PRESIDENT Donald Ramotar made it absolutely clear on Friday that no one in the Government of Guyana pressured or requested Professor Daizal Samad to tender his resignation from the employ of the University of Guyana’s Berbice campus.

Moreover, he said there was no move on the part of the Government of Guyana or anyone at the Education Ministry, based on his knowledge, to cause the director of the Tain campus to tender his resignation.
President Ramotar was responding to a question posed by a resident of Region Five, West Coast Berbice, on possible moves by the Government of Guyana to retain Professor Samad, or to cause him to have a change of heart with respect to his resignation.
President Ramotar said the professor’s decision to tender his resignation was made of his own free will. He said he, too, was very surprised to learn of the resignation, since he was aware that Professor Samad had not long ago been reappointed director of the Tain campus of the University of Guyana; but the Guyanese leader assured Region Five residents that there was no problem between the professor and the Government of Guyana.
In responding directly to the West Coast Berbice resident’s question, President Ramotar said all the professor’s resignation means is that the University of Guyana Council would have to appoint a new head for the Tain campus.
The President said he is a very firm believer in the saying that “no one is indispensable”. The Government has not asked the goodly professor to resign, nor did they do anything that had pressured him into resigning, the President affirmed. “We have to find a replacement,” he said.
Professor Samad tendered his resignation to the University Council in the early part of July, and that resignation is expected to see the professor leaving the job in October.
Sections of the media had reported that the Tain campus director had commented that the relationship between himself and the powers that be at head office, University of Guyana Turkeyen campus, were tense and had broken down. He also charged that the Tain campus was like a queen with no power, as all the authority was stripped from the officials there.
In the early part of August, Professor Samad had indicated that he was likely to remain at the campus if a decision was made to establish a University of Berbice, or if the Tain campus was allowed to be fully autonomous.
Professor Samad was appointed Director of the Tain Campus in 2008.