Accra, June 24, GNA – The Navrongo campus of the University for Development Studies (UDS), would be renamed, C. K. Tedam University of Technology and Applied Sciences.
The move is in honour and memory of the late Chairman of the Council of Elders of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
“In the sitting of Parliament, the bill seeking to create an autonomous university out of the Navrongo Campus of the University of Development Studies would be laid. Once Parliament processes are completed, it would be referred to as the C. K. Tedam University of Technology and Applied Sciences”.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo announced in a tribute during the burial ceremony of Mr Clement Kubindiwo Tedam, the late Chairman of the Council of Elders of the NPP.
The royal decent was given a state burial on Saturday with gunshot salute amidst cultural dance display at his home town in Paga in the Kassena-Nankana West District of the Upper East Region.
The burial mass, which was said by Most Reverend Philip Naameh, Catholic Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Tamale and the President of the Ghana Catholic Bishops Conference was graced by the President himself, Vice President Dr Alhaji Mahamudu Bawumia, Professor Mike Aaron Oquaye, the Speaker of Parliament, Ministers of State, Members of Parliament, leaders and supporters of the ruling NPP, traditional authorities among others.
President Akufo-Addo described Mr C.K. Tedam as “great Ghanaian Patriot, an outstanding statesman, and a stalwart and legend of the NPP who dedicated his life to the service of his people”.
President Akufo-Addo indicated that C. K. Tedam, described as ‘the last remaining walking encyclopedia of Ghanaian politics has created huge vacuum in the country’s development and democratic dispensation which would be difficult to fill.
He said when the necessary processes to make the UDS Navrongo Campus an autonomous university is complete, government would rename it after the late astute politician to honour him for his invaluable contribution to national development and rule of law.
Mr C. K. Tedam, 94, and a teacher by profession from the Paga Royal family, before his demise in May this year, was the Chairman of the Council of Elders of the NPP and the last surviving member of the Northern People’s Party where he played critical roles in the development of the Danquah-Domba-Bussia political tradition.
He began his political career in the pre-independence era and contested in elections for the Legislative Assembly held for the second time in the Gold Coast on 15 June 1954.
The Paga Prince, who was born in November 25, 1925, was one of 11 independent candidates who won a seat in the 104-seater Assembly dominated by the Convention People’s Party, which controlled the House with 71 seats.
In the next election in 1956, C.K Tedam, stood on the ticket of the Northern People’s Party and won his seat. During the military regimes, C.K Tedam served as a Local Government Minister in the Supreme Military Council.
After Ghana returned to civilian rule in 1993, C.K Tedam was key in forming the present NPP that contested the presidential elections and lost.
He was elevated to join the Council of State after the NPP first won political power in 2000 and was made chairman of the Party’s Council of Elders when NPP lost power in 2008.
He died on May 25, 2019, at Mamprobi in the Greater Accra Region leaving behind six children.