Ghana’s Former Commissioner to India, Professor Mike Oquaye has warned that calls for Indian independence leader, Mahatma Gandhi’s statue be pulled from the University of Ghana campus could lead to a diplomatic row.
Mahatma Gandhi’s statue got erected on the university campus when then Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Prof Aryeetey declared it was a gift the Indian government bestowed on the country to bolster the goodwill and cordiality between the two countries.
However almost immediately the statue was erected, Pan Africanist and others who have history on their side pointed out Gandhi’s racist orientation and his particular debasement of the Negroid race first in South Africa where he was domiciled for years and later in India where he found fame.
The call became intense when the University Council implied it was not consulted giving momentum to those who reckon that it was inappropriate for the edifice to be erected on a stellar educational institution such as the University of Ghana given no indigene has had his statue mounted.
But Prof Oquaye maintains the ‘Pull Down Gandhi’s Statue’ campaign is misplaced given the Indian government was peeved when after financing the presidential office, the Flagstaff House, the NDC neglected the facility for long before occupying it adding it had to take diplomatic efforts to calm tensions.
Curiously by implication, Prof Oquaye who himself his versed in history finds nothing wrong with Gandhi’s demeaning posture towards the Negroid race and those who bear Africoid features as pointed out by for a former Director of the Institute of African Studies, Professor Akosua Adomako Ampofo.
Â
