End of Brilla 2018 Insights

So once again, we’ve come to the end of another National Science and Maths Quiz Competition, and as usual I’m here to give my insights about the whole competition. It has come out a bit later than my usual release time before the final, and I have had many people on my back clamoring for me to release this article. However, I have had quite a long checklist of things to deal with and sort out on a personal and academic front, as well as me wanting everything to close first, and then finalize my analysis before releasing it. Well, I’m an engineer so doing a good analysis is quite an important principle for me and besides, no one would want to read this if this article was based on some half-baked analysis, would they?
 

Anyway, back to the NSMQ. It was a milestone celebrating the 25^th anniversary of the quiz that we all love to watch and for some of us, had the privilege of competing in as representatives of our various secondary schools/high schools. Seeing it grow from its beginnings as “that Saturday @ 11am program on GTV” which was like the proverbial marmite for Ghanaians to what it is now, as a competition popular enough to compete with the World Cup for social media presence and general attention in Ghana has been a great experience for most hard-core followers of the NSMQ, albeit with the non-participation of the Black Stars in the World Cup levelling the playing field slightly. The drama started from the regional qualifiers in February, lots of schools battling it out to get that golden ticket to Legon, especially with former champions like Achimota School and big schools like St Francis Xavier, bruised from their failure to qualify in 2017; and St Augustine’s College, St Peter’s School and Opoku Ware School, with their early elimination from last year on their minds and a determination to get that right this time round. 

After all was said and done all around the country, most of the usual suspects secured their qualification to Legon. But there was the most high-profile casualty at this early stage, with my alma mater Augusco failing to qualify for the national competition and losing out to Swedru Senior High School. I must admit that, as a former contestant that really hurt to see your school out of the running for the trophy especially since all the other previous champions qualified this year. However, for all the other NSMQ patrons, this elimination provided enough fodder for trolling all the way to the national competition. It was quite painful having to chin up and endure all the trolling knowing full well that you have very little in terms of trolling material to fire back for the moment. Nevertheless, I guess it was a nice way to build up excitement for the main competition especially with the World Cup running simultaneously.

At the main competition, it was all a remarkable sight even from a computer screen through the power of Facebook Live and YouTube. Therefore, I can only imagine how things were on the ground. Having the Science and Technology Fair and opening it up to people to show their creativity was a nice touch. But back to the quiz itself: It was so exciting seeing some of the so-called big schools falling by the wayside right from the prelims and having to depend on the safety net of high scores to go through (Owass, we are all looking at you!) right down to relatively unfancied schools making their mark on the competition and proving that they didn’t just come to Legon to add to the numbers but to show their intellectual mettle.  Well, at this point allow me to dig deeper into some pointers I picked up from this year.

1. Long winded answering systems: Yes, we all know it is a pressure cooker scenario having to sit on stage and solve questions within a maximum time limit of 30 seconds. Yes, we know that it takes a long time to process what to say for these high school students. Yes, we know it is a tactic to buy some extra milliseconds for answering. But it is still super annoying for us viewers to hear things like “Madam, I’m having…,” adding unnecessary answers to questions asked and all those things. Yes, we can understand the whole respect thing by prefacing answers with Madam, but it gets very annoying after a while when contestants give winding answers to questions, especially those involving calculations and requiring a single answer. I do have some sympathy for them, of course, but I believe that contestants can be trained to give their answers in a direct way, since that breeds confidence too.

2. Questions Quality: Last year, I remember there were a lot of complaints about the answers given to some of the questions asked in the competition. But I was a bit reticent to place any blame on the consultants since I know they are of great repute and that it could have been some slight oversights on their part, as they are human beings too. This year, I have been quite impressed with the general quality of the questions used for the competition. Some of the questions involved things that I never expected to see in a quiz competition for high school students, but all this means that in order to prepare well for the NSMQ nothing is beyond reading or knowing. Some of the questions were quite good to stump the contestants with just the slightest loss of focus. The Problem of the Day in the first semifinal is a good example of that. The Problem of the Day in the final was also a good one, if not a bit left field and unexpected. Who would think that detailing the process of solving a word problem could be a question for a grand finale? We all do that from primary school, but we never sit down and actually think of the process since it becomes second nature. Good job, consultants!

