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20.06.2021 Opinion

Your success depends on your efforts: The life story of Mr. Alipo Nyuzagl

By Charles Yeboah
Your success depends on your efforts: The life story of Mr. Alipo Nyuzagl
20.06.2021 LISTEN

As we celebrate all fathers today (20th June, 2021), it's apt we learn the following life lesson from a successful father figure.

Many people only see the beautiful story of successful people. None pulse for a minute to consider their toils and unquenchable spirit to succeed at all cost.

They judge, perhaps this individual had rich parents, attended the best school, or inherited some riches from a near relative.

And in this same sort of preconception, some curious students approached their headteacher, Mr. Alipo Nyuzagl of Eremon - Tangzu Roman Catholic Junior High School, to tell them his success story. All that while the students had judged Mr. Alipo's commandment over the English language and his leadership skills to mean he completed one of the best Senior High Schools in Ghana. In their gossips, some said their headmaster completed Mfantsipem Senior High in Cape Coast. Others said it was Kumasi Prempeh College that he was enrolled into, and learning later that Presbyterian Boys Senior High school at Legon in Accra did better academically, this brilliant future headmaster sought transfer to and completed with flying colours, that saw him admitted into a tertiary, and graduated to hold his current position.

Now they have the man himself to tell his true life story, they were all ears to hear everything from this father figure.

After Mr. Alipo had quietly gone through time and remembered his schooling days, he said to himself that: _' I've done these kids wrong for not telling them all this while my true life story, which would by now had encouraged them to double their efforts in studying and aiming higher than my current status'.

So, the headteacher heaved a heavy sigh, and with a broad smile, narrated as follows: "my pupils, I started not better than you're today. Mine was even worse. For the very unpopular school you all know, Chebogo Roman Catholic School, had been the basic school I graduated from. At the very time, we didn't have better and beautiful classrooms like yours today. Neither did we have a good library and better places of conveniences like you have now. But in the face of all those challenges, I and my colleagues at the time were able to excel in our Basic School Certificate Examination (BECE). And from here in the north, I was admitted into Goka Senior High and Technical School, in far away Bono region. At the time I was enrolled in that Senior High school, the very people of the town never sent their wards to that school. In their local dialect, Gyaaman Bono, they teasingly called the school: _kɔbɛwɔ._ Which loosely translated as: _you complete that school and that becomes your end of the education journey._ That didn't discourage me and other mates of northern descent, and few indigenes of the town who were serious and promised ourselves that we'll change that bad narrative about the school. And in our third year, when we sat for our final exams, our class performed marvellously well that, we were champions amongst all the schools in the Jaman District where our school is located. (I will one day take you there for excursion). And since our batch, which was in the year 2004, (I'm not sure some of you were born then), the Goka Senior High and Technical School became a school of choice for many in the town, the district, the Bono region, and all over Ghana. The last time I enquired, I was told student population was in thousands, a far cry from the handful students I joined at my time."

"And it was from these two little known schools that I entered tertiary, and after my graduation, I taught in a classroom as a class teacher, and later with further studies I was promoted to my current position."

"It took great efforts, sleepless nights, respect for authority, and the burning desire to succeed that has got me this far. And in my dictionary, privilege means how you use your time and energy to get to the goal post."

After Mr. Alipo told his life story to the pupils, the place became a deafening quiet, and one will hear the sound of a needle if it was dropped. The students have learnt an important life lesson. And in the end, they said amongst themselves that: _"indeed, success depends on your efforts, not your privileges"._

And from the headteacher's humble narration, the students looked to themselves only and fought for a brighter future success.

Happy Father's Day to all true fathers.

This story was sponsored by: Mr. Alipo Nyuzagl.

The headteacher of Eremon > Tangzu R/C JHS.

Written by: Charles Yeboah (Sir Lord)

New Africa Movement

Voice Of The Lord Ministry

+233-249542111

Email: [email protected]

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