Thank you all!
My 70th birthday celebrations are past and gone but the memories will linger on forever.
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It was the greatest honour ever bestowed on me in my entire life and I have to thank the almighty God for making it happen.
When I told my Old Vandal colleagues at our annual Republic Day Jamboree on July 1, last year that I would not seek re-election at this year’s Delegates Congress scheduled for Ho in July, they expressed shock and disappointment.
It was a public proclamation and, therefore, they knew I was serious with it. However my very good friends, Nana Ato Dadzie and His Lordship, Justice Anin Yeboah, later jokingly remarked at the reception that if I should go ahead with my intention to step down they would have no alternative but to drag me to court to restrain me from carrying out what they considered a threat to abandon the association mid-stream.
At one of our monthly meetings at the Army Officers Mess at 37, I had to explain that I would be 70 on January 7, 2015 and would like to take a rest. However, I added that I would continue to be a member of the association, maybe move up to the Council of Elders where I can still be useful as an adviser.
It was then my colleagues accepted my decision and promised to organise a birthday reception for me as an honour and in appreciation of my contributions towards the growth of the Old Vandals Association in the past decade and a half and more.
I told them my children had also planned to organise my 70th birthday party but they insisted they were going to do it for me. It was after much persuasion that they agreed to hold the reception, but only at Commonwealth Hall, in conjunction with my children and family.
Greatest moment
The result was what took place at the Commonwealth Hall Gardens two Saturdays ago on February 7. It was the greatest thing ever to happen to me. I was really overwhelmed. That is why I thought I should dedicate my column today to all those who contributed to make the day such a huge success and a memorable one for me.
I really appreciate what the Old Vandals have done for me. I know it is the same way they also appreciate my services to the association over the years.
However, I wish to tell my colleagues that whatever I have done to uplift the name and image of the Old Vandals and Commonwealth Hall as their leader should be seen as a payback time. I don’t know what would have happened to me or what course I would have charted in my life if I had not come to Commonwealth Hall.
The hall gave me the platform to develop myself and to become a leader of some sort. As we all know, even though for other reasons some may not admit it, Commonwealth Hall is the breeding ground of tomorrow’s leaders. Everybody who passes through the hall is given all the opportunity to assert himself.
In our days, there was a big gulf between well-endowed schools such as Adisadel, Achimota, Mfantsipim, Prempeh, Opoku Ware and St Augustine’s and less endowed ones such as Konongo-Odumasi, Dormaa, West African Secondary School (WASS), Apam, Labone, Acquinas and Ofori Panin. Today, the gap has closed tremendously and there is little to choose between the two groups of schools, judging by the West African Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) results.
So anybody who managed to pass his “A” Levels from the less endowed schools in our time now found himself at par with somebody from the well- endowed schools as soon as they gained admission to the university. This was the situation we found ourselves in when we entered Legon in the late 60s. After passing out to enter the wider world, nobody cared to find out which secondary school you attended. Everybody was interested in the quality of the degree you came out with and from which university.
Commonwealth Hall made a difference
It was the opportunity I got from being in Legon and Commonwealth Hall that made me give my best to the Old Vandals Association, the alumni of Commonwealth Hall of University of Ghana.
While at the hall, I served at various times as hall secretary in the government formed by the late Lawyer Willie Amarfio in our second year in 1968/69, member of the Editorial Board of the Echo and later editor and editor-in-chief of the student newsletter.
Commonwealth Hall alumni are so fond of their hall. The camaraderie we display in our student days is carried to the outside world after our studies. That is why the Old Vandals Association has remained probably the most active alumni group one can find in the whole of Ghana.
It is always a delight to meet old students of different generations at our meetings, jamboree and homecoming as if we are equals. But there is always respect for the senior.
It is not only to the Old Vandals Association that I have given my time. I have also been involved in the activities of the old students associations of West Africa Secondary School (WASS) and Konongo/Odumasi Secondary School(KOSS).
These are the schools that laid the foundation to what I was to become later. Like Commonwealth Hall, I allowed these schools to pass through me.
As a result of my continued interest in the affairs of WASS and KOSS, especially in the activities of the old students, I currently serve on the boards of both schools as the old students’ representative. So I am involved in all efforts to improve standards in my old schools, just as I also am a fellow of Commonwealth Hall of University of Ghana.
So there is nothing that gives me so much joy than to attend regular meetings at my old schools where I left more than 35 years ago. That is what I call giving back to the schools that have made me who I am today.
Western education
As my 70th birthday reception recedes into history and having given all glory to the Almighty, I must also doff my hat to my late father, a Moslem cleric, who rather believed that the future lay in western education and, therefore, sent me to school.
He not only sent me to school but followed every step I took while at school.
Since he had learnt how to read and write on his own, he was always interested in my school report, especially when I was in secondary school. He would always question why I did well in certain subjects and not so well in others.
He was even bold to allow me to attend Sunday service at Salvation Army Primary School in Kumasi to save me from being caned on Monday, which could have discouraged me from going to school.
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He also asked me to suspend my Koranic studies since he agreed himself that combining koranic and western education would affect my studies at school.
Well, Alfa, wherever you are, I say your toil has not been in vain.
Finally I would like to thank the planning committee, headed by my vice, Isaac Nketiah Sarpong, for putting up a splendid show.
I also say a big thank you to the Vice-Chancellor of the University, Prof. Ernest Aryeetey, for finding time to grace the occasion and for the encouraging words to the Old Vandals. How can I thank Nana Akuoko Sarpong, the Omanhene of Agogo Traditional Area and Chairman of the Council of Elders of the Old Vandals? He came from Agogo the day before and told me he would attend the reception but would
only stay for 15 minutes. Nana stayed through the programme. A true and committed Vandal!
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My special thanks also go to the Hall Master, Prof. J.B. Armah, and his predecessor, Prof. Harry Akussah, for making sure the reception was a success.
I don’t think I can forget the Head of the Yoruba Community in Kumasi, Alhaji Ahmed Rufai Alao III, and members of the Yoruba Community in Accra and other elders from Kumasi for making me proud.
To other members of the family, especially my children and my in-laws, I say Ayekoo!