3. Confidence or Lack of? We all watch the NSMQ to get a feel of how adolescents (mostly, since I bet there are people who may want to prove otherwise, correctly or not!) do present themselves in front of a crowd and rolling cameras and answer questions. There were times however, where it seemed the whole situation overawed some of the contestants and as such, they became quite timid in their delivery and lost some of their composure. I really felt bad for these contestants as it robbed them of a chance to prove themselves sufficiently after all the months of preparation and sleepless nights. It was something I saw in some of the female contestants especially, and I will discuss that in a subsequent section. I do believe that as part of the training, the teachers and those in charge of the quiz students should try to recreate that scenario as closely as possible which can mentally prepare the contestants for the real event. It is like a penalty shootout in football; it is hard to recreate the exact scenario of a penalty shootout but there are ways to practice it with some of the important elements.

4. How can a Girls school win the NSMQ? We have come to this point once again, it has been part of the major discussion points of Brilla; the sight of an all-female school winning the competition. Believe me, this would definitely happen in future. But we do need to identify what the main obstacles are with a female school winning the NSMQ. For me, I think it boils down to two things: A general focus on the WASSCE and failure to link the WASSCE and NSMQ preparation; and a failure to adequately psyche up the contestants to face all the differing scenarios in the competition. On the first point, it feels like most girls schools focus more on making their students get the grades for WASSCE and moving on to the university; but fail to realize that the NSMQ, especially in this current format gives the girls that extra knowledge and know-how which can be of benefit later on, not only in the university level. I’m sure those of us who follow Brilla passionately, attended girls schools, or have friends in these schools have heard tales of good students who are quiz material being dissuaded from participating because they or their parents or some teachers think the quiz is “useless and does not bring any benefit” and that they would be better served concentrating solely on the WASSCE. To this part, I say that’s a myopic view especially with the attention that the Quiz is drawing in at least for the last 5-6 years. Can you imagine what we would have lost if we didn’t have women like Wesley Girls’ Hermione in 2002, Holy Child’s Amarkie in 2007, Mfantsiman Girls’ Nancy and Gey Hey’s Belinda in 2008 to as recently as Tamasco’s Zuweira in 2017, among others not participating in the NSMQ because they or someone guiding them thought that the quiz was useless? How could we have motivated other girls to participate and rub shoulders with their male counterparts in the battle of brains?

To my second point, the lack of psychological toughening. We all have heard something along the lines of women being emotional, them being the weaker sex and lots of balderdash referring to women. Yes, I would admit that men and women are different in some aspects, but in a competition where they are being paired together and competing against each other, the preparation generally has to be the same for all of them regardless of gender. I may be a bit idealistic here, but whatever is good for the goose is good for the gander. Maybe the process of psyching the female contestants would be slightly different to that for male contestants, but as Dr Kaufmann would say, the girls would need to be taught not to fight battles that are unimportant, distract from their goal and just waste brainpower. They also need to be psyched up not to be intimidated by the crowd, not to settle for second best and that they have it in them to lift the trophy. With the right mix of all of these, that goal should be attained sooner than later, but it would involve a lot of work and a shift in mentality.

5. Mid-Contest Substitutions: I must say, I am not a fan of having substitutions in the middle of the contest, for any other reason apart from medical reasons. This is because there is a whole process in preparing the contestants minds and getting them into the groove for the contest. And although the backup contestant is also part of the process, there is a slight difference knowing that you may not be required for the contest and to be brought on at a moment’s notice can be a bit disorienting for him or her. I remember what happened with Presec last year in which I felt they lost something when they changed their team suddenly as they advanced to the later rounds and subsequently lost. That feeling was no different when I watch teams that used their substitutions such as Aburi Girls and Mt. Carmel Girls, they did lose some cohesion as the new contestant needed to get up to speed and in a time limited contest, is quite difficult to pull off.

