POSSA 2018 supports Prof. Gyampo

The 2018 Year Group of the Political Science Students Association (POSSA 2018) of the University of Ghana, Legon, has thrown its weight behind Prof. Ransford Edward Van Gyampo, saying that the documentary put together by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Africa Eye, dubbed ‘Sex for Grades’ was an attempt to run down his enviable reputation without cause or purpose.

‘‘The piece fails to establish a case of sex for grades as widely publicised by a media that is clearly on an ominous carousal,” the association said, adding that after its members had spent sometime to watch the expose of which 10 minutes was focused on Prof Gyampo, “we are compelled to conclude that the BBC Africa Eye Sex for Grade piece” is of no basis.

Video

The statement, issued on behalf of the association by Samuel Duku, the 2018 Majority Leader of POSSA Parliament, alleged that the BBC came up with such video because Prof. Gyampo was a ‘big fish’, powerful and influential and that everything was targeted to destroy his hard-earned reputation.

According to the statement, the said documentary which was hyped with the hashtag ‘#Sex for Grades’ seemed to suggest that the good lecturer offered ‘free grades’ in exchange for sex but the video failed to establish any case of extortion, solicitation, abuse of power, intimidation and coercion inter alia.

Harassment

The statement mentioned that POSSA was aware of the university’s sexual harassment policy and said grades at the University of Ghana were awarded based on merit and not through any form of pleasantries including sex, adding that ‘‘we frown on any act of solicitation on the part of lecturers or students.’’

Interest

The statement was emphatic that it found it interesting that the said video only showed a footage of two consenting adults who had built a rapport for weeks and had exchanged gestures of intimacy.

POSSA, however, acknowledged the fact that Prof Gyampo , who heads the Centre for European Studies as its maiden Director, had worked so hard to secure professorship from which the University of Ghana had benefitted a lot because he is a great asset to the Political Science Department of the university.

‘‘Apart from his profession as a lecturer, Prof Gyampo is also a philanthropist who believes in community service. This is manifested in his works in the Central Region where he hails from and elsewhere,” the statement said, and mentioned also that “Prof Gyampo has in no doubt contributed immensely to Ghana’s electoral politics and political architecture in general, serving through NGOs and CSOs including the IEA’.