Ghana’s youngest Member of Parliament (MP), Ms Francisca Oteng Mensah, of the Kwabre East Constituency of the Ashanti Region has graduated with a Second Class Upper Division in LLB from the College of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).
At this year’s graduation ceremony in Kumasi last Saturday, she formed part of the 48 per cent of females who graduated out of 2,200 students from the college.
At 24, Ms Mensah made history when she outwitted the New Patriotic Party (NPP) bigwigs at the primary and rose to clinch the highest number of votes during the 2016 parliamentary election.
She told the Daily Graphic that it was tough for her to combine parliamentary work and schooling, but she was motivated by her desire to practise on pro bono to liberate the poor.
Ms Francisca Oteng Mensah
Ms Mensah said she was eager to write the professional examination almost immediately to enrol at the Ghana School of Law so as to receive the best tutelage in order to start practice.
Fresh lecturers
The Provost of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Prof. Imoro Braimah, said having 48 per cent of the graduating class being ladies was encouraging and in line with the vision of attaining a 50-50 per cent in the nearest future.
He expressed worry that as the old lecturers were taking a bow out of the university, there was no motivation for younger ones to be employed because of the government’s ban on employment.
He, therefore, advised the government to lift the ban to allow for fresh lecturers to be employed.
Prof. Braimah urged the university authorities to improve the condition at both the examination and lecture halls to make teaching and learning more exciting.