6. Legible Handwriting for Problem of the Day: This is one thing that I definitely feel has to be outlined due to the tight nature of contests, the fact that every point counts and the overriding feeling that lots of schools lost points due to poor handwriting. The number of times we saw Auntie Elsie walk up to the contestants or call the contestants to her desk to decipher what they had written was a bit too much. Cue all the “My First Copy Book” jokes and trolls. In my own experience, it can be rectified with a bit more patience on the part of contestants. I do not claim to have a good and beautiful handwriting, the type that can make someone fall in love with you without seeing the person in real life (Trust me, that is a thing!). Nevertheless, having sat on that stage and written my school’s answers on the whiteboard, I feel I am perfectly placed to give some advice on this aspect. For Round 3, no matter how good or bad your handwriting is, you should always remember that you are not the one reading or grading it, but a quiz mistress who is a senior lecturer, and most professors hate deciphering illegible handwriting with a passion. So take the time to write clearly and convey your ideas, for that can be the difference between getting an 8 and getting a 3!

7. Penalties and Belling System: Another thing that cost contestants points was the haste with which they pressed the bell with speed race questions in the middle of the question and getting the answer wrong, losing precious points. Very few questions will go the way of that meme we all saw on social media in the fallout of the Anas #12 video (What type of carbohydrate is……..Sucrose?! I mean, that really has to be investigated!), and most of them had twists in them. I remember there was a question that involved effective collisions and activation energy, with all three schools ringing and answering the question before they heard the part “Define Activation Energy”. Another part that caused a lot of warnings and penalty points was the rush to press the bell in Round 1 for bonuses before Dr Kaufmann could give her judgement on the answer. I still feel that the best way to solve this preventable situation is to implement a light activated bell lockout system, where a light comes up in front of the quiz mistress in the plain view of all the contestants when she has finished with a speed race question or has determined a question to be up for a bonus before the contestants press their bells. I hope my humble suggestion is worth considering.

8. Introductory Interviews: It is a good thing by Auntie Elsie to come up and interact with the contestants before the quiz begins. I remember she used to do the same with us during my time, but a bit of a private conversation trying to get us to relax and loosen up. Fast forward to present day, with the social media behemoth the quiz has become these days, the interviews have become more public and something that people often look forward to since it helps set the tone for the contest. But most of the interviews were a bit wooden and one-way, but you can’t blame the contestants since they are focused on the contest and are not used to being put on the spot. The interview I really liked was the one from the St Francis Xavier contestants before their contest with Prempeh College, because it was so ebullient and a refreshing change from what we had seen so far or since. Probably there should be some training for the quiz contestants to get them to loosen up, but not too much to distract from the main thing of focusing on the contest.

9. Social Media and the Review Show: We have talked a lot about social media and I don’t need to repeat myself or emphasize the effect it has had on the competition in terms of stirring interest. I am more interested in talking about the new addition, which is the NSMQ Review Show. It was a great opportunity for people to come on and analyze the various contests as the competition progressed. Most of the analysis was spot on and it did give an insight into the quiz competition for those who for one reason or another could not follow the contests. One thing that many people have suggested and I think can be incorporated more into the review show is giving the various statistics and head-to-head records of the schools participating in various contests. This would give some more spice to the whole competition and to the individual contests. It would also be a great feature for the various stats nerds to do some more scientific analysis, which could aid how teams prepare for the competition.

10. Prizes: At the end of the grand finale, there is nothing better than to see your efforts rewarded with a lot of prizes and goodies. Just hearing the prizes on offer made me send a post to various colleagues and lament our participating in the NSMQ far too early! Hearing the amounts involved though made me raise a question, would these adolescents receive advice on how to use that money wisely? There has to be someone in their ear guiding them into investing the money for their future, putting them into treasury bonds and other great investments and let their money work for them. After all, they earned it through hard work. Why don’t they try to earn more money from their hard work through smart work?

