By Kofi Akordor
IN a small remote community in the Atwima Mponua District of the Ashanti Region, a young man has initiated a journey that promises to leave his footprints in the sands of history. Without necessarily making a deliberate and conscious attempt to make history, Mr Wisdom Deku Apedo, who is doing national service at Barimayena in the district, is brightening his small corner and illuminating the way for children who, through no fault of theirs, have found themselves in a part of the country many see as forbidden territory.
Mr Apedo is not destined to suffer the same fate as others whose good deeds only come to light and are acknowledged long after they are gone. The 24-year-old service person has already won commendation from the Ashanti Regional Director of the National Service Scheme (NSS) for the transformation he is bringing to the small community where he is doing national service.
More significant are the kind words the Barimayena Unit Committee Chairman, Mr Stephen Agyapong, and the Chief of Barimayena, Nana Kofi Mensah, have for Mr Apedo for his self-less devotion to the progress of the small community.
Mr Apedo, an HND (Marketing) graduate from the Cape Coast Polytechnic, by some design or fate, found himself posted first to the Ashanti Region for his national. I believe he was excited that being a Marketing graduate, he was going to be assigned to a commercial firm where he would put his marketing skills to practice.
He might have got his first jolt when he was posted to the Atwima Mponua District where his initial expectations fizzled out. He was in a bigger shock when his final destination was Barimayena, which the chief of the place himself described as remote and not attractive to all the trained teachers posted there.
According to the Ashanti Regional Director of the NSS, Mr Kwesi Quainoo, Mr Apedo was tempted to follow others to abandon the people of Barimayena for obvious reasons. Mr Apedo said apart from the remoteness of the place, there was a serious handicap in the form of a language barrier. He is from Battor in the Volta Region and speaks Ewe, while his hosts are Asante Twi-speaking people.
Whatever made him to change his mind, only Mr Apedo will narrate it one day in a more vivid manner, but he told a reporter of the Daily Graphic that he saw his posting as a challenge to build the capacity of the pupils and the people of the community.
The most important thing is that good judgement prevailed and Mr Apedo decided to pitch camp at Barimayena and he is already enjoying doing real national service. He can see his efforts bearing fruits right before his eyes.
Mr Apedo’s story became public when officials of the Ashanti Regional Directorate of the NSS, led by Mr Quainoo, visited the district to acquaint themselves with the challenges facing national service persons posted to some of its remotest parts.
They heard the account of Nana Mensah himself, who said the local school which started with only 25 kindergarten pupils had seen tremendous growth and improvement since Mr Apedo’s arrival in the community. He said the school had now grown to Primary Two, bringing current enrolment to 83.
More startling was the revelation by the chief that through Mr Apedo’s personal initiative, the community had been able to raise GH¢1,700 to build additional classrooms and expressed the hope that very soon the school would expand intake to Primary Six to have the full complement of a primary school.
Mr Apedo’s case is edifying and worthy of mention because over the years the philosophy of the NSS has been diluted, making mockery of the vision of the founders and making it look as if the scheme is a big shade under which people will take rest while thinking of what to do next.
Some people even think that it is an extension of the political apparatus where they could exercise their pastime as party activists, collecting their allowances without rendering service to the people the way Mr Apedo and others are doing.
In the latter part of last year, a group of young men and women belonging to the Tertiary Education Institutions Network (TEIN), the students wing of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), subjected Mr Vincent Kuagbenu, the Executive Secretary of the NSS, to bouts of embarrassing heckling when he tried to address them in Winneba.
Mr Kuagbenu’s crime was that he had not pandered to the wishes of the young graduates by posting them to their preferred places to do national service.
Most of them complained that Mr Kuagbenu had posted them to remote parts of the country, instead of allowing them to enjoy the spoils of victory in the general election by posting them to juicy places.
