An astute Lawyer Lamtiig Apanga, has shared an interesting story about his beginning, and growing up as a watchman son. Apexnewsgh.com report
Giving little history about his father, Lawyer Lamtiig said, the father was born in the Upper East Region and when he grew up, he decided to go out to seek for greener pastures because he couldn’t have the benefit of going to school because he was following cattles. He said
He said, the father later moved to Tarkordi to find a job to do and along the way, he was employed as a house boy for one of the European settlers at a time who happens to be a military man and he even wanted to help the father to become a military but because those days’ people fear military, the father couldn’t take up the offer. “So, he later took him as a cook. He worked as a cook in Tarkordi and later moved to Accra to work with a very prominent hotel called Intercontinental Hotel which has now become Golden Tulip Hotel. He later moved from Intercontinental to Mensvic Hotel which was called Ambassador Hotel a
and you know cook simply means you are assisting in the kitchen. And then we were living at a place in Accra called 441 Mamobi”. He narrates
Giving an account of his educational journey, Lawyer Lamtiig recognizes the role played by his father even as a watchman.
Lawyer Lamtiig said, he started school at 37 military hospital primary school and during that time, the two hotels his father worked for were closed down due to nonperformance, and the government sold them out.
“So, the workers were retrenched and had to find some work to do somewhere. But because of my father’s lack of education, he couldn’t get any other work to do, he settled as a watchman, and those days, you need to attend acquire some level of education before you could be called a security man, unlike today people are addressed as security men whether educated or not”. He explained
He said despite the circumstances, he was able to manage through primary school which happens to be a normal government primary school Airport Police primary school to JSS.
Meanwhile, narrating a story about how he took the decision of becoming a mechanic, he said, when he was in class six, a very good friend opted out to go and learn mechanics (filtering), and out of youthful exuberance, he also informed his father that he would love to learn mechanic because his good friend is going to learn same.
“But, in my case, my dad said, that I should be in school and continue with the mechanic job and that was the time they were introducing this JSS system and they said, the JSS system was going to be vocational and technical training”.
“So, from class six, I was enrolled in a mechanic shop as an apprentice. So, as I sit here, i know so much about vehicles because I spent 4 years in the mechanic shop. I used to go to school in the morning and after school in the afternoon, I will go to the mechanic shop and worked till about 6 pm and I will go home. And when I finished my JSS and was waiting for my result, all the 3 months, I was at the filtering shop working permanently and I could fix a lot of things in a vehicle and I didn’t also like the job because people look down on it”. He expressed
He said, waiting for his JSS result to come, depending on how he performed, he would proceed to secondary school.
He said, “God been so good, when JSS result came, permit me to boast a bit, the results were very remarkable, especially coming from a government school to make it 9 ones at a time. We use to write 11 subjects, so it was only two subjects I couldn’t get right, one was a Ghanaian language and the other was French. So, immediately I got that, I know my destiny is not to be a mechanic because I was academically good. So, the best way for me was to pursue academic work not vocational or technical training. So, I went to secondary school and the school I chose was St. Thomas Aquinas Secondary School and when I went, my name has been selected and i went through the processes and my father went to find the money for me to go. So, the first year in Aquinas we lived in Mamobi and then I complained that it was tedious to me because I have to board two vehicles before reaching the school and two vehicles back and so my father bought me a bicycle and I enjoyed riding the bicycle every morning to school”.
However, despite his confession of enjoying riding the morning bicycle bought for him by his father, Lawyer Lamtiig said one day, he felt bad after seeing some of his mates chilling in their father’s car.
“I was riding the bicycle one day from Kawukudi toward 37 climbing the hill and I saw some of my mates chilling in their father’s car and I was really sweating climbing the hill. I felt so bad and the following week, I said am not going to ride the bicycle again so that nobody will see me and notice my wahala”.
“But God is so good, my 3 years in Aquinas yielded good results. I was trained as a business student and from there, i went to Tarkordi Polytechnic and did marketing and my 3 years at Tarkordi Polytechnic was very remarkable, I became the school President of the Business School and along the way, I had to look for some job to do and Guinness Ghana was looking for people to do promotion and marketing. So, I was part of the pioneer team who launched Michael Power promotion across the country and we were mostly based in the Western Region Tarkordi. George Anda interviewed me because he then work for Guinness Ghana as a brand manager and he said, I will work with you. And then, I was walking around campus with Michael Power T-Shirt and suddenly i became popular by the name “Guinness guy!! i finished my programme and return to Accra”.
More soon…
Source: Apexnewsgh.com/Ghana
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