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Acceptance speech by Sir Sam Jonah for Honorary Doctorate conferred on him by
Ashesi University
 President
Awuah, Distinguished faculty and staff, Guests of honor, Members of the
Class of 2005 I
am truly touched to be the first recipient of an honorary degree from Ashesi
University, a university that I hold in such high esteem. Indeed, I am humbled
and eternally grateful for this honor.
I distinctly recall my
first meeting with Dr. Awuah in 2002. I was struck by the sheer boldness and
ingenuity of his vision to create a world-class university in Africa. Since that
time, I have watched in awe as Ashesi has grown to become one of the most
respected institutions of higher learning not only in Ghana, but in Africa, in a
very short period of time. I therefore view this honor not necessarily as
acknowledgement of my personal contributions and achievements, but as
recognition of the importance of tertiary education to Africa’s future, and as a
testimony to the maturity of Ashesi University.
Being a part of your
graduation ceremony today brings back very fond memories for me. I was part of
the first generation in my family to attend university. I joined Ashanti
Goldfields at the age of 18 as a Shovel Boy. Ashanti then sponsored my education
at the Camborne School of Mines in Cornwall, England, where I earned an
Associateship in Mining Engineering. I subsequently completed an MSc in Mine
Management at the Imperial College of Science and Technology in London. The time
I spent at these institutions of higher learning gave me the critical skills I
needed to rise up the ranks and become CEO of Ashanti at the age of 36. I
proceeded to lead Ashanti to become one of the most profitable gold mining
companies in the world, providing employment to over 8,000 people in Ghana,
Tanzania, and Mali, increasing gold production from 240,000 ounces per annum to
over 1.6 million ounces in over ten years and overseeing the Company’s listing
as the first operating African company on the New York Stock Exchange.
Throughout my career, the core skills I developed at university—the ability to
think critically, the constant thirst for knowledge—are what enabled me to lead
successfully at Ashanti, and to become a global business leader. I truly
believe I could not have achieved my success at Ashanti and in the international
business community without a good tertiary education. Your Ashesi education
will similarly empower you to achieve your dreams. We need more African
success stories like Ashanti. This is why I view this honor as recognition of
the importance of tertiary education to Africa’s future.
This award is also
testimony to Ashesi’s maturity because only six years ago, Ashesi was merely a
dream in one visionary individual’s mind. Today it is a fully-fledged academic
institution that is graduating its first class of students, and is also awarding
its first honorary degree! These are both hallmarks of Ashesi’s maturity, and I
salute Dr. Awuah and the rest of the team for their tireless work over the past
six years to develop Ashesi into what it is today.
I hope this recognition
of Ashesi’s maturity and success will spur the establishment of other private
institutions of higher learning on the continent, because to succeed in the 21st
century and reach its true potential, Africa must develop into a knowledge
economy. This will not be possible unless more of our citizens can engage in
higher education. Public universities must grow to accommodate our children,
and private institutions like Ashesi must arise to provide competition and spur
innovation.
By looking across the
world at South Korea we can see the importance of institutions like Ashesi to
Africa’s development. In 1957, South Korea was slightly poorer than Ghana, and
today its per-capita GDP is over nine times ours. Numerous studies have shown
that over half of this difference in economic growth was due to differences in
knowledge acquisition and use by the two countries. Where did South Koreans get
their knowledge? At private Universities like Ashesi. In South Korea today,
85% of tertiary education occurs at private universities. And these
institutions are responsible for the nation’s rapid economic growth.
Not just do we need
more institutions of higher learning, but I firmly believe in the specific
liberal arts education that is being offered at Ashesi today. The ability to
develop a core base of knowledge across a broad spectrum of disciplines is
crucial in today’s world, and is especially so in Africa where our most
difficult problems can only be solved by applying knowledge from the
intersection between various disciplines.
I have been privileged
to know three individuals who crystallized the importance of liberal arts
education for me. The first individual who demonstrated the power of the liberal
arts education to me is our esteemed Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the UN. I
have been fortunate enough to serve on the Advisory Council of the Secretary
General’s Global Compact for several years, and in this position I have watched
this skilful leader tackle many of the world’s problems. As some of you may
know, Kofi Annan received his undergraduate degree at a small liberal arts
college called Macalester College in Minnesota. He has often spoken about how
the education he received at Macalester was the foundation for the critical
thinking and multi-disciplinary approach he has needed to tackle the world’s
most complex problems.
The second individual
who demonstrated the power of the liberal arts education is on a more personal
level-my own son Richard spent four very rewarding years as a student at
Haverford College in Pennsylvania, USA, and I continue to be amazed by how this
helped to shape his thinking into the fine emerging business leader that he is
today.
