Paramount Chief of Bongo Traditional Area, Naba Baba Salifu Atamale Alemyarum has disclosed that he was dismissed from Bawku Secondary School where he was schooling by renowned retired educationist Robert Akurugu Ajene.
Though he would not disclose the exact cause of the decision to expel him from the school, the revered traditional ruler hinted that he used to engage in acts of indiscipline, including the intake of various illicit drugs such as marijuana and cigarette while in high school.
He said although he was never caught in the act, authority of the Bawku Secondary School where he was schooling dismissed him from the institution when they suspected that he was involved in such deviant act.
“I couldn’t complete secondary school. Somewhere along the line, Ajene dismissed me from Bawku Secondary School. I used to smoke hemp, wee, I used to smoke cigarette and some of these in school. Even though I was not caught but my dismissal related to that,” he told Nana Tsiquaye on Breakfast Today.
Now, one of the most powerful and revered traditional leaders in the Upper East Region, Naba Salifu described the reasons for his dismissal from the school as not tangible, stating that he was a “victim” of circumstance.
“The reasons for dismissing me were not tangible. I was a victim in the circumstance”.
He, however, believes the decision to sack him helped shape his life and propel him to where he is today. According to him, he took it upon himself, following the dismissal, to turn a new leaf and better his life.
“After some time, I look at my life and said I needed to transform my life. So I had to stop. I stopped smoking in 1985 and since then up to now, and I thank God that if probably he had not dismissed me, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to transform my life. And I would not have been sitting here today as the Chief of Bongo. I don’t think Nayiri would’ve enskinned somebody who smokes wee,” he stated.
Naba Salifu Alemyarum said this while recounting the challenges he encountered while growing up.
For the Bongo Naba, things were tough in his young life, but with persistence and good behaviour, he made it through and has become a role model to thousands of other young people.