On this note, I conclude my insights on this year’s NSMQ. It has been a fun experience following it, my favourite part being the picture of the police officer stationed just to protect Auntie Elsie’s paper bag (#OperationProtectHandbag #OnceBittenTwiceShy). To Persco, I offer my congratulations for winning for the third time. It was a struggle, but you did overcome it to win. I know lots of people would make noise about it, even in my own family but it’s just for a year so we would let it slide. To WASS, you were the team of the competition for me as well as many other patrons. You have shown that having the time to form a good team and to prepare well can take you far, and shown us that your performance last year was no fluke. To Adisco, commiserations are in order. You have shown great consistency in reaching four consecutive finals, which is no mean feat. Although you have only won it once in that run, that consistency is nothing to be sneered at but to be appreciated. To all the other schools that participated, you all did your best and we are all appreciative of your efforts. Participating in such a competition is not easy, but you did show what you are made of and I wish you all the best in the future. My only hope is that Augusco will come next year and silence all the trolls that have been on their backs up to this point! So till next time, work hard and play hard!

End of Brilla Insights

**This is a post I wrote earlier on Facebook on July 2nd analyzing the National Science & Maths Quiz organised for Ghanaian Senior High Schools and held in Accra, Ghana in June. I have reproduced this piece in order to revive my blog which has been dormant for 5 years. Enjoy!!!!


It's that time of the year again, the National Science & Maths Quiz has drawn to a close, and I'm here with my usual End of Brilla insights to cover everything, the good, the bad, the funny and the ugly, from my point of view and observation point (in the middle of somewhere!). It's always a good time to watch the National Science and Maths Quiz, especially now with the increased participation of schools and the active branding exercise the organisers have done and continue to do in order to get more people and sponsors on board. I'm just here to give my observations on this year's competition, which has kept lots of people from far and wide glued to the various updates from Legon. So on that note, let me begin!

1. The era of the "big schools" is over: If you didn't know that already, or you just woke up from a deep cave, I just want to reiterate this point for you. Since the quiz returned in its current format, with regional qualifiers and all, most of the big schools have found the going tough and this year has been no different. From schools like St. Francis Xavier and Achimota School failing to qualify for the national competition, to schools like Opoku Ware School and my alma mater, St Augustine's College exiting the competition at the early stages to having Jachie Pramso SHS, Aduman SHS and Nifa SHS and other unheralded schools go as far as they did brought a whole lot of excitement. Now every school would have to sit up and prepare well for the Quiz.

2. There is no such thing as a "Comfortable Lead"! The whole format of the quiz has made it such that no school can ever say for certain that they are "cruising to victory". Yes, you may have wonderful and masterful performances such as St. Thomas Aquinas in the 1/8th stage and Prempeh College in the Quarterfinals, but most of the contests have had several swaps for the lead, tight outcomes and unpredictable outcomes (see Accra Aca vs Presec Legon vs St John's Grammar). As such, all schools must be prepared for anything and be at their utmost best because things change in a twinkle of an eye.

3. Speed Race and Bell Lockout System: Well, well, well.......where do we start? I must say that ever since it was introduced, I have been a skeptic of this part because I felt the questions were too easy then. This year has been a bit better with more challenging questions but they haven't really won me over yet. It is still surprising how the contestants answer some of the questions in the speed race, even for a former contestant such as me, because it looks ridiculous seeing certain questions that you would spend a lot of time on in a WASSCE paper being answered even before Dr Kaufmann finishes reading out the question. This makes it hard for people to follow, especially for those who wanted to try questions themselves at home. I really liked the Speed Races of the third semi-final as well as the final, because it looked more like a proper contest and tested speed and accuracy in calculations a bit more than we had seen previously.
This brings me to a nice point, the bell lockout system. Having this type of round needs that bell lockout system to determine who rang first and ensure that speed element. But for me, it was just annoying hearing Auntie Elsie ask over and over again whether some schools rung the bell, with complaints over the system having problems and activating some bells when another bell was pressed. In order to solve these problems, I am going to suggest something I picked up from the Zain Africa Challenge. With that quiz, even though it was a speed race, contestants had to wait for the quizmaster to finish reading the question and a light in front of his desk to come on before they could ring their bells, because that was when the contestants' bells were activated. It wouldn't be so difficult to implement such a system for the NSMQ, since they already have the basic setup. This would also help with all the accuracy issues, remove some of the guesswork and make the contest flow more smoothly since Dr Kaufmann would be able to read out the full question before schools start to ring their bells.

