Achimota: The Dream and The Reality.

The Board of Governors of the School, the Headmistress and Staff, Parents and Students of Achimota School, Invited Guests, Fellow Akora’s and the OAA, Ladies and Gentlemen.

Frankly, I stand here quite humbled to be the Guest of Honour and to speak at this ceremony.

Normally one would expect to see some prominent big shot, a big politician, or some other eminent person as Guest of Honour. So I do reckon that I am standing here today on behalf all of those school mates who share the dream of Achimota, who would love their voices to be heard, the ordinary people who share a love and affection for Achimota, even if in reality most of it is nostalgia. But let me be quick to point out that even those of us not in the limelight or prominent in this heavily political society of today, can and should be looking to make a quiet but hopefully tremendous contribution to society, and you the students of Achimota today, need to aspire to quiet achievement as much as to loud achievement. The Akans have a proverb which says “ Ahwene pa nkasa”.

Why did I mention nostalgia?

Because nostalgia is good. It comes from a good and beneficial past, that one wishes to re-live again even if only fleetingly. I am yet to find anyone who has had a horrible past and wishes for it to come back. So we accept that our nostalgia is borne out of good and enjoyable memories, that we harbour within us. Part of what makes nostalgia such a fine feeling is that often the past seems more pleasant in memory than it was in reality. However without past memories, we lack a standard to base present conditions upon. The innate desire to compare the past to the present does drive many personal and political decisions.

So we are faced with and have to deal with what is essentially an interface, i.e. in between somewhere is the shadow that lies between the dream and the reality. And that interface is the idea of the school and where it ought to be. An interface by definition is a boundary between two spaces, or a membrane that divides one world from another. My premise for this talk is towards making the interface smaller, shrinking the shadow so that the dream and the reality begin to approach one other. That is when the dreams of the founding fathers, the dreams of all Akoras and the dreams of parents and would be parents begin to become in union with the reality of the school as it is today.

This is going to be a perennial problem. All living organisms go through what is known by scientists and adopted in the business world as life cycles. Much of top business thought is concentrated on managing the life cycle of the organisation in order to keep it on the straight and narrow. For the sake of the students here let me explain a bit more about the normal life cycle. It is generally understood that every organism goes through certain periods of changes in its inexorable transition from birth to death. Every creature is born, grows through infancy, reaches youth status, achieves adulthood and maturity, and then begins to slowly slide towards old age and eventual demise. That is the classic life cycle. However it is entirely possible that life cycles can be extended or indeed re-instituted. In plant life grafting a new branch on an old stem practically creates a new tree so that the mature state reverts to the youth stage again. This is what businessmen like myself seek to do with their companies so that they stay forever youthful, vibrant and always relevant. We seek to re-vitalise our companies to be abreast with new technology and hopefully take advantage to gain new products which will make the company youthful again. I hope the concept is understood. Understanding what factors impinge on the growth of the organisation, be it environmental, be it political, be it social, or be it for internal considerations are imperative. It is those organisations who understand and manage this best and are able to continue to re-invent themselves, and seek to always remain fresh and relevant, that survive the tough world and grow.

Another important notion in business is that of differentiation. In very simple terms it means being different in some way compared to your peers, that is usually beneficial. There are so many businesses out there, all vying not just to survive but to grow and to take bigger and bigger shares of their markets i.e., where they sell their products or services. It boils down to each business fighting for a fair share of the wallets of the individuals who are their customers and consumers of their products. Why should a consumer part with his money to one and not the other? The answer is in the differentiation that he perceives between the different products on offer. Kenkey is kenkey but the Osu factory Kenkey is simply superb! In some cases it is better utility, or better efficacy, in some cases better aesthetics, better smell, better colour, better advertising or something which is uniquely different, usually expressed as better quality, which allows him to charge a premium price for that reason. Some management guru’s have coined the phrase ‘unique selling proposition or USP’, which describes and sums up that unique quality that makes one different from the rest.

We need to understand the differentiation, the USP, that drives the total entity idea that is Achimota and which underscores the dream. And we need to look for that something that will bring the school back down the life cycle and to give it a new lease of life.

The reality is that Achimota as a school has been battered by very many factors and is surviving because of the hard work of the School Board and the Management of the School supported by the Parent Teacher Association and the OAA. The factors are many and diverse and I am sorry to opine that there are many more challenges ahead. The country is growing, so availability of school space is at a premium. Everyone wants a place for their children. A very natural desire. And everyone wants the best. After all school is what makes a person useable to society. Therefore it is a necessity. It is a way that humans can give shape to the world and be shaped by it. In this way the interface creates substance, it makes giving water to a thirsty land possible. It makes possible the training of would be leaders that this country so dearly needs.

