INTERVIEW: How I got nine A1s in 2019 WASSCE, says best candidate in West Africa

Jonathan Nkansah, a Ghanian student resident in Nigeria, emerged the overall best candidate in West Africa in the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE). He and Emmanuel, his father, speak with TheCable about his academic journey.

TheCable: Can you tell us about yourself?

Jonathan: I am Jonathan Awuah Nkansah. My family and I come from Ghana, that is where I was born. I don’t remember schooling in Ghana. Most of my life has been here in Nigeria.

TheCable: Did you find school work really easy?

Jonathan: I did not find it particularly difficult and I don’t know why I took a liking to academics. From the beginning, I was quiet and I think this made it easy for me, and from then I became studious and spent a lot of time by myself. Achieving much academically, I feel it just happened.

When I got into secondary school, they used to call us something back then – anti-social. That was what they called people back then, I didn’t agree with that because I felt anti-social meant something else. I felt it meant something harmful to the society – that’s being by yourself. So that was the only issue I had with the term. I was still the way I was but I made some friends.

As time went on, I felt like I built a reputation …In SS2…. I had some issues in SS2 psychologically. In SS2 I felt that everything I was doing was pointless, I’m not exactly sure why I felt that way but I was able to come back and study. It was not easy during our WAEC, NECO and JAMB. It was not easy with the pressure, the entire school kind of looks up to you. I think it all came out good in the end.

TheCable: You used the term anti-social, did you think it played a role in this feat you have achieved?

Jonathan: I studied a lot because I was always by myself in class reading. That made it easier for me to study. It is not like I did not have any friends, I just spent a lot of time by myself reading.

That reduced a lot when I got into senior secondary. In junior class, Fridays were the time to just play during prep and waste time but I found Friday and weekend prep as long periods of time to see what I wanted to do (study). It got to a point, I think SS1 or 2 where I was looking for time to think about my own things, not just to read books.

There was a formula that already exists but it was not stated in the way I thought of it. It was the area of a regular polygon given by the length of sides so I just sat down and thought about it.

Like I don’t know the approach they used in getting the original formula, I cant really state it but the approach that I used was – any regular polygon could be split into a number of isosceles triangles, that number corresponding to the number of sides and from there I just ran with it.

When you ask what I want to be I’d just say ‘a scientist’ but I did not really have anything in mind thinking I may just get a job. Ever since that formula I have been trying to take my work more seriously and now I’m in petroleum engineering though I applied for mechanical engineering they said it was overbooked so I just had to enter for petroleum and will change next year.

TheCable: What will you say is the secret behind your academic success?

Jonathan: I would not say there is any real secret, obviously you have to work hard. Personally, I feel people should not try too hard to chase all these stats, like number one and all that stuff. I never went less than second throughout my secondary school. It just got a bit tiring in the end.

Rather than working with this colleague of mine towards the end, it felt like we were always pinned against each other. For me, I rather not think about competition, what I want people to do to is put their hearts to what they are doing.

There were people in my school that read more than me, I know that for a fact, but I still passed them owing to one thing or the other. I just feel you should find a reason for what you are doing and just do it so consciously.

TheCable: When you were announced as best candidate in WASSCE in West Africa, how did you take it?

Jonathan: I was a bit shocked…

TheCable: You did not see it coming?

Jonathan: No. Like who would have thought about that. The best in West Africa. The result I did not have at the time was civic but I was pretty sure that it was an A. I was suspecting 9 As but I never thought it would be the best in west Africa.

I felt really good about some of my papers like English, maths. Like maths, after the exam, I don’t think I failed anything in the theory or objectives. I felt really good about that. Like the civic. When WAEC sent that letter, I went back to the civic, the A1 was not there, it was still that outstanding. I was actually surprised, I was thinking that if anything would have been outstanding it would be the maths.

TheCable: So you had a case where the result was very good and WAEC was questioning it?

Jonathan: Actually, a lot of people in my school (Christ the King College (CKC) Gwagwalada) suffered the same thing. We had to wait for a couple of months.

TheCable: How many months?

Jonathan: I can’t remember exactly. I had to go to the university with NECO. That was the saving grace there. I think they (WAEC) get suspicious, you can’t really blame them. They are just trying to cut down on exam malpractice.

TheCable: When did you notice that he was very good at his studies?

Emmanuel: Primary 5 at Olumawu school. I went to the school on one of the open days – parents have the opportunity of visiting them – the comments from the teachers in primary 5. Apart from the fact that he topped the class throughout the year, when you visit the teachers, they have closer contact in terms of detecting the talent and the resourcefulness, they would know more than me.

