The purpose of this piece is to tell the
intellectually-stimulating, powerfully-inspiring and significantly-revealing
rendezvous I had with Mr John N. Tagoe, the Strategy Manager of the Graphic
Communications Group Limited (GCGL).
As a norm, new entrants in any organisation
are oriented on the structure of the organisation. And on this particular day,
we were taken round the company by Mr. Leonard of the HR department of GCGL as
a form of Orientation till we got to the office of Mr. Albert Sam, the
Corporate Communications Manager.
He gave us pieces of advice and took us
through his experiences in life as a Media Practitioner. We then had to move to
the office of Mr. John N. Tagoe, a man we were already told will check the
efficacy of our skulls by asking us questions.
“What is a must-read story?” He quizzed the
journalists among us.
“You read design. Tell me something about the
front page of the day’s Daily Graphic.
“What are the four C’s of Marketing?” He
asked me?
“What is the thrust of the Mirror Newspaper”?
The man then took us beyond our fields of
study and started asking questions he felt everyone who passes through the
University should know.
Our interaction with the man was
intellectually stimulating because it made us realise how learning can be
intensely enjoying and profoundly empowering.
Especially when he gave us a very powerful
quotation from the one-time premier of the United Kingdom, Winston Churchill,
to emphasise the need for us to nourish our brains and kindle our minds for the
betterment of our lives.
Winston made this poignant statement in a
speech at Harvard University on September 6th, 1943. He said “the empires of
the future are the empires of the mind.”
The powerfully inspiring aspect of our
interaction was the fact that we learned instantly how a spirited effort,
determined spirit and persistent dedication to study can mould a person into a
citadel of knowledge which is much needed in this ignorance-frowning world.
Finally, it was significantly revealing
because it manifested the state of the Ghanaian student today. It is painful
but must be stated. It is the truth and must be spoken even if the mouth
shakes.
The truth is that the Ghanaian student now
does not read! The Ghanaian student does not cherish books, the nutrients of a
fertile brain. The Ghanaian student does not read beyond his notes. Creativity
is stifled and innovation almost absent in the Ghanaian student due to the
narrow dimensions of the mind of the Ghanaian student.
In his first place winning article in the
International Essay Competition organised by the Center for International
Private Enterprise (Enterpreneurship and Leadership Category) in 2009, Mahmoud
Jajah registered this critical observation;
“Today in Ghana, most young graduates expect
the government to employ them and in the absence of government employment, they
cannot do anything for themselves ………….. The old concept of “go to school, get
good grades, and you will get a good job” is still the order of the day.
Students read only their course materials – nothing more – as they have no
incentive to excel.” He further stated
“Most young entrepreneurs in Ghana lack the
necessary knowledge and expertise to manage their businesses, especially
knowing how to finance their endeavors.
Whilst there is information available to
young people through books or business magazines, they do not seize these
learning opportunities since many are trapped in the old linear mindset of
education: good grades means a stable government job. Young people seem to
start their business almost by accident without any clue as to how to manage it
successfully.” Powerful!
That is the appalling situation today in
Ghana. Sterile arguments, unproductive ventures, adventurous and unabated beach
parties, amorous social trips inter alia, are the current fad on our campuses.
The most disgusting aspect is how male students expose their bare buttocks with
their genitals sometimes showing as a form of ‘jama singing’.
No wonder we churn out a lot of graduates yet
cannot manage our simple problems.
We still do not know how to manage waste in
this seemingly accursed country of ours. In-depth study of courses is
virtually-non-existent and literacy programmes on our campuses is a thing of
the past.
The Students’ Week celebrations in our
schools is always laden with beach parties almost all of the days of the week,
no quiz-contests not to even talk about debate competition to whip up the
spirit of research in students.
And we have a whole back-log of graduates who
because of the constricted nature of their minds due to lack of extensive
reading, cannot do anything for themselves and do not even have the
confidence a graduate is supposed to exhibit. The earlier we start to rewire
our minds, the better.
When we always say Nkrumah was ahead of his
time, he did not achieve that feat out of the blue or by simply going to school
to pass exams. No! Far from that! Nkrumah married books, he cherished them, and
he read voraciously and ravenously fed on any literature he came across.
This was how he captured what imbued in him
the sense of organization which gave him the fillip to liberate Ghana and
Africa from the clutches of colonialism.
“My aim was to learn the technique of
organisation. I knew that when I eventually returned to the Gold Coast I was
going to be faced with this problem. I knew that whatever the programme for the
solution of the colonial question might be, success would depend upon the
organization adopted.
I concentrated on finding a formula by which
the whole colonial question and the problem of imperialism could be solved. I
read Hegel, Karl Marx, Engels, Lenin and Mazzini.
The writings of these men did much to
influence me in my revolutionary ideas and activities, and Karl Marx and Lenin
particularly impressed me as I felt sure that their philosophy was capable of
solving these problems. But I think that of all the literature that I studied,
the book that did more than any other to fire my enthusiasm was Philosophy and
Opinions of Marcus Garvey published in 1923. Garvey, with his philosophy of
'Africa for the Africans' and his 'Back to Africa' movement, did much to
inspire the Negroes of America in the 1920's.”
That was Nkrumah, then an undergraduate. How
many of us students can boast of reading anything of such nature? We must begin
to revise our notes and pick up extensive reading habit. That is the salvation
for this country.
On the morning of 20th July, 1948, Nkrumah
spoke without notes for about ten minutes to a first batch of ten students when
he founded the first Ghana National College. He told the students:
“'The African today is conscious of his
capabilities. Educational and cultural backwardness is the result of historical
conditions.” He then urged all present and future students, both boys and
girls to consider laziness as a crime.
“Think! Study hard! Work with sustained
effort. As never before we want thinkers— thinkers of great thoughts. We want
doers—doers of great deeds. Of what use is your education if you cannot help
your country in her hour of need?
The writer is a National Service Person at
the Graphic Communications Group Ltd.