These were youthful members of the party who are aspiring to become future leaders who thought certain parts of the country are too remote to deserve their skills and talents; people who, in the not-too-distant future, will mount platforms and tell Ghanaians to vote for them because they know their problems, care for them and are even prepared to die for them if only they (Ghanaians) will give them their votes.
What many of those who made those ugly noises that day did not know was that many years ago, between 1982 and 1984, many young men and, to a smaller extent, young women, broke their backs carrying cocoa which was getting rotten on the farms to the ports. Others turned themselves into human cranes to load cocoa onto ships at the Tema Port.
If those young people want to know the real story, the origins of the party called the NDC, they will come to realise why former President Jerry John Rawlings is still the toast of many: He was seen as a symbol of humility, dedication, selflessness and devotion to the national cause.
With such characteristics, he was able to convince students to abandon the lecture halls for the bush, the villages and the remotest parts of the country to do national service.
Those shouting youth should find out why national service became two years instead of one year and why even Sixth Formers joined the scheme. It was to clear the backlog of students who piled up when the universities were closed down for one full academic year.
Those days, the students did not have the luxury to indulge in noise-making but went into the bush to replant burnt cocoa farms. That was how the National Farmers Day started when, after a long and severe drought, the first harvests were made and the government felt there was cause to celebrate and reward the farmers who had brought food production to normalcy.
Some of the students went chasing cocoa smugglers on dangerous grounds. Some lost limbs; some even paid the supreme price in the service of mother Ghana. Some could not make it back to their universities and other institutions.
It was the efforts of those unsung heroes which culminated in the formation of the NDC. If, therefore, any young member of the NDC sees service in certain parts of this country as punishment, then that person, instead of exhibiting that with ugly noises in public, should rather bow his/her head in big shame.
The national service concept was not mooted to give employment to young graduates in the banks, hotels and cosy offices in Accra, Kumasi and other urban centres. If somewhere along the line the concept was abused and prostituted, it was not because the managers were doing the right thing.
It is imperative that before young graduates blossom into mature officers, they should render service without calculating the returns. In that case, they will be in a better position to appreciate the real problems confronting this country. They will know the beauty of this country and its people. When the time comes for them to assume leadership roles, they will know that Accra is only a minute fraction of the land mass called Ghana.
Many of the shortfalls the country is experiencing in the educational and health sectors in particular, especially with regard to posting to the rural areas, could be effectively addressed if the NSS operated true to the philosophy behind it. In that case, no service person will be in Accra or the regional capitals.
If today there are still poverty, disease and squalor in the rural areas; if today most of the rural schools are in dilapidated structures and without trained teachers, it is because most often our leaders behave like those TEIN members who are quick to disengage themselves from the reality on the ground through ignorance or criminal negligence.
It is time the youth wings of all the political parties were made to appreciate the problems of this country. It is time they were made to understand that no part of this country is a wasteland. It is time we considered service in the rural areas as a prerequisite for appointment to national offices.
The people of Barimayena are reaping the fruits of true national service, just as people such as Mr Apedo are proving to those who were heckling Mr Kuagbenu for the simple reason that he did not allow them to stay in Accra or Kumasi for their national service that there is great honour and self-satisfaction in serving the people with devotion and commitment.
Mr Apedo may finish his service and move on to pursue his ambitions elsewhere but the people of Barimayena will not forget his contribution any time the issue of education is brought up. Who knows — many decades to come some ministers and Members of Parliament will come out from that small village, thanks to national service rendered by one person when others saw the place as hell and abandoned the people to their fate.
Changing the fortunes of a people whose situation looks hopeless is what true national service means. This is a challenge to the youth of this country. Of course, the managers of the NSS should also do the right things which will motivate the youth and challenge them to plunge into national service wholeheartedly.
Mr Apedo and all others who are serving the people of this country in the remotest parts, at the expense of their comfort, deserve commendation and encouragement. The state must exhibit appreciation which will send the signal that service to one’s nation will not be in vain.
fokofi@yahoo.couk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
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