Declare a National Day of Mourning for the Late Miss Victoria Ampofo

My Objection to, “Teacher Kwabena Gyan is merely a Lightning Rod” By Prof. Kwame Okoampa Ahoofe, Jr.

Author: A.P. Gyimah, Education Expert in California

Your Excellency President of Our Great Fatherland – Ghana, Chiefs and People of Our Fatherland, Citizens of Ghana through both matrilineal and patrilineal inheritance, Pupils and Students of Our Ancestral Land, Ladies and Gentlemen Residing in Ghana,

I am in tears as I write in reference to Dr. Kwame Okoampa –Ahoofe’s article titled “Teacher Kwabena Gyan is merely a Lightning Rod” appearing on Ghanaweb.com on Saturday, March 21, 2009. Whilst this information serves as an objective and informative paper opposing and objecting the Dr. Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe’s views on the circumstances leading to the death of our great hero – Miss Victoria Ampofo , and what he the Dr. Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr. wants the outcome of Teacher Kwabena Gyan criminal charges to be, I take the opportunity to inform the President of our Great Fatherland to declare a National Day of Mourning for the very poor Miss Victoria Ampofo, now resting in a Perfect Peace with our Savior. Also, I extend my condolences to all members of the bereaved family, students and teachers of Miss Victoria Ampofo’s school, Ghana Education Service, Chiefs and people of the town or village where the late Miss Victoria Ampofo’s school is located, the entire student population of Ghana, the Ghanaian public, and, in particular, the Ghana Police Service – the public safety department of our Fatherland. Please permit me to succinctly express the experience and knowledge that I have on the subject-matter. Did Dr. Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr. know that there is a law in our Fatherland forbidding teachers to give corporal punishment to learners ? Well, if he did not know, the law was passed, and, I think, it was during Rawlings’ so-called constitutional regime, or if not the Rawlings’ administration, then, it was passed during the Kuffour’s regime. In Accra, a teacher gave a corporal punishment to a female student , the student died shortly after serving her punishment. Following that incident the Parliament quickly passed a law that said teachers could no longer institute corporal punishment on pupils/students. That any teacher who so wishes to punish a pupil/student must refer the learner to the headteacher/principal. That only the headtecher/principal is qualified to institute punishment on learners. (Please note that I have not put this in a legal language as it was exactly published for Ghanaians attention, but the framework or the tone, I can rest assure you, was the same as I have done here). From the foregoing, we now know that some teachers have disrespect for the law. Mr. Kwabena Gyan is a typical example of those disrespecting the laws of our education system. Mr. Kwabena Gyan did not refer the pupils/students who were late to the headteacher to determine their fate, but took the law into his own hands and did what he wanted to do, a practice commonly found in our Fatherland.

The cause of Mr. Kwabena Gyan’s disrespectful behavior towards his superior is very clear and easy to detect and explain. Mr. Kwabena Gyan’s disrespectful behavior to the head of the school is explained as follows:

Mr. Kwabena Gyan may have been at one time a CDR or PDC member and has acquired the habit of disrespecting higher authority and doing it his own way, whilst at the same time, no one can hold him accountable for his poor decision making processes because he may think that he is above the law, as his trainers believe in, too –a practice that has characterized our Fatherland – Ghana , since June 4, 1979. Many people have committed several crimes including murder and have not yet been held responsible for their evil deeds. Or Mr. Kwabena Gyan may not have ever joined the CDR or PDC but did acquired the training or skill through the Ghanaian system because Ghana has been marked or cultured by very poorly trained persons who forced their authority on the masses, to lead our Fatherland from the grassroots level to the presidency since the last three decades or just about, or so. If this is the case with Mr. Kwabena Gyan, then, he deserves to be sympathized with, but not to be set free, however. People have acquired the training/skill unintentionally from the imposer(s) but that is not an excuse to exempt Mr. Gyan from the consequences of his action/behavior because his trainers themselves are getting ready for trial, one day.

I can now understand that the Dr. Kwame Okoampa Ahoofe, Jr. inadequately prepared himself before presenting his paper in support of Teacher Kwabena Gyan. I do not have pity for Teacher Kwabena Gyan. He deserves to face the law accordingly. Since the passing of the law forbidding corporal punishment, experienced education officers have spoken out frequently about the need for teachers to stop applying corporal punishment on pupils and students, because the consequences befall on the teachers. The most recent such warning was given by the Nkoransa Education Director Mr. Kwabena Agyeman Badu, and, it appeared on Ghanaweb.com News Section on January 30, 2009, under the heading “Corporal punishment in schools still in force.”

Indeed, inasmuch as we are all attempting to explain, comment, express our views, demonstrate our concerns, show our sorrow, etc. on the subject-matter, we must understand that under whatever the circumstance(s) that led to the learner’s death was/were (and as it will later be determined by the outcome of the autopsy), Mr. Kwabena Gyan facilitated the process of the learner’s death. Why? Trauma, frustration, intimidation, psychological effect accompanied the learner , following the punishment. And these may have killed her. If the child did not have breakfast before going to school, it was against the law even for the headteacher he to inflict punishment on the pupil and that can be a cause of her death, as well.

After the punishment, the learner lost the momentum to participate in all school activities, including happily interacting with peers – thus, cognitively the learner was dead or absent from school, even before she was physically pronounced dead.

