Introducing Nii Darko Asante….

What have you been up to since 1980?

I went back to Achimota for sixth form, and somehow got involved in clubs and societies.  The first was GUNSA (the UN students association), and in the course of organising a seminar of sorts, an abortive invitation to JJ Rawlings (then an ex head of state) to speak at the GUNSA Seminar got me black-listed by the school administration (unknown to us Rawlings had been banned from speaking at any school).  I tried to avoid getting involved with the authorities after that, but another year and another event arrived.  This time I was roped into Booze’s (Joseph Orgle) Amalgamated Club and the organisation of a funfair. This time it was the attempt to have a live band play at the Swimming Pool during the funfair that fell foul of Canon Ankrah’s dislike of bands, and somehow I was at the centre of the debacle again – talk about lightning striking twice!

UST followed, and it took five years to complete my four year Chemical Engineering programme – thanks to JJ Rawlings (again!).  I stayed at UST for another two years for my National Service, and then went off to Manchester, UK to do my Masters in Process Integration (process design for minimum resource usage).  After an 18 month stint working with BP in London, I returned to Manchester for my PhD.  I completed my PhD in 1996, worked for one year as a Research Associate at Manchester University, and then took up a job with a software and consulting firm in Henley-on-Thames (near Reading, UK).  This was to last for only six months, because I left there to work for Aspen Technology Inc. in Warrington, UK (North West England), doing stuff that made it difficult to explain what I did for a living.  Finally returned home to Ghana in 2004.

So what do you do you do for a living?

About ten years ago, whilst considering career options, my daughter asked me: “so what do you actually do at work?”  At that time there was no simple answer to explain my frequent travel and the link to chemical engineering and software development. A long-winded answer was required, which I felt would bore her before I was finished.  I face a similar problem answering the question now, and to complicate things further I have had two other related but different careers and may be starting a fourth – as I have just resigned my position at the Energy Commission.

Career 1: Process Engineering Software Development & Implementation

In my first career I designed and wrote software in the UK for a process engineering software company, and implemented the software solutions in refineries and process plants around the world (after some practice I managed to come up with that compact answer to the question “what do you do?”)  The software implementation involved a lot of travelling, so I was away from home a lot.

Career 2: Lecturer in Food Process Engineering

I left Aspen Technology in 2004 to return to Ghana, where I eventually became a lecturer in the Food Process Engineering Department of the University of Ghana (and I finally had a straightforward answer to “what do you do?”).  Together with my colleagues we helped setup the Faculty of Engineering Sciences at Legon and graduated the first batch of students.

Career 3: Energy Regulator

In 2011 I joined the Energy Commission, and was responsible for regulating the electricity, natural gas and renewable energy sectors. I was there for eight years until my resignation at the end of 2019.

Which of your three careers has been most interesting?

Working in Ghana has been an interesting experience – especially working in the public sector.  The Energy Commission was not as bad as I had feared, but it still featured public sector attitudes of tolerating incompetence, inefficiency, waste and of course some corrupt and unethical behaviour.  One thing soon became clear however; politicians are both initiators and victims of corruption, and it’s not always easy to determine which is which.  Whilst the public always blames the politician for the corruption and inefficiency, civil and public servants are frequently just as guilty (if not more so) – but avoid all blame.

Being at the Energy Commission through the “dumsor years” was particularly interesting and leaves me with lots of tales to tell.  Trying to do what was right, even against the wishes of my boss or the Minister was quite an experience.  A memorable high or low point was when a sitting President described me as an “idiot at the Energy Commission…”, but that is for another story! 

What about family life?

I got married on Sunday December 29^th, 1991 to Julie (nee Butler), a product of Wesley Girls High School, and have three children, Ewurabena, Ekow and Esi (25, 22 and 19).  During most of the time I was working in the UK however, I was on my own – my wife and kids having taken the lead to settle in Ghana. As such I was a pioneer in the use of internet calling software:  Long before the creation of WhatsApp and even Skype, I was using dial up modem connections and internet chat tools like Netscape’s “CoolTalk” to beat those killer phone tariffs to Ghana!

Travelling around the world has been fun – though not great for raising a family.  The frequent travel seemed pretty glamorous, but it left me with an uneasy feeling whenever I woke up in a hotel room (trying to remember what presentation or deliverable I had to complete before going for breakfast).  Most of my business trips were to boring industrial towns with little to do other than work, and a lot of time was spent in airport lounges waiting for a connecting flight…  It was not however always boring; occasionally on multi-week tips, it was possible to do something interesting over the weekend. On one trip to South Africa in the late 90s, we spent the weekend at a private game reserve used as a lion sanctuary and went for a morning walk through the game reserve with a pair of lion cubs as our companions. 

So what do you outside work?

My Christian faith has played a major role in my life – even though up to the end of my first year in UST I did not want to be associated with SU or Chrife.  In those days, I considered it an insult for someone to call me “chrife”! After leaving Achimota in 1982, I started a Music Group at the Ridge Church, and was one of the lead singers.  Whist at UST, I also sang with a group on campus called Abundant Life, as well as a group made up of musicians and singers from other groups. called Kush and Co.  Whilst in the UK I often played the keyboard for the church I attended, and became an elder and lay preacher at the church.  These days, my singing is limited to congregational singing and the occasional singing in the privacy of my home.

The issue of Landguards was highlighted by you on the GC WhatsApp group platform a couple of years ago. Would you say that issue is getting better or worse?

Could not really say, but I have no reason to believe it’s getting better. The thugs have found a way to make money and are not going to give up easily!  Apparently the landguards issue is strongly related to the so called political “vigilanteism” menace the country is grappling with.  So my guess is it’s probably getting worse.

You infamously once said that the challenge of leading GC sometimes felt like being a prison guard on Alcatraz. How does it feel now to be an “inmate”?

Leading the year group is not easy, but it’s great at character building!  Now that I’m freed of the responsibility it’s nice to be able to watch from the side lines without any obligation to intervene when “prison riots erupt at Alcatraz”!

I took over from our longest serving President, David Okai and served as President during the period of our first reunion in 2015.  I am really looking forward to our 2020 reunion, and to hopefully a great turnout!

Escaping from Alcatraz!

And finally, how will you be celebrating your impending birthday early next month?

Trying hard to let the day pass without too much of a fuss – lest the bones decide to remind me of my age!

Nii Darko Asante

1A, 2A, 3A, 4S1, 5S1, L6E, U6E

Aggrey House