Monday, October 11, 2004 was a terrible day. On my return from school that afternoon, I heard news that Mr Samuel Andzi-Quainoo had passed. He and his son, Fiifi were involved in a ghastly accident the previous day on the Ho-Accra road.
Fond Memories of the late Mr Quainoo, the man who defended my continued stay in school when my struggles with studies at a point made it look like I wasn’t cut out for academic pursuits will remain with me forever. He was instrumental in urging my switch of programme from General Science to General Arts. After that, I attended his extra classes in Government for free and got copies of each book he wrote. That act of kindness transformed my life significantly. My performance improved from being the last person in a Science class to being the top student in an Arts class, earning a government scholarship in the process. But for that, I might have been a carpenter today.
Mr Quianoo’s death, barely a month after I had graduated from training college and began my professional service as a teacher was not only a blow but a hack at my motivation to pursue law as a career. To memorialize him, I began thinking of what to do to make his spirit happy. He was partly the reason I chose teacher union activism. I contemplated briefly at a point joining the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) of which Mr Quainoo was a key advocate. I however, remained with the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), it’s the place to be!
Years later, when I first interacted with Mr Kwami Alorvi the man loved by all for his relentless fight for teachers’ rights, I said to him jokingly, that I nearly joined NAGRAT because of Mr Quainoo. We had a good laugh …