That was the dream of the founding fathers. That all manners of people would come to a place where they would be moulded to be useful to society, not just to be within society but to lead, to set the pace, to be innovative, and to be examples for others to follow.

That is why the unsung mantra of a healthy mind in a healthy body was soundly practised. That is why so many extra-curricular activities were in evidence, the strict rules, the non tribal nature of life on the campus, the swimming pool, the music school, the art school, the engineering school and even the various cultural drumming nights that ensured that everyone on campus, black, green or white, tall or short, fat or slim, had a strong rubbing off with cultural practice. That made Achimotans whole and ready to be leaders.

I am sorry to say that while the dream has remained generally strong, the reality has atrophied somewhat.

Because everyone wants to partake of the dream that is Achimota, the factors that have impinged on the school have weighed heavily on the quality that is part of the dream. The general impression is that today’s Achimotans lack the broad brush of education. That the school has been forced to join the merry band of schools that are busy training the mind regardless of the context of a sound education is something to be strongly resisted with all our might. Such that we are getting people that have passed through the school, passed all the exams but are not living water to a thirsty land any more but simply also runs. Nunquams! I daresay that in my opinion education is not about passing exams although that yardstick is necessary. It is for me about being a rounded person of the world, knowledgeable, hopefully well read, and being able to hold one’s own at any intellectual and or social level, while still passing all necessary exams, and above all disciplined and trust-worthy. Confucious once said that a person can fill his mind with facts but he will still remain uneducated!!!

What has happened? Ghana has a famous saying, “pull him down”. I am afraid it has not been limited to the work place, where the good people are brought down a peg by less intellectually endowed people in order to reduce them to the lowest common denominator. It has crept its way throughout the education system in Ghana. It is now OK for all the schools to look alike, and to be treated alike. Never mind that elsewhere Harvard stands apart, never mind that Oxford or Cambridge stand apart, never mind that Harrow School stands apart, Achimota must be like every other secondary school in Ghana, reduced like all things in Ghana, also to the level of the lowest common denominator. I say there should be schools for everyone according to ability and also to ability to pay.

When Achimota was conceived, it was not as if there would be no more schools in Ghana. Not at all. But it was conceived to be the jewel in the crown. A place where students went because they deserved to, and would be trained to be future leaders. In the strata of schools it would always be at or near the top. And that was part of the dream. Now Achimota is treated as any other school, receiving funding like everyone else, no wonder the differentiation that makes Achimota is under strain.

Should not the objective be to ‘move up’ the standard/s of other schools, rather than to ‘dump down’ the standard/s set in Achimota which the founders worked so hard to put in place?

Without mincing words, there are more students than the school ought to have. While there are dedicated staff, there are too many of the other sort, those who would rather not teach but yet receive their pay. And the infrastructure is poor. It is a great pity to see that the school fields, the music school, and the swimming pool, etc. are in poor state or simply do not exist anymore. And recently there have been massive efforts to encroach on the lands that were acquired so very long ago by forward thinking founders to facilitate expansion and growth especially into the new areas of education as dictated by the new environment. Thankfully Government has recently released a policy paper which suggests the land is not for sale, for which I say thanks be to God.

Achimota used to host the engineering school before engineering became a full university course on its own. Achimota used to host the School of Administration before business schools came into their own. Why is that in this age of ICT we are not pioneering anything anymore? Should we not have been the first to have had a specific ICT school, to set the pace? What about a school to teach the rudiments of non fossil fuel technology knowing how important that will be in the future?

I can hear you. Someone out there is saying this guy is a dreamer, well hello, that is what this talk is all about. If you don’t dream I tell you, you will never get to say eureka, our founders dreamt and started on the road we have joined them on. Our task is to keep that dream alive by bringing reality closer every time it founders. So dream on please is what I’d rather want to hear.

The Board of Governors of the School, the Headmistress and Staff, Parents and Students of Achimota School, Invited Guests, Fellow Akora’s and the OAA, Ladies and Gentlemen, so what is the solution?

At this stage I know there may be some name calling so let me be quick to say that this is my opinion and entirely mine although it has been borne out of many passionate discussions with various people and groups.

Let me preface my views with a very famous poem by an equally famous American poet. One of the good life long friends I made while in Cadbury House, called Kingsley Dwamena-Fosu, liked it very much and used to recite it all the time. So much so that I also inadvertently committed it to memory, and I find it apt to quote it here, more so because it is as much about equality as it is a thesis on the dream.