Finally, as we all
know, Dr. Awuah himself is a product of the liberal arts education he received
at Swarthmore. Without the broad-minded thinking and thirst for knowledge he
nurtured at Swarthmore, he would not have acquired the vision and leadership
qualities that have enabled him to so skillfully lead the establishment of
Ashesi into the fine institution it is today. His liberal arts education also
enabled him to achieve great successes at Microsoft and at the Haas Business
School at Berkeley. Indeed Dr. Awuah is a great engineer, businessman,
entrepreneur, scholar, and educator. Only a liberal arts education could have
developed him to succeed in such a broad range of spheres.
Now I would like to
specifically address you, the graduating class. Today marks the end of a key
phase in your lives, but it is also the beginning of another phase: a much more
important phase. After today, you have the opportunity to make the years you
have spent at Ashesi really count for something and impact your world.
Let me now welcome you
to the University of Life. In this University, you will have to grapple with
several and varied challenges but you would also discover many vistas of
opportunities. The skills you have acquired here and the attitude and
discipline which you have developed in the course of your education at Ashesi,
would stand you in good stead as you move forward to manage these challenges.
In the course of your
training at Ashesi, you had to work in groups and no doubt, you came to
appreciate that the best results are obtained through team effort. It is
possible that there were some of your colleagues in your group you were not
particularly comfortable with but nevertheless, you had to learn to work with
them to get the best results.
In the University of
Life, team spirit will be needed in even greater measure if you are to succeed.
You will come across all sorts; you will walk into a world of prejudice,
jealousy, betrayal, viciousness etc; but in this world, you will also come
across people who appreciate scholarship, discipline and hard work and would do
whatever is required to facilitate your success. It is up to you to learn how
to get the best of this new world of seeming contradiction.
Ashesi has prepared you
well and I therefore do not expect you to fail.
You are pioneers,
indeed you are Ashesi’s pathfinders and arguably, there is no role more onerous
than being a pioneer. You will carry the responsibility for how the world
defines Ashesi.
Ashesi’s three core
values of Scholarship, Leadership, and Citizenship are crucial ingredients in
transforming Ghana, and indeed Africa.
·
First,
Scholarship: My father had a saying “you must be ignorant only once.” What he
meant by this was that life is all about acquisition of knowledge. Once you find
your life’s calling, then you must seek to know everything about that
discipline. While you might start out ignorant about certain things in your
area, you must not remain ignorant forever about those things. This has been my
guiding philosophy throughout my life. Class of 2005, I hope you will leave here
with a sense of humility and modesty, and a recognition that Ashesi was just the
beginning of life-long process of learning. In fact, I think it is apt that the
name “Ashesi” means “Beginnings”. My wish is that the Class of 2005 views this
as the beginning of a lifelong search for knowledge.
·
Second,
Leadership. I believe that an undersupply of strong leaders across all
disciplines has greatly hindered Africa’s development. Strong, home-grown
leaders are also the key to our future. Some of these well-educated, ethical,
principled and entrepreneurial leaders are sitting in front of me today in the
Class of 2005. By becoming agents of positive change in your chosen
disciplines, you can lead Africa to a future with widespread political
stability, rapid economic growth, and meaningful cooperation among nations.
·
Finally,
Citizenship. I truly believe that a fulfilling life is one that is not solely
centered on oneself. A good and fulfilling life should also revolve around what
you can do for your country & continent. You have been endowed with your skills
and are fortunate enough to have received an Ashesi education. You must
therefore always ask the question—how can I use this endowment to uplift the
situation of my fellow citizens? That, to me, is what it means to be a good
citizen, and it pleases me to know you are leaving here imbued with this
mindset.
Before I conclude,
class of 2005, I would like to leave you with a challenge: You form part of a
privileged group. According to the World Bank, only 3% of students of
university-going age in Ghana and only 4% in Africa are actually enrolled in
tertiary education This compares to 81% in the USA and 85% in South Korea. With
this enormous privilege comes responsibility. One of my favorite expressions,
which comes from the Bible is “To whom much is given, much is expected.” You
are part of an elite group. Ashesi has helped you to develop great knowledge
and critical thinking skills and positioned you to have a major impact on the
continent. With this privilege, you have the responsibility to play a
leadership role in changing Africa. Will you rise to the challenge and accept
this responsibility?
Ghana, our dear country
is undergoing a renaissance. We have been through two terms of peaceful
democratic government, we have peace while our neighbors are experiencing
turmoil, our economy is performing well, and last, but not least, we as a nation
can boast of Ashesi, a world-class educational institution that has produced its
first crop of graduates.
Members of the class of
2005, I salute you, and dedicate this doctorate to you. May you go forth and
change Africa! |