I got that information from them when I visited them and it was also that year he had 88 percent for the entry. Some people go into entry competition for secondary school in primary 6 but he took that exam in primary 5 and had 88 percent with some two others.

It became the conviction that what I saw in primary 5, that what the teachers were saying should be the starting point of something. That was the realisation that something outstanding coming later on for him.

TheCable: So you are not surprised by this achievement?

Emmanuel: No, no, no.

TheCable: What role did you play in his academic excellence and what do you think other parents should do in this regard?

Emmanuel: I think I did but my role is always to be subsumed in the grace of God. We are believers in this family but let me direct and not too spiritual. My role has been to ensure that, especially in secondary school when he needed a book or something that concerned his academic study which was outside what had been recommended, I put my heart into it.

An example, if he texts that he needed a book on the market and it is not among the recommended texts, I set to work immediately with my driver and we comb the whole of the city for it.

I remember once when I had to go and prepare notes of my own and I was prepared to send him back to the school, it’s in Gwagwalada, even if it is 10 times a week, I was prepared, I wasn’t thinking about fuel or anything. That spirit of sacrifice must be there all the time.

You should be able to understand the child from his world in terms of what he needs, not just for his studies. For his studies, I did not joke at all. Secondly, for recreation, when he comes and says he needs PS4 (video game), I really don’t understand how they play these games because we didn’t do those things. I was prepared to sacrifice anything I had for him and his brother to go and buy the game.

What do parents learn from this? It should not be all studies all the time, I have bought the books and paid the fees, there should be an extra mile.

For a talented person there may be something else, he was talking about polygons, I learnt those things in 1970-something I have forgotten. In terms of recreation, there should be some balance in studying.

Then health-wise, you make sure the slightest complain — you take it seriously. Take the health aspect very serious because if he is in good health he can think very well.

As a parent you should invest in what our old headmaster called ‘in loco parentis’ – it means people who are standing in for the parents outside the home, that’s the last advice I would give to parents which I tapped into.

His success came because I was in very good terms with the form master and people working on the campus who could attend to his immediate needs, people who could buy books instantly in the Gwagwalada bookshop and bring. You don’t do that by speaking on the phone. Something must go out of your pocket otherwise there would be no incentive.

TheCable: How did you feel when you heard the news?

Emmanuel: I almost did not believe it. I was eating in Dreams Plaza, there is one restaurant there so my phone made a sound and looked at it, my first reaction was that this 419 people should not come close to me again because they almost had me once.

When I read it, was it in West Africa or in CKC? That is the truth. I almost went down on my knees to thank God but I said no be careful it could be from fraudsters. So after eating I went to the office and opened my computer and then I had to call the man who sent it.

He had called earlier that he wanted to communicate with me through the school. The school confirmed it – the vice-principal and one staff from the ICT. So I was putting two and two together to trust the authenticity of the message. I was not fully convinced.

One proof was that when they sent a second letter, stating the dates of travel, in fact I didn’t talk about it for the whole day. I was becoming convinced that it was the work of fraudsters.

It was the following day when I started thinking of the journey. I had to text the man and ask ‘what is the travelling plan’? and he said the letter sent contained that information. I almost became ashamed for suspecting that it came from fraudsters. The dates were there.

I’m not saying this about Nigeria but we live in a world – it is all over the world. I love Nigeria and they have given me and my family something to be proud of. God blessed us here by bringing us here and I will never forget the years I have spent here. He is a product of the educational system of Nigeria, he is not a product of the educational system of Ghana.

I have great respect for the country. I’m saying all that because it is natural to be suspicious when things like that are too good to be true. I’m trying to give you the reality of this news.

It was too outstanding to accept at a go and that is the truth. When the second one (letter from WAEC) came, it took me 24 hours to accept that it.

It’s so miraculous and I believe it came from God. We have been in the Living Faith church for a very long time and we know it is from God. We have respect for all other faiths. You will realise that he was educated by the Catholics that shows how wonderful the marist system of education is. You don’t have to think that the education system in your church is necessarily the best.

Yes, there were other systems of training people before the church was done and finally I believe the late mother who set up Olumawu, an educationist trained in the UK, put in place something that the whole world should be proud of, not only in Nigeria. When you get to the school, the neatness, the discipline and all that.

My reaction was also that of gratefulness not only to God but to Olumawu and to CKC Gwagwalada.