The former Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs, Hon. Kwaku Apratwum, has indicated that a decision by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Hon. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, to establish a Students Desk in the 11 Foreign missions is needless.
According to him, this announcement demonstrates Hon. Ablakwah’s ignorance of the workings of Ghana’s missions abroad and portrays him as a minister who is in a hurry to make a mark albeit with reckless abandon.
He said Hon. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwah announced on his social media handles that he has instructed eleven of Ghana’s missions abroad to establish “Students Desks” to address challenges Ghanaian students studying abroad encounter in relation to fees facilitation, immigration support, medical emergencies, verification of academic records, housing and accommodation, and legal aid. He further noted that the creation of these “special departments” would neither come at an extra cost to the taxpayer nor require additional recruitment since, to him, the idea relies on reassigning consular staff.
To set the records straight, it is an established fact that some of Ghana’s missions abroad have designated officers posted from the Scholarship Secretariat who handle issues regarding the payment of fees and welfare of Ghanaian students, especially those on government scholarship. In missions where these officers are not available, the concerns Hon. Ablakwah seeks to address constitute a prominent part of the functions of the Consular Section of these Missions. As and when these matters arise, consular officers assist in ways permitted by the dictates of their mandate. Thus, consular officers and, in some cases, heads of chancery in our missions abroad facilitate payment of fees for students on scholarship by notifying the Scholarship Secretariat through the Ministry.
Where the situation demands, they also offer immigration support to these students and assist in instances of medical emergencies and verification of academic records,” he noted.
The ranking member on the Foreign Affairs committee of parliament said that it is quite clear the Minister’s decision to task consular officers to man these “special departments” seems to suggest that the technocrats in the Ministry may have drawn his attention to the fact that his so-called “initiative” is not a novelty, as he wants the whole world to believe. He may have been told, for example, that at the onset of the war in Ukraine, consular officers in Ghana’s missions in Prague, Russia, Germany, and Austria were deployed to assist with the movement of Ghanaian students from Ukraine to Poland and for onward evacuation to Ghana. It may appear, however, that he chose to ignore this sound advice and proceeded to issue his propaganda-filled directive ostensibly to score political points.
Hon. Apratwum revealed that it is common knowledge that the biggest issue confronting Ghanaian students studying abroad, particularly those on government scholarships, is the undue delay in the payment of their fees and stipends, a perennial problem that has confronted successive governments. However, the creation of a “Students Desk” in Ghana’s missions abroad is certainly not the way to address this issue. The way forward is for the government to ensure that funds earmarked for the students are released to the Scholarship Secretariat on time for timely disbursement. Hon. Ablakwah’s inordinate haste to resort to social media to announce what, to all intents and purposes, was a supposed administrative issue, which should have been transmitted through appropriate internal channels, and later formally communicated to the general public, is, to say the least, absurd and fame-thirsty.
It is imperative to note that the Foreign Ministry is one of Ghana’s foremost institutions whose activities reverberate across the world, and as such, the Hon. Minister may be advised to curb his penchant for jumping on social media at the least opportunity to betray his ignorance in a manner that will ultimately dent the image of the Ministry, its staff and the country as a whole.
