Kufuor Did Not Read law In Oxford -Palaver

In the ‘Insight’, Vol. 10 No. 12 of Monday 15th – Tuesday 16th December, 2003, Ebow Duncan, in his ‘To The Point’ column, quoted Mr. Kwabena Agyepong, Press Secretary to President John Agyekum Kufuor, as having stated on Peace FM as follows:

(i) President Kufuor is a very clever and brilliant man. He did so well in his O – level exams. In fact, he placed 8th in the whole country.

(ii) Kufuor did so well that he went from O- -levels to do law straight. He did not take his A – levels.

(iii) Kufuor was such an excellent student that he did his law in Oxford in four years. If he wanted a doctorate, he could have done it in two years.

(iv) President Kufuor now has a masters degree.

Ghana Palaver has done a little research and has come out with the following findings

(i) Kufuor did Arts at Prempeh College for his O – levels. He was an average student, but definitely not a "very clever and brilliant" student. He could not have placed 8th in the O – levels in the whole country because at that time, the placings were done on the basis of ‘Arts’ and ‘Science’; there was no integrated list of country-wide placings for one to know how one fared "in the whole country".

(ii) Kufuor did not go from ‘O’ level straight to do law. He did not do the ‘A’ level in Ghana, but that does not mean that he did not do the ‘A’ levels at all.

Kufuor did not read Law in Oxford. Kufuor read PPE (Politics, Philosophy and Economics), which is a 3-year course. If Kufuor wanted a doctorate, he would have had to do a 2-year Masters and a 2-year Doctorate courses, so he would have done it in another four years, not two years. (iv) Kufuor’s Masters degree was not studied for. It was by application. Kwabena Agyepong is obviously unfamiliar with the Oxford system.

In the Oxford system, once you did a first degree there, you can apply after a number of years to be awarded an M.A. degree, which is what Kufuor did. That is why he got his B.A. degree in 1964 and was only awarded his M.A. in 1985. What it means is that he applied for it; he did not study for it.

(v) To confirm our findings, we sent an e-mail to Exeter College, where Kufuor studied. This is what we got in reply from the Academic Administrator of Exeter College:

"Joan Himpson < joan.himpson@exeter.oxford.ac.uk - "He read Philosophy, Politics and Economics. He got a B.A. in 1964 and an M.A. in 1985".

It is thus obvious that wherever President Kufuor read his Law, it was definitely not in Oxford. He also did not study for his MA degree.

This is simply to set the records straight.