, a national security risk, and was not ratified by Parliament.
They cited a 2017 Supreme Court ruling, which declared that international agreements creating binding obligations must be ratified by Parliament.
Since then, a civil society group, Democracy Hub, has filed a writ at the Supreme Court challenging what it describes as an “unconstitutional” Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Government of Ghana and the United States of America for the reception and detention of deported West African nationals.
The group contends that the MoU, which allegedly allows the U.S. to transfer third-country nationals into Ghana for temporary detention and onward rendition, violates both Ghana’s Constitution and international human rights obligations.
The Supreme Court has fixed Wednesday, October 22, 2025, to hear an application for an interlocutory injunction seeking to halt the implementation of the agreement pending the final determination of the case.