The poem is called ‘What Happens to A Dream Deferred?’ Those of you who are well read immediately know that I refer to Langston Hughes. He wrote:

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up

like a raisin in the sun?

Or fester like a sore--

And then run?

Does it stink like rotten meat?

Or crust and sugar over--

like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags

like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

Let me say again that I expect some name calling so I repeat that these are my opinions, as I said, borne out of many passionate discussions with various people and groups.

I simply do not understand Government policy towards Achimota. I think it is warped. This school was built for a specific place in society. It is not being allowed to play its rightful role by misplaced socialist and antagonistic thinking by people who simply cannot grasp that there have to be different strokes for different folks.

If the school were left to run itself, I daresay it would be the envy of the world, and probably attract more and more students from around the continent.

A few years ago people were sending their children to schools in Togo, in South Africa and in other African countries who have schools built on the concept of the original Achimota. Right at home in Ghana we have privately run schools like the SOS schools, the various international schools that are run autonomously and do very well thank you. And all of these have very high reputations. Why because they produce results. If you speak to any of their students, they are worldly, educated and pass their exams and are motivated to get on with life.

Achimota is being slowly drawn into those whose products simply say they have finished school but yet sometimes cannot even write their own names, how much more hold an educated discussion on a worldly subject in a coherent fashion and without using broken English.

Why is Achimota not allowed to run itself?

People will give reasons why not. Some may point as usual to the lack of opportunity for children of poor background that such a move would suggest. And I say that is nonsense. The existence of a problem does not abrogate the idea. Problems are to be overcome not to succumb to. True, that relevant quality education and training, especially in this new world of globalisation should promote a production of informed citizens, and should offer opportunities to the socially and economically underprivileged sections of society. And I second that. Indeed in the Achimotan dream, children of every background rub shoulders, learn together, share experiences and become better people, better citizens to be able to lead society better. Ut Omnes Unum Sint, that all may be one. That alone will drive us to find a solution to ensuring equal opportunity.

For example, scholarship schemes to ensure that this is maintained are not impossible to set up. In my time it was the Cocoa Marketing Board scholarship, that brought everyone together. Today and tomorrow, it will be something else. Same thing, different name, same purpose. If an Achimotan Scheme were mooted today, I am quite sure Achimotans, ancient and modern, Bremen or Motowners, and several business entities all over the world, in which Achimotans are kingpins or at least influential would subscribe willingly. I daresay it would be much more oversubscribed that any new share offering in Ghana, in the name of a good cause.

I urge the powers that be that are controlling the school to begin to push this agenda very strongly so that we may be able to build an Achimota nearer the dream of the founding fathers, that gives a holistic education, which includes all the necessary curricular and non curricular activity that are necessary to build sound minds in healthy bodies. So that we may once again be able to say that we are producing living water to a thirsty land. That is my plea. For autonomy. Self funding generally leads to higher quality.

The Board of Governors of the School, the Headmistress and Staff, Parents and Students of Achimota School, Invited Guests, Fellow Akora’s and the OAA, Ladies and Gentlemen, let me end by saying this.

There are some who will say that the school will become an expensive one. It very well might. Indeed we cannot hide from the fact that good quality education is expensive. Refusing to invest behind it only leads to more and more mediocrity. Already there is too much of that in high places with its concomitant environment of indiscipline that is rife in our society today. Anything that has value is expensive in one way or the other. Another life long friend, from my time in Livingstone House, Stanley Amarteifio Esquire I remember has this to say whenever one tries to go cheap, that The Asantehene will not hesitate to tell you this that “nobody buys gold with coins”, i.e. “yen fa mkapre not sika kokoo”.

I am sure this school will stand the test if structured right, and I sincerely hope to see the dream re-visited and redeemed in my lifetime.

Achimota, the dream and the reality. What happens to a dream deferred? Langston Hughes hopes the dream deferred will not explode into nothingness. I share that hope too, as did I believe the founding fathers. To make the dream the reality is a heavy load, but one that we must bear, all of us, young and old, ancient and modern, Bremen and Motowners, and in today’s parlance, all of those who seek democracy with quality and discipline, who know that we will not survive with continued mediocrity. That is my hope, and my fear also. Because as I think of this country and of our future, I shudder to think of the cost of this dream deferred. Simply put, Achimota must again be the jewel in the crown of education in this country and hopefully in all of Africa.

Let me end by invoking the assistance of the Lord, as in Romans 14v19, and in Phil 4 6,9, where it says “ Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and mutual edification.”

I thank you for the opportunity to speak my mind.

Thank you.

Bremen Ayekoo.

E. Kwasi Okoh