4. Tiebreakers: As I said earlier in the "Comfortable Lead" section, most contests have had tight outcomes with some ending up in ties, thus requiring tiebreakers. Here comes my question though; what was wrong with using riddles for tiebreakers that organisers decided now to use a Speed Race Question to break ties in earlier stages of the competition? I honestly cannot see a tangible reason why, and I was flabbergasted when for one such tiebreaker, the question was "Evaluate 6!". I mean, not to sound belittling, but six factorial is something I can say off the top of my head, even 9 years after participating in the NSMQ. It was something I know most colleagues of mine such as James Azam, who represented St Francis Xavier Minor Seminary in 2008, used to write in their notepads as soon as they were seated on stage. Moreover, it's not as if you would always need a lot of riddles for a "tiebreaker question bank", because tiebreakers aren't needed that often. I doubt if there were more than five tiebreakers in the entire national competition. Therefore, I would humbly ask the consultants and organisers to look at it again, because I think the system was quite alright with the riddle tiebreaker system.

5. Questions Issues: Here, I am going to tread cautiously with my criticism because this affects the consultants, who I have the greatest respect for and I haven't achieved a tenth of what they have achieved. Nevertheless, I am still going to say what I have to say, and go hard where I have to. There were a lot of uncharacteristic mistakes with some of the questions asked during the contest, some of which I felt were sloppy with all due respect. But the consultants are not infallible, they all make mistakes. It's not easy having to prepare sets of questions for quiz competitions, so I will let the consultants off on this slightly. My question then is, has the audience now become sloppy themselves to the extent that no one, including teachers is working the questions out and are just there as cheerleaders, school cloth wavers and jama leaders? Don't get me wrong, all of those things makes the contests fun, but if you have such simple mistakes going unchecked because no one seems to be keeping tabs on questions, working it out in the audience and raising protests when mistakes are found, then the quiz loses a bit of the credibility it has gathered over the past two decades and we lose sight of the main aim for which all the cheerleading and jama singing comes in. Me sitting in a corner nine time zones away, for example, cannot raise a protest because there's no way to do so in real time. So I hope the organisers take the critique some of my friends have given in good faith, rather than focusing on the sideshow of people accusing them of cheating for one school or another. You would always have some people saying that, whether accurate or otherwise, but if you cut out the mistakes from your end, you give them no voice and enhance your credibility. Just think about that, Primetime!

6. Make the rules clear to everyone! I know most of the basic rules of the competition, as do most people who follow the NSMQ. But it felt a bit arbitrary, having Dr Kaufmann deduct points for certain infractions. Yes, she does have the power to do that, but I feel it would all be easier for everyone sitting at home to be abreast of all the rules if the rulebook (I heard the NSMQ has one, and schools were given copies) is made public for everyone to follow the rules. It should also cover all of these aspects so that people know what exactly to do, and not to do. You have a website that is quite ripe for some of these things, Primetime Limited. USE IT & MAXIMISE ITS POTENTIAL!

7. Mentorship Session: It was a brilliant idea of Primetime Ltd to have various people involved in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics fields come as mentors to give their various insights and inspire the upcoming generation to pursue areas in STEM and have an impact on their lives in their own way. I especially liked them having the legend Dr. Subulr Yakubu, a person so many of these students have heard about and seen clips of his performance 14 years ago come as a mentor and tell his story and give them some inspiration. Good one there!

8. Girls’ Schools getting close to the ultimate? I enjoyed the performances of the female contestants and schools on stage. They gave a good account of themselves and showed that they can rub shoulders with their male colleagues. I hope that an all-female school can win the NSMQ in the future, I can see that day coming, but the only thing that I would tell them is to develop their mental toughness and believe that they can still do it even when things are tough. I know it's not easy to be mentally tough, I have experienced that when I lost to Ketasco in 2008, it was hard keeping my head up even when things weren't going according to plan that day but I had to try and do that and fight to the end. It was quite sad to see some of these ladies drop their heads at the first sign of things not going their way. But I had hope when I watched Zuweira Baba Mohammed of Tamasco show that mental toughness even when things weren't going well to end up tying with University Practice SHS in their quarterfinal. Her fist pumping at the end of the tying riddle was just refreshing to see. At least her efforts did not go unnoticed culminating in her winning the prize for the best Female Contestant of NSMQ 2017. Special mention also goes to Nifa SHS’s Priscilla Appiah, who also gave a good account of herself and her school. Now, no one should get me wrong, I'm not saying that females don't have that mental strength. I'm saying that they have to find that extra determination and someday, that dream would be fulfilled.

9. Social Media: This is on the lighthearted side, I must say. If there's anything this year's contest made us notice, it's the fact that Social media can make you, but it can also bite you in the backside. Social media made things a whole lot of fun and gave us a nice coverage of all the contests, through the live streaming on Facebook and YouTube. It also gave us some very nice things to laugh about, from Owass and Ketasco's "From Food Donations to Losses" posts, Accra Academy's "Losing Dance", Mfantsipim/Mfanstipim dilemma, Augusco going to "Brilla Relegation", Pope John's sweating under the spotlight, Aquinas supporters removing their shirts in celebration after a tough contest, Ghana National College being 'spoilers' for Adisco's qualification, Presec and their substitutions, Zayn Malikh being the Zoomlion officer for Accra, Adisco going to ‘Samaria’, Prempeh boys being denied their ‘Soloku Special’ after winning the trophy (as Countryman Songo would put it).....the list is endless. Just to emphasize the main point, be careful what you say on social media for it would make you a legend, either one of amazing awesomeness, or one of amazing trolling! I had a suggestion from Snr Kwadwo Owusu Kanin for the social media pages of the NSMQ to give the head to head statistics of contesting schools so as to increase the enthusiasm for the various contests which I think is worth considering, especially considering the fact that history in the competition is quite important, and it serves as a starting point for the bragging that supporters of various schools indulge in during such contests. If I may add, could there be a roll call of all the contestants who represented their schools in the entire history of the competition on the NSMQ website? It’s all well and good having some of them come and talk as mentors, but we don’t have to forget these distinguished people who once sat on the stage in their youth, representing their schools in the battle of knowledge.

10. Be time conscious, and cut the long speeches in the Final! We all know from time immemorial that no one would want the climax of an event ruined by long talk; everyone wants to see some action! It was a great idea for the finals to be done at the National Theatre, and guests were asked to be seated by 9am. But I was left banging my table in disgust, and I guess as did many other people, after there were lots of speeches which nearly threatened to take away the enthusiasm, and the main reason why everyone sat behind a TV set or radio, bought a data bundle for their internet service, or trooped to the venue ended up starting after midday. Yes, we know there are lots of people who sponsor the program and are important, but limit the amount of time they get to speak and get things moving quickly so we can watch some proper battle of brains, rather than wasting time on a smorgasbord of speeches.

11. Security must be improved for future competitions. The final ended on a bit of a sour note when it emerged that Dr Kaufmann had her handbag containing her valuables stolen in the aftermath of the trophy presentation and celebrations. It’s so annoying to see that as people are congregating to celebrate knowledge and “Blains at work” (brains at work, for those who are uncomfortable with or unaware of my reference), some are just there to commit petty crimes at the slightest opportunity. I do hope that the culprit is caught, and the appropriate punishment meted out. But with Auntie Elsie’s misfortune, lessons must be learnt for future events in terms of keeping security tight so everyone attending such events feel safe and comfortable and not worry about being robbed or falling in a spot of bother.

