The meeting that influenced me to become a Mining Engineer

WHEN I cast my mind back to a chance meeting which occurred many, many, years ago, I begin to ask myself several questions, the foremost being, was it really a chance meeting?

I can vividly recall that evening at Nkawkaw, when I together with a friend and classmate, went to say hello to another classmate and also a friend called Afful.

As is usually the case when young men, who the youth of today call boys-boys, who are doing their national service meet, the chit chat will naturally involve the careers we would be pursuing at the University.

As the discussion went on, Afful then mentioned that there was a Mining Engineering course being offered by UST (now Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology) at Tarkwa and it offers opportunity to travel outside, specifically to Germany among others as part of the course.

It immediately caught my attention and I made a decision that, I will be going to pursue a career in Mining at UST School of Mines (now University of Mines and Technology), as it was then called. The fact that only six people were admitted each year for the BSc Mining Engineering, did not bother me at all. My mind was made up.

Prior to this meeting, I had in mind Pharmacy, as the course I was going for and was not interested in any of the other engineering courses, but a little worry I had about the pharmacy was my dislike for the scent of drugs that is associated with pharmacies in our hospitals and how I was going to cope with it.

Therefore when I heard about this mining course which had nothing to do with smell of drugs and the added incentive of travelling to ‘aburokyire’, it settled the issue of the choice of career for me. I was going to become a Mining Engineer, end of story. I never discussed it with any of my friends because except one who was going to University of Ghana, the others wanted to go to UST, Kumasi and the fear was that, if I told them I wanted to go to Tarkwa, they might convince me to change my mind.

The decisive and unflinching resolve to go for Mining Engineering despite the chances of not getting in beats my mind up till date. The funny thing is that Afful, who got me interested in the course and had shown some initial interest, never applied for it but went to pursue a different course altogether.

The logical question is, why did I decide to pay a casual visit to Afful on that particular day and time? If we had gone there say in the afternoon, the chances are, he might not be at home or will have been busy and so we will not have had the opportunity to have a long chat for this issue of mining to emerge.

The answer to the questions that readily comes to mind is that fate has something to do with this meeting and that it was orchestrated by a divine authority who rules and reigns in the life of men and especially for those who put their trust in him, he God, directs their path according to Psalm 37:23.

There is a man whose name must also be mentioned to complete this story, Professor Ralph Asabere. An issue cropped up when I was given admission that caused my admission to be withdrawn after I had reported and duly admitted by the then Head of Department and was therefore compelled to return home.

Before I left the campus at Tarkwa, Mr Ralph Asabere, a lecturer, came to my room and comforted me and told me not to worry and that I should go home and further added that, one year is not a long time and so if I really want to do mining, I should apply again for the next academic year and he shall ensure that I am admitted because I have not been treated fairly. I thanked him and left the campus. A year later, Professor Ralph Asabere honoured his word and the rest is history.

NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT’

By Laud Kissi-Mensah

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