Triple Honors in Academics

He had studied only to pass his exams as a private student. He did not have the breadth of knowledge that would have made it easier for him to understand the subject at college.

“Sociology was new to me. By the second term I was making good progress in Economics but not so well in sociology and heading towards failure. The First University Exam meant one thing and one thing only. I would have to go back home to the village. I worked as hard as I could and trusted God totally with no anxiety,” he says, and God blessed his diligence.

His Sociology book got missing a few weeks before the final exams. “I went to a very clever classmate, Issa Chambah and copied all his notes for the whole year. Surprisingly, before the exams that also went missing again. So, I had to write it all over again. The third got missing for a few days when I inadvertently left it in an economics class before I found it,” he recalls.

That tedