The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunication, Kwaku Sakyi-Addo, said he was still a virgin when he completed his 5th form education at Achimota Secondary School back in the ‘70s.
Sakyi-Addo has gone down in history as one of Ghana’s most outstanding journalists.
The former ‘Kwaku One-On-One’ host who was on the maiden edition of STARR CHAT on Starr FM Wednesday, said, as expected of most teenagers, he was not as sexually adventurous in his Secondary School era.
“As a normal, healthy boy with heterosexual tendencies, of course I was attracted to a couple of girls in my class and out of my class as well, but I’m proud to say I left Achimota School a virgin even if we pretended not to be… I was a good boy,” he told host Bola Ray.
Sakyi-Addo had a brilliant academic life starting from Aburi Presbyterian Boys’ Boarding School for his elementary education, proceeded to Achimota School for his secondary education and later moved on to Accra High School to finish his 6th form level.
Looking back at his teenage years, the ex-BBC correspondent said although he tried to stay out of trouble, he still had experiences that are uncomfortable to recount.
“I once got suspended for something I did not do. One time in AHISCO we were upstairs (three boys) and the housemaster came round to inspect and make sure all of us had gone to prep but we were late so we went upstairs to hide until the housemaster would leave. We had the lights off…while we were there, we saw a girl come up. She was not a student so we asked her what she was doing there. She told us whom she had come to see so we let her hide with us…but the housemaster came upstairs and saw us.”
According to him, that incident cost him nine academic weeks as they got suspended without a proper probe into the circumstances surrounding the incident.
He noted: “The suspension was for nine weeks…back then as you know, no questions asked…they didn’t believe that we didn’t have anything to do with it.”
The Pirate as was his nickname, explained how the experience almost destroyed his academic fortunes and made him realise the flaws in the upbringing (or child raising) culture that parents and elderly people in the Ghanaian society adopt.
“…as school authorities, parents and supervisors of young people we’ve got to learn to be gentler with young people and also listen sometimes. Listen to them too and not judge too quickly,” the award-winning journalist noted.
Sakyi-Addo managed to complete his 6th form and proceeded to the University of Ghana’s School of Communications where he attained a Bachelor’s Degree in Mass Communications. He was later sponsored by the Thompson Foundation to study at the University of Wales in Cardiff.
Having taken courses at the International Institute of Journalism in Berlin, ‘The Pirate’ rose above his challenges as a young man to excel among his colleagues in his chosen field, Journalism.