Ghana’s first female vice-president: Jolly good lady

The country’s first female Vice-President, Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang is a lady anyone interested in the rise of women in a male-dominated environment should know.  

She is a highly qualified woman.  One with a heart of gold, ready and willing to help, polished and dusted with gentleness, good-humour, kindness, love and intelligence.  

For anyone who has known her for as long as some of us have, she is simply a jolly good lady, a gift for our nation.

Shining star

From over five decades ago when we first met as young teenagers at Wesley Girls’ High School on the Kakum Hill in Cape Coast, Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang  continues to be a shining star in many aspects. Her resilience, calm demeanour, friendly and loving in disposition on top of her good mannerism stand her out in any crowd.

Last Tuesday when our Wey Gey Hey 1969 year group members had the privilege to pay a courtesy call on her as one of our own, and to formally congratulate her on achieving the admirable role of a Vice-President of the Republic, one saw the remarkable qualities one has known in her all these years unshaken and still standing tall in her.

With joy and laughter, we hugged and laughed hard as we spontaneously sang our proud school hymn and posed for our own album. We restaged those memorable school days as fresh innocent teenagers and all the mischiefs we sprang on our teachers.

During those jolly days, it may never have crossed her mind and our collective minds that she was a future First Lady, a national icon in the making.

To all of us at the time, our dream at best was to be like the British missionaries who voluntarily had travelled thousands of miles away from their home country to teach us to live pure, speak true, right the wrong and follow King Jesus.  

Her shining qualities began to stand out when after our Ordinary Level examination (O Level) we had the opportunity to return to the enviable school to carry on with our  Advanced Level (A Level) studies.  

It was at that time that the star in her began to shine for her divine journey to stardom when she was appointed head prefect of the school. She acquitted herself creditably with maturity and level-headedness.

As the motto of our school was embedded in the hearts of all the girls who passed through the walls of that famous girls’ school, so it did for her as we all moved on to chart our various paths after the A Levels.

Vice-Chancellor

Years later, when we had all rediscovered ourselves and settled down with varied professions and families of our own, we came together to celebrate her next prestigious appointment as the First Female Vice-Chancellor of a public university, her alma mater, University of Cape Coast.

Shortly after that appointment, our year group members, home and abroad, gathered together in Cape Coast for our school’s speech day to mark fifty years after leaving school.

Professor Naana Jane sprang a surprise on us and hosted us to breakfast at her Vice-Chancellor’s residence, a joyous occasion we talk about with pride whenever we meet.  

Though she carried the huge responsibility of the university on her shoulders, she never abandoned joining us, her Sisters-for-life, as we referred to ourselves, whenever we got together to celebrate each other with lunch dates either in a mate’s home or in a restaurant.

As a cherished member, she has been a pillar behind the vibrancy of our year group, an enviable group within the Wey Gey Hey Old Girls Association (OGA). Her forward-looking ideas and encouragement

Her Excellency Naana Jane Opoku Agyemang has never abandoned her childhood values of love and respect for fellow human beings. Well respected, she is firm and principled with a listening ear for everyone.  She has never been short of sharing experiences she has gathered, home and abroad on her journey to stardom.

It is no wonder that she has got to where she is now as Ghana’s first-ever female Vice-President.

There is every reason to believe that her intelligence, warm demeanour, respect for others and above all, her strong Methodist faith in her maker will go before and after her as she assumes the highest office a woman could achieve for her country and motherland.

Her achievement will be a reference point in our history as we strive to achieve our Sustainable Development Goals, particularly Goal Five which is on Gender Equality.

Her enviable position would be the pride of women young and old.  Her old school will cherish her for the icing she has successfully put on our cake to shape our school’s unique story.  

The reference point will always be that it is the school that produced three female Chief Justices within a close period to lead one arm of Government, judiciary and now a Vice President, the second most powerful personality in the Executive.

If Ghana has ever been blessed in its history of supporting gender parity, a clear example has been set in having its first female Vice-President in the person of Professor Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang.  She is a jolly good lady deserving of the position bestowed on her.  

We wish her God’s speed.

Writer’s E-mail: vickywirekoandoh@yahoo.com