When it comes to the question of law, sympathy is not an answer. The law takes its precedence/course. I think that in seeking to get Mr. Gyan set free, his lawyers may be looking at the National Education Curriculum on Student Tardiness – they will review the national, regional, district, and the school’s curriculum on tardiness, and the constitutional law on corporal punishment as it relates to juveniles. (I am not a lawyer yet, maybe one day, who knows, but I can tell you, lawyers, themselves being criminals, will be doing something around this, in addition to the hospital documents, to get Mr. Gyan out.)

Dr. Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe supports his claim of sympathy for Mr. Gyan by saying that the late Miss Victoria Ampofo was not the only student to have received the equal two strokes of the cane. The author should understand that the latecomers will never have the same strength and energy at any point in their lifetime, and the late Mss Victoria Ampofo’s case supports my factual reasoning. There will always be variations in their physical capabilities. Twins are born on the same day but they don’t die on the same day, all things being equal. Can the author also clarify to his audience that the intensity/gravity of the strokes was equal for all of the pupils?

In the 1960s and 1970s the author and his peers were receiving six strokes for similar offenses, so he justifies the two strokes inflicted on the today’s latecomers. In the 1960s and 1970s the author’s father or grandfather may have been married to more than one woman. Is Dr. Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe , the author, married to more than one woman today? Finally, Dr. Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, during your 1960s and 1970s, instructional technology was absent in education curriculum, but today it is not only a common practice in schools but also a mandated curricula. I think that Dr. Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe detests instructional technology today because he did not have it yesterday when he was a pupil.

Dr. Kwame Okoampa –Ahoofe , the lead sympathizer and writer of the article under analysis here, has failed to release to his audience the ‘Ghana National Education Curriculum’ section on ‘student tardiness’ that he thinks justifies his position that Mr. Gyan deserved to punish the latecomers and so Mr. Gyan should be released. Thus, the author ‘s thesis centers on “sympathy for Mr. Kwabena Gyan”. Sympathy is argued for consideration in court only during “sentencing procedures”, where normally the convict had admitted his quilt and demonstrates his sorrow and repentance.

This case is a reminder to all those individuals who have ever killed people, collaborated to kill people, sponsored to kill people that they will one day be brought to book , either in Ghana or in the Hague. We have to respect the law. We have to respect human rights.

And that any individuals who have ever been sponsored , instructed, commanded, asked to, forced to, made to kill people for whatever the reason was, will have to testify against those who initiated the evil deed before they are set free.

L/C Amedeka, your time to come home as a free man, and for good, is near, but be prepared to testify without prejudice and fear. I extend my condolences to the family of the deceased - Miss Victoria Ampofo. Rest in perfect peace. Miss Victoria Ampofo, it is very unfortunate that during your short time on this beautiful earth, our Fatherland was seized by unscrupulous group of persons, claiming that they are the only people to solve the National problem. To the contrary, they themselves failed to obey the laws and sought riches for themselves and their families through their so-called leadership practices – taking others’ life away arbitrarily, educating their children abroad with our funds, some of them buying big businesses like a hotel for their children, and seeking all sorts of material wealth in this world for themselves, a world that I find it hard to define. Consequently, no one supervised the law, making our great ancestral land a lawlessness society. Foreigner taking over the land completely, aborigines ‘pen-robbing’ us adequately. And through these lawlessness activities, you have finally been prematurely recalled by our Savior. Please serve as our envoy in His kingdom. Teacher Kwabena Gyan is just an ‘escape goat’ here. Forgive him, for he is not the doer. The doer is not caught yet. God is king! Our society believes in reincarnation and be rest assured that by the time of your re-embodiment ,our Fatherland, will be a better place to be, where you will then spend more than three scores and ten, with joy.

I am proposing and recommending a State burial for you, and if he does not allow him to initiate it, again, be rest assured that you and the student who passed away in Accra will one day have a befitting State burial. MISS VICTORIA AMPOFO REST IN PEACE.

Mr. President of the Republic of Ghana our Fatherland, please accept the premise that the late Miss Victoria Ampofo and the remaining students who were caned were denied their public safety privilege, because the police were not patrolling the school to protect them against child abuse, herein refers to as child neglect. The head-teacher also could not supervise the teacher because the teacher is probably above supervision. Consequently, the State is responsible for the death of Miss Victoria Ampofo.

As a first step, please declare a National Day of Mourning for our hero the late Miss Victoria Ampofo. The day should be set aside to mourn Miss Victoria Ampofo across the Nation. Pupils and students must show up in school in the ‘Mourning Day’ to fully participate in the mourning activities. Wreath must be laid in all schools across the nation in memory of the late Miss Victoria Ampofo. Among officials I highly recommend to attend the funeral are:

1. His Excellency The President of Ghana – our Fatherland

2. The Minister of Education 3. The Director-General of the Ghana Education Service 4. The Interior Minister 5. The Inspector-General of Police 6. The Chief of Defense Staff 7. The Regional Director for Education 8. The District Director for Education 9. The Regional Police Commander 10. The District Police Commander 11. Members of the Diplomatic Corps 12. Representatives of Benevolent Institutions

Also, regional and district education officers; regional, district, town and village police commanders must attend the funeral in their respective jurisdictions.

This will motivate students, teachers, parents and guardians, and the general public to consider and take education very seriously. The spirits of Miss Victoria Ampofo will also know that government was with her.

With immediate effect, Ghana Education Service must send in counselors and psychologists to the school site to counsel students and teachers, especially friends of Miss Victoria Ampofo. (In fact, it has taken too long now to send in counselors and psychologists) Thank you for your polite consideration, Your Excellency.

Mr. A. P. Gyimah, Education Expert in California.

Email: kwaku_poku@yahoo.com Ghanaian Nationalist