The Mirror's Health , Lifestyle and Fashion
Longest Graphic subscriber turns 81
The octogenarian still reads all the publications of the company from cover to cover and has fond memories.
Advertisement
Mr Addai-Nsiah, who still reads without the aid of eye glasses, said reading newspapers, particularly those from the stable of the GCGL, had kept him updated on all current issues around the world.
He commended the management of the company for feeding the public with accurate and truthful information over the 70 years and congratulated it on its 70th anniversary celebrated last year.
“My addiction to the paper has helped me to be abreast of current issues and it has also improved my standard of the English Language”, Mr Nsiah told this reporter when he visited the Graphic Office in Kumasi and shared some past experiences with the staff.
According to the retired educationist, “although I am not a journalist, my attachment to the paper has enabled me to learn about the rudiments of journalism.”
He said he started buying the newspaper at age 16 while in Standard Four (now considered as Junior High School1).
He bought them for his uncle Opanin Owusu Peprah (a cocoa farmer) who encouraged him to read the newspaper in order to be abreast of current issues.
“I began subscribing to the Daily Graphic and the Pioneer, Ghana’s oldest independent newspaper, at a price of one penny per copy”, he recounted.
Mr Addai-Nsiah, a native of Anwomaso near Oduom in Kumasi, is blessed with eight children.
Humble request
Mr Addai-Nsiah, who has kept almost all the copies of the newspapers since he started subscribing to the paper, made a passionate appeal to the management of the company to assist him to bind all his copies of the Daily Graphic into one book to serve as an easy resource for research for future generations.
Acknowledgement
He said he stopped subscribing in 2012 because of his meagre monthly pension.
To encourage him, the management of the GCGL, under the then Editor of the Daily Graphic, Mr Yaw Boadu Ayeboafoh (now Chairman, National Media Commission), decided to give him a daily copy of the paper.
Subsequently, a letter signed by Mr Albert Sam (then a Public Affairs Manager) affirmed Mr Addai-Nsiah’s commendation for his outstanding role in keeping records.
The letter read in part that “the GCGL management appreciates your loyalty to the Daily Graphic. You could be a useful source of information about our company to our reading public and we are proud of you.”