As a sophomore at Kwame Nkrumah’ University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, I enrolled, with great objection and reluctance (more like compelled), to what, at the time, was commonly referred to as VC Course.
Knowingly, the Vice Chancellor of the university at the time, (the late) Prof Kwesi A. Andam; (a maverick of admirable proportions, who was not afraid to dream and challenge others to dream), in his wisdom, introduced a set of elective courses and made same mandatory for all students admitted into the university.
When this program was introduced, the objectives and overall anticipated impact was not clear to some of us. Today, and with the benefit of hindsight, I find this intervention to have been useful and of purpose. I sincerely hope that VC Course still exists within the university curriculum and perhaps, even more rich now than before.
Many of us at the time (me especially), considered nearly all these VC elective courses to be ‘extracurricular’, and unworthy of the compulsion and weighting they carried. Among several other areas in scope, there was music, dance, swimming, athletics, history, traditional systems, and more to choose from as electives.
Invariably, it was common to have a student admitted into the university to study petroleum engineering having to sign-up for say, guitar lessons, as their VC course elective. Each student was expected to have signed up and be examined on the chosen elective VC course at the end of the semester.
Thankfully, it was a single semester course taken one time. Imagine for a moment a situation whereby a student scoring straight A s in say an LLB program and failing at athletics because it was their chosen VC course, and thereby being denied the opportunity to graduate (…enter my objection to the entire introduction of the program in the first place).
I remember carrying my ignorant and inflated ego, shoulders high, storming into the office of my supervisor at the time, Rev. Prof. PETER OHENE KYEI, to register my protest on the decision by the university to make this VC course compulsory. Dr (then) Kyei handled my exuberant ego in the most matured and composed way no one else in academia has ever done, even to this day. He said to me, “Young man, I understand your frustration. I know when you fail this course it would set you back…” I didn’t allow him continue after I heard him say fail. I went on and on about how it was impossible for me to fail a VC course, blah, blah, blah. So he replied “…then just get it done and dusted. It’s that simple”
I carried my deflated ego out of his office…
Fast forward, that is the back story to how I signed up for Ethics and Etiquettes in Traditional Systems and thus ended up in the venerable Koo Nimo’s class. To this day, that choice remains one of the best choices and investment in my entire formal educational journey. without mincing words, Agya Koo Nimo is a national treasure. There should be libraries (because I know firsthand that his love and adoration for books is unmatched), theatres, museums, scholarship funds, etc named after him now, not later. His storehouse of knowledge and wisdom is simply incredible and admirable.
There should be weekly podcasts from him. He should be a guest speaker/lecturer in every tertiary education establishment in Ghana. Agya Koo Nimo is the solution to the deteriorating Morales of the average Ghanaian youth. I consider myself truly lucky and privileged to have sat under Agya Koo Nimo’s feet and tap the outpouring of wisdom as he unties the Gordian knot of society today, so effortlessly. I digress. I shall reserve the celebration of Agya Koo Nimo for another day.
I remember clearly in one of our lecture sessions, (typically small group sizes of not more than 10, seated around one table and having discussions. No slides or notes, no white boards or handouts, just pure unadulterated wisdom) he mentioned the deeply profound respect he had for Prof Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng.
He was mesmerised by the capacity and ability to have a human being gifted with the skill of performing cardiological procedures on another person successfully. I remember Agya Koo Nimo describe and demonstrate the process of performing a complicated procedure such as a heart transplant. The awe in his eyes and the marvel in his voice was so noticeable. Such a person only came SECOND TO GOD; in the mind and heart of Agya Koo Nimo.
“A GIVER OF LIFE”, is how he described Prof Frimpong-Boateng. What troubled Agya Koo Nimo at the time however, was, why someone as gift and privileged as Prof Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng would want to be president of Ghana (at the time, he had joined the long list presidential aspirants hopeful of the New Patriotic Party). Agya Koo Nimo considered being a renowned cardiologist to be over and above being President of this republic called Ghana. To the sage, this was a dilution and an ambition unworthy of pursuit.
If you are in Ghana or care to be minded by things happening in Ghana in recent times (wherever you may be), you may know that Prof Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng is not particularly enjoying the veneration that the likes of Agya Koo Nimo have for him and his person.
Just maybe, the good Prof Cardiologist should have heeded the good counsel from the venerable Agya Koo Nimo and stayed away from frontline politics; just so the excesses from same does not constitute and justify an invitation to disrespect and vilify, as is the case now. As it’s common loose talk among the social media consuming youthful class of Ghana, we will be asking Prof Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng one simple question; WKHKYD?
But then again, we should be guided in humility by the wisdom that, THAT WHICH BRINGS SATISFACTION TO A MAN (OR WOMAN), MAY NOT NECESSARILY BRING FULFILMENT TO THAT SAME MAN (OR WOMAN)!
>>>the writer is a Consultant | Entrepreneur | Director | Farmer
