A Love Letter To Oga John Dramani Mahama

Dear OGA Mahama,

I hope you would have learnt a lot about how it is being the President of Ghana by now. The purpose of writing you this letter is to inform you that your juniors from the secondary school you had your education, Ghana Secondary School, Tamale, were in the school on the 30th of November, 2015.

They had gone to give back to their alma mater after completing Ordinary level some 25 years ago. OGA Bernard Imoro, the National President of the Old Ghanascans Association, and Professor Abdullah Salifu who is now the Rector of the Tamale Polytechnic and some other dignitaries were around to support The OGA 90 Group.

I must say it was a very colourful ceremony as cultural troupes came to entertain the audience at the instance of Professor Habib Iddrisu, an OGA 90 currently domiciled in the USA.

Mr. President, the OGA ’90 group organized the occasion to present about 5,000 text books covering virtually all the faculties to their alma Mater. They refurbished the abandoned streetlights of the school which has now given night life to the students, offered free National Health Insurance cards to the students and also donated some footballs and Jerseys.

OGA Mahama, it was realised that the secondary school that you had free education decades ago has not seen the needed development in almost every facet of its existence. It does not look like it has ever produced even a messenger or cleaner at the Flagstaff House from where you rule this country as the President.

A dining hall project in the school is still uncompleted 41 years after the contract was awarded! The reason is the lack of funds. With you and your wife, Lordina Mahama both being past students of GHANASCO, it was expected that you would have done something about the school as a token to the institution that played a pivotal role in your lives.

The internal roads of the school, Dear OGA Mahama, are in very deplorable state! It is like the training grounds of Boko Haram. My question is have you visited the school recently? Supposing you have not visited your alma mater after assuming the position of the high office of President of Ghana, what do you intend giving back to the school in appreciation for the free education you had there?

My dear senior, why are you not showing visible commitment to doing something legendary or historic for your alma mater? Can’t you institute a John Dramani Mahama scholarship for needy but brilliant students, construct a new dormitory in the school and name it after any person of your choice or construct the deplorable internal roads of Ghanasco which are saddled with “pot-wells” and name it after yourself?

I wept when the Headmistress of the school, Madam Mary Asobayire, enumerated some of the problems facing the school. Even adequate and decent KVIPs are not in the school!

I sincerely thought of bringing this despicable state of our alma mater to your respectful attention. It is unacceptable the state of the school that helped in training you. Posterity will not forgive you, OGA Mahama, if you fail to do something monumental for the school before your exit next year from office.

Your inability to do something meaningful for the school has de-motivated several other Old Ghanascans to help the school including quite a substantial number of them in your current administration.

It is not late to do what is right, OGA Mahama. The OGA 90 Group is not made up of billionaires. They are basic professionals in their basic endeavours. Some of them are unemployed others are underemployed and some of them are working in the Civil, Public and Private sectors both in Ghana and outside of the country. Yet they were able to do what they did for their alma mater which was described as unprecedented in the history of the school by the school authorities!

I must say it is a seriously bothersome spectacle how our Alma Mater, Ghana Secondary School (GHANASCO), is suffering deficiency at the very time both the President and the First Lady are all past students of the school.

This is definitely unacceptable and OGA 90 must be celebrated tremendously for showing pure love, dedication and commitment to Ghanasco. I will not want to write you another love letter, OGA Mahama. I sincerely wrote this letter out of love for our alma mater and I hope you have seen that I have tried to rid it of politics. There are times the demands of your work could probably let you forget the seriousness of the state of neglect of your former school. This love letter is honestly to draw your attention to this.

Long live OGA 90, long live all old Ghanascans and long live mother Ghana!

BY AKILU SAYIBU

OGA 90

Email: Akisayi@yahoo.com