Mfantsipim —­ 2024 NSMQ Champions!

The last week of October 2024, and perhaps the few days preceding that, was full of activity in what could be described as a “mixed grill” of events.

• Erastus Asare Donkor -  On Oct 21, 2024, while filming the destruction caused by galamsey and the environmental damage in the Asenayo Forest Reserve, Erastus Asare Donkor and three other members of his team were attacked and beaten up.

• Bawku & Walewale –- At a roadblock near Walewale on the Tamale – Bolgatanga Highway, eight individuals were killed after an “identification parade” to establish the ethnicity of passengers. The return of a disputed chief sparked off the new round of the ever-simmering Bawku conflict.

• Akua Donkor —  On Oct 28, 2024, the Founder of the Ghana Freedom Party Madame Akua Donkor died.

• NMSQ 2024 — On Wednesday, Mfantsipim School won the 2024 National Science and Maths Quiz competition with St Augustine’s College coming second and Keta Senior High Technical School third.

Erastus

As I listened to the award-winning “anti-galamsey” crusading journalist Erastus Asare Donkor narrate his harrowing experience to Samson Lardy Ayenini of Joy FM’s Newsfile fame, a heavy sigh “hmmmmm” came out of me! Based on information given him by a “very respected member of society,” Erastus had gone to investigate goings-on in the Asenanyo Forest Reserve established in 1940 in the Amansie South District of the Ashanti Region.

While filming with a drone, the team was attacked by ten heavily built armed men with pump-action guns and knives. They demanded the phones of the filming team. The non-compliance by the Media General team resulted in their being beaten up with slaps copious administered.

They were then driven to an unknown location where Erastus feared they were going to be killed. Fortuitously, when a passenger vehicle appeared from nowhere, Erastus said he shouted for help as he screamed they were from Media General and had been abducted/kidnapped.

This was the saving grace! When he eventually made a report to the police at Manso-Adubea, a team of eight policemen accompanied them to the “crime scene!”

He continued that on arrival, the police were rebuffed by the assailants who said in Twi “y’aban na ewo so,” to wit, “It’s our government which is in power.” 

Bawku

The age-old chieftaincy conflict between the Kusasis and Mamprusis which has plagued Bawku and its environs for years got reignited with the return of a disputed chief. In early 2023, Alhaji Seidu Abagre was installed in Nalerigu as a rival chief in Bawku. Following an arrest warrant issued against him, he fled into exile in February 2023.

However, on October 17, 2024, a Kumasi High Court quashed the arrest warrant paving the way for Abagre’s return. It is his return to Bawku on October 26, 24 which started the current wave of violence with over twenty dead.

NSMQ 2024

Without a doubt, the National Science and Maths Quiz has become one of the most competitive and interesting academic Radio and TV programmes in Ghana. Launched in 1993 by Primetime Limited, it aimed at generating more interest in Science and Mathematics among second-cycle school students.

On Wednesday, October 20, 2024, Mfantsipim School won the 2024 NSMQ competition for the third time, the two previous years being 2014 and 1999.

The final competition was a closely fought fight in which two-time winners St Augustines College gave Mfantsipim School a good run for their money with 46 points, only one point behind Mfantsipim’s winning 47 points. Keta Senior High Technical School came third with 32 points.

The road to victory was turbulent as Mfantsipim narrowly beat five-time winners Prempeh College in the quarter-finals, and again narrowly, the defending champions and eight-time winners PRESEC in the semi-finals.

On a sad note for Mfantsipim School/MOBA, Herman Chinnery-Hesse of MOBA 1981, known as “Africa’s Bill Gates,” a renowned technology entrepreneur/software developer and Founder of SOFTtribe was laid to rest at the Graceland Cemetery, Brekusu-Aburi on Saturday, November 2, 2024.

Discussion

According to Erastus Asare Donkor on the programme with Samson Lardy Ayenini, when the police at Manso-Adubea accompanied the team to the “crime scene,” the police were rebuffed by the accused who told them it was their government in power.

If he were alive, Thomas Hobbes, one of the founding fathers of modern-day Political Philosophy in the 16th century would have been shocked! To him and his colleagues John Locke, JJ Rousseau etc, to get man out of the “state of nature“ where survival of the fittest results in man’s life being, “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short,” government is for everybody as part of the Social Contract. 

Here, citizens cede part of their rights to a government which protects them and provides social amenities/services irrespective of party. To commit a crime and justify it with the words “Our government is in power” is unthinkable!

I never get tired of stating what the Ugandan General told me when I asked why the daily screaming newspaper headlines of murders and atrocities.

He said “Where a person knows that if he commits murder, nothing will happen to him because the law does not work, he will kill with impunity. But if he knows that if he murders, he will also be killed because the law works, he will not commit murder!”

As for the Bawku problem as well as the police being rebuffed in Asenanyo Forest, one can only hope that those behind the scenes who sponsor the violence for personal gain will see reason and bring to an end the perennial violence. For those who create Frankenstein when in power, nature has a way of destroying them using the same monster they created.

Congratulations to the 2024 NSMQ champions Mfantsipim School, runners-up St Augustine’s College and third position Keta Senior High Secondary Technical School.
Madame Akua Donkor, rest-in-peace!

Herman Owula Kojo Chinnery-Hesse (MOBA 1981) rest in peace!

Leadership, lead by example! Fellow Ghanaians, wake up!

Former CEO, of African Peace Support Trainers Association
Nairobi, Kenya/Council Chairman
Family Health University College
Teshie-Accra
dkfrimpong@yahoo.com