The President's Speech (continued)
To the glory of God, construction work on this land will begin this year and it is expected to be completed within the next two years, by the grace of God.
Plans are also underway to acquire some acres of land outside Accra. This campus will, among other things, house our medical school, the technology park, the technical training centre, and a pre-tertiary educational facility.
In line with our strategic objectives, more experienced professors and other seasoned professionals have been recruited to join our team this year. Efforts are underway towards the establishment of Quality Assurance Department for the University. We are also working towards getting a more robust internet connectivity soon. This will greatly enhance, research, learning, and teaching.
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen: Allow me to mention about our rural empowerment programme at Suhum Adimadim. We are so far supporting three qualified teachers to help improve the quality of education in that school. We have provided housing for two of the government teachers as well as the teachers that we are supporting. This house has all the necessary amenities including a generator to make the teachers comfortable. We have almost completed the remolding and equipping of the existing JSS block. We have supplied 25 beautiful tables and chairs for extra classes which are conducted from the house where the teachers live. Other very important projects are earmarked for this rural school.
The Dreams of our Fathers
Mr. Chairman, as a nation, our fathers had a vision; they had a dream that with ‘our gifts of mind and strength of arm, together, and under God, we will build a strong and prosperous nation, so that together with the rest of Africa, we will render asunder, the indignities of poverty, illiteracy, disease, and filth.
Though the dreams of our fathers seem to have unduly delayed, I believe most of us are here today, precisely because of the same shared vision, shared hope and shared aspirations for a better future.
As a people, we tend, among other things, to take greater delight in the positions we occupy, the qualifications we have, and the schools or the universities we attended. The power, the pomp, the pageantry, and the so-called enjoyments associated with the positions we occupy, have more attraction to us than the services we are supposed to render. Our disregard for the culture of punctuality and proper planning habits are some of the challenges of our development. We easily settle for ordinariness and reward mediocrity. These are some of the things we need to overcome in order to move our nation and our continent forward.
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, we cannot show great concern about the quality of leaders we have in our nation or on our continent without showing equal or greater concern about the quality of leaders our various institutions of higher learning produce for our country and our continent. Our institutions of higher learning must therefore be at the forefront in raising transformational leaders.
The Charge
Now to our cherished graduates. Thank God, you have been given one of the finest education that you can get anywhere. You had the opportunity to study in an institution whose hallmark is QUALITY. But remember, if certificates and degrees alone will can transform our nation, we will not be where we are at the moment… a nation that cannot take care of its own! Go out there as a passionate, social crusader, who will not take “No” for the answer. You have a community, a nation, and a world to win. Remember, the divine mandate enshrined in Genesis 1:28, expects you to: Be Productive, Rule, and Subdue the earth. You should not allow any situation or condition to overcome you. You have the God-given, inbuilt capacity to WIN, so together with God, you cannot fail. Remember, there are no short-cuts to success. God Fearing, a vision and a passion for a new world, hard-work, perseverance, courage, discipline, and a desire to serve and be of service to humanity, will continue to be the timeless keys for success. Emulate these, and you will leave a LEGACY in this world. GO AND CONQUER YOUR WORLD.