Congratulations for your appointment as the Rector of GIMPA

I write with joy to congratulate Prof. Franklyn Achampong Manu for his appointment as the new Rector of GIMPA. Indeed as a student I wish him well and pray that he will not disappoint us and will live up to the expectation he is always known for as former dean of the school of business.

However, any institution that does not recognize its heroes is not worth dying for. On thispremise, I would like to thank the search committee and by extension our late president (Prof. John EvansAttah Mills) for his wisdom in appointing Prof. Manu as Rector of GIMPA.As Zig Ziglar put it “you can get everything in life you want just by helping enough other people to get what they want”. This is a simple fact of life.

furthermore, I have always held the belief that living by the spirit of this simple but powerful observation necessarily require that we align the interest of such heroes in our shared prosperity and begin to understand that those of us who are in position of power or have been otherwise bless with prosperity have an obligation to create opportunities for others to also excel.

Again, I would also want to broaden my gratitude to the immediate Past Rector (Prof. Agyeman Badu) for his selfless service and leadership to the school and I must confess that he really did his best within the circumstance of his time.

Now whiles you are ushered into a new space of leadership, I am very much aware as you acknowledged in your inspiring inaugural speech (a speech I believe must be published “the journey is not going to be easy, but I am determine to succeed”. In fact I was so touched with the art of tone used,having in mind the fact that the challenges before you are numerous and cannot be solved within a short span of time. Indeed,uneasy lies on the head that wears a crown.

To this effect, I am convinced that you shall succeed. But success on another account should not be seen as a function of PR but of hard work and discipline and I trust that you bear those values.

I know whiles reading, you may wonder why it should take me a long space to just say congratulation, but I must say that from the earliest day of its founding, GIMPA has been the story of ordinary people who dare to dream. That's how the future is unraveled and is was, therefore, not surprising when it was mentioned as the best business school in the whole of sub- Sahara Africa.

Moreover, you are going to head GIMPA and you pledge to make it the center of excellence in the world, at a time where tertiary education in Africa has been widely criticized for not meeting the needs of the African people. As Prof. Maazi Mbuno Nchike, a former vice chancellor of the University of Lagos once said “Africa need to stop importing western system of education and develop the African curriculum by harnessing the cultural, ethnic and religious diversity of the African people”. I wish to say that this call is very loud today than it was made a decade ago.

Finally, I reckon strongly that just as the lowest valley is usually joined to the highest and the day always gives way to the night, whatever has a beginning must always have an end and I am convinced that your vision of making GIMPA the center of excellence in the world would be achieved.Once again thank you and congratulations.

Abdallah Tijani Kassim

GIMPA, Business School.

ak5tijani @gmai.com