So here you have it, my insights for the 2017 NSMQ. I would like to congratulate Prempeh College on winning their fourth NSMQ trophy. Enjoy your win, Wonder, Daniel and all Amanfoɔ, for nothing is sweeter than achieving success the hard way. Also, I would like to commend St. Thomas Aquinas SHS for a good performance in the final and coming second. God wasn’t an Old Tom in the final, but Bright and Christopher did exhibit their God-given talents so take some solace from that. Adisadel College, well done on placing third. Reaching three consecutive finals is very hard, as only St. Peter’s has managed that feat. But you guys did your best, and Santaclausians should be proud of their efforts. Special mention goes to all the contestants who gave us brilliant and exciting contests, and the evergreen Dr Elsie Effah Kaufmann for her handling of the quiz with her sharp wit and broad scope of knowledge! Till next year, onwards and upwards!

The King Is Dead. Long Live The King

My mother is not one for turning on the television at 6 o'clock in the morning. "They hardly do anything good on television at that time, and it disturbs me.", so she says. So when she decides to pick up the remote control and turn on the TV set at that time, you know its because of something of epic importance. But ever since November 5th, 2008 when she tuned in to see the electoral victory of Barack Obama in the U.S polls, she had kept her resolve not to touch the television at dawn.

That is, until this morning.

She is just one of so many Ghanaian men, women and children trying to come to terms with the sudden death of the 3rd President of the Fourth Republic of the Republic of Ghana, H.E. Prof. J.E.A. Mills and the quick swearing in of his vice, John Dramani Mahama as the substantive president. I'm not trying to announce news that has, figuratively, broken nature's speed limit of 300 million metres per second in moving from mouth to ear and from screen to eye. I want to rather focus on the fallout from this sad news and bring it to the fore.

Firstly, the international media such as the BBC, CNN, Reuters, AP and Al-Jazeera were all able to bring out President Mills' illness which had been put to the back burner by almost everyone that had a link in government. "The President is fit.", "He has more energy than all the members of the opposition combined.", just to mention a few were some of the responses that were bandied around by the Communication machinery of the ruling party and government to the concerns of majority of Ghanaians of the President's ill-health. Things came to a nadir when President Mills, ill-advised by whoever-that-I-don't-care-to-know, turned the tarmac of the Kotoka International Airport into a keep-fit arena just to show Ghanaians that he had 'energy for the past,present and future.' Probably, he had good intentions of keeping his illness quiet because Ghanaians do talk. But he and his followers should have known that once he became President of Ghana, very little of his private life remained private, if any did at all. Ghanaians, being the understanding people they are renowned for, would not have batted an single eyelid if he went on numerous check-ups just to manage or cure his illness. And that is a lesson I wish every leader would take and keep.

Though President Mills' death is a bitter experience, it helped to show the whole world that indeed the rule of law has a firm root in Ghana and the Constitution is upheld as the supreme law of the land. The Constitution had a clear succession plan in case a situation like this came up. And that succession plan as stated by Article 60 of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana was followed to the letter which meant the country had a temporal power vacuum of just a little over 5 hours, which was undersatndable considering the various processes that were set in motion. But everyone knew what to do and how to do it notwithstanding the fact that this was the first time this situation had occurred. In some other countries, that country might have descended into chaos just over who to take over power.

My last and most important point is, Ghanaians were "united over grief", as President Mahama so succinctly put it yesterday during his speech. Apart from some guy I met on the way home who was trying to politicise the whole issue by pinning Mills' death on opposition parties, everyone regardless of tribe, class, religion or political affiliation was in a sombre mood and everything stood still in respect for President Mills. I only wish that that unity will continue to be there even when the emotions of his death long fade away.

I wish to end my submission by saying this: Let's not use President Mills' death as an excuse to slack off work today but rather use it as a tool to spur us on to greater productivity to help move Ghana forward. And as John Mahama's swearing in showed, life goes on even if we find it hard to accept some of the circumstances. And that was so wisely put in this eight word phrase:"The King is dead. Long live the King."

Welcome!!

I will like to welcome you to my blog, Observe! On Observe!, I try to bring out any observations from all corners to the fore for your comsumption and comments in order to fulfill the slogan of "Observations from far and wide".