The public universities bill that is under consideration presents a great opportunity for a serious, substantive national conversation about the role of all our universities–not just public universities in our development. Unfortunately, that debate is being side-tracked by accusations and counter-accusations due to a flawed process. When the first rumblings of misgivings from UTAG surfaced, the Minister for tertiary education, Prof. Yankah counselled patience. He stated that “colleagues in academia panicked too soon”. He added that government had sent a draft document to the Universities and were waiting for feedback. He did not make clear which stakeholders had been consulted.