Thoughts of An Amanfour!

So yeah NSMQ is over and our College brothers from the city on the hill are champs though NSMQGhana tipped Mfantsipim to win by a 43% chance, Opoku Ware School by a 30% chance and Adisadel College by a 26% chance....Hail ADISCO, against all odds the College from 1910 has finally joined the table of men (even though the cup was placed between OWASS and BOTWE, nothing could stop the ZEBRA magic)so in the coming year we would throw our weight behind the school close to the Kaneshie market to do the unthinkable. Interestingly, Accra Academy was established the same year as Club beer, 1931.

I'm not too sure what they share in common so your guess might be better than mine. We have also learnt that motivation (extrinsic and entrinsic) is key in every contest so BabyJet might as well promise a jet.

Our father Mfantsipim, you almost made your sons proud but we know in life things go wrong so we would just keep hope alive with the words you always tell us "dwen hw3 kan" not forgetting the words of our lovely mother "live pure, speak true, right wrong, follow the King". But elsewhere, it is only mediocrity that could make our noisy neighbours take to the streets celebrating their qualification to the finals but to be honest, who remembers the runner ups to PREMPEH COLLEGE in 1994???.

Thankfully, NSMQ rewards COMPETENCE. NSMQ is about brilliance, team work and fortitude but obviously not IMMANUS. What shall it profit a school to tag students with numbers, eg BJ 419,Genicure 442, VC10...go to seven (7) finals and win only two (2), like Lionel Messi, you might as well consider an early retirement from NSMQ.

In this year's contest, some schools did great and are worth mentioning...Kumasi High School, Nifa Senior High School, St. Hubert Seminary, Kumasi Secondary Technical School, KNUST Senior High School, Winneba Secondary and Benkum Senior High School. Undoubtedly, Ashanti Region is like an Army Rising for Zion contributing seven (7) out of the twenty seven (27) schools to the quarter finals stage. Gradually we would get to the point where like the English Premier League, even a certain Leicester City can be champions. In National Science and Maths Quiz, it is quite sad that what a man can do, a woman is yet to do. I must say that its worrying that only Wesley Girls High School and Mfantsiman High School made it to the quarter final stage.

Growing up my family always put pressure on me to read science when I was about taking my BECE but in my heart, I knew Chemistry, Biology and Physics were never going to be a walk in the park. The first day I saw the science GAST, I knew I made the right choice. To date, my admiration for people doing great in the sciences grows by day, so to all the contestants, I say Kudos. Go make your country proud someday.

To all the sponsors of this year's competition, may the good Lord bless you. Over the years, sponsorships have focused on beauty contests mainly and I'm not too sure that is the best way to see the woman empowered. TV stations in Ghana can make us watch numerous telenovelas but not National Science and Maths Quiz and we are to pay a levy for TV license right???

As a country, what plan do we have for these brilliant chaps or as usual they are supposed to end up in the Medical Schools around the country. Well, my view is that the ministry of education must do stakeholder consultations and come up with a plan on how this country can make good use of these fine brains.

Next year, the competition must be better than all we have seen. Let's join hands and pull the only loner in the league of big schools along to the table of men.

#AccraAcaMustWinNSMQ2017
#WeNeedAccraAcaAtTheTableOfMen
#AccraAcaForNSMQ2017AGBENAAAAAA
Did I write in "TWI" ? Nope
Snr. George Sarpong
Prempeh College 08