The sad story of the former NSMQ genius suffering from bipolar disorder

Ningwie Leonard Lanyeli is his name, a former participant in the popular National Science and Maths Quiz but his story today will most probably sadden you.

He attended and completed the Ganaa Memorial Junior High School, emerging as the best-performing student with an aggregate of 8.

In senior high school - St Francis Xavier Junior High Seminary, Leonard pursued General Science as a course and earned the name; ‘Dr. Ningwie Leonard Lanyeli’ from his open ambition to become a medical doctor.

With this ambition, he pushed to score 6 As in his WASSCE exams and B2, B3, and B2 in biology, English and social studies respectively, in 2007.

Not only did his final results show his academic prospects, but his participation in the National Science and Maths Quiz in 2007.

After senior high school, his dreams to move to the University of Cape Coast to read medicine were crashed when his parents told him about the difficulty in paying what was the school’s high fees at the time.

Consequently, he joined the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and technology which had relatively more affordable fees to study as a doctor of optometry.

“I gained admission to read medicine at the University of Cape Coast at the cost of GHC4,100 a year and my father was a teacher who couldn’t afford to pay the fees, so I opted to read Optometry (Dr.) at KNUST,” he said in an interview with Joynews' Mahmud Mohammed-Nurudeen.

There also, he performed incredibly and his feats were recognized by all, in fact, he says, he was the best in his class – at least for the first four years of his course in medicine.

And then his woes began.

His 60-year-old mother, Ninwie Gladys told Joynews that Leonard developed a mental disorder after 4 years in school, after a friend at the university took Leo to his hometown.

His family would only get to know later that the condition of their son was Bipolar Disorder 2 after he took a break from his university studies to seek medical attention at the Pantang Psychiatric Hospital in 2013.

“There is a certificate hanged in that empty room that shows that I still hold the record as the winner of spelling in Pantang Hospital when I took part in a quiz contest during my stay to get medical health. I tell people I am sensible and can teach a crowd,” Leonard said in a Joynews interview.

Leonard later returned to the university in 2014 after a successful rehabilitation and was performing well but his stay there was brief.

His mother Gladys says Leonard’s condition worsened when his father died.

Today, many of his colleagues who are now engineers and doctors talk about how brilliant Leonard was and what his potential could have been if his dreams were fully realized.

“It is disheartening seeing a young man who is very brilliant and could be very resourceful to Ghana in such a condition,” his colleague Dr. Patrick Seidu told Joynews.

Sixtus Bayaa, a former biology tutor at St. Francis Xavier Junior Seminary described him as intelligent and could have been one of the best Scientists or Medical Doctors in Ghana if he didn’t suffer the medical condition.

Leonard today:

Today, Leonard is 33 years old. His dreams of being a doctor may have been cut short because of his health condition but he still hopes to return to school given another chance, albeit with different dreams – this time, he wants to go into community health nursing or teacher training.

“If I get another opportunity, I would like to go back to school again but, I just want a simple course – community health nursing or teachers training college so that I can help my colleagues. I really know how to help,” he said.

He wants, “peace” and hopes things get better.

“I respect my mother and that is a responsibility, I respect humanity and that is also a responsibility. What I expect from my family is care,” Leo continued while speaking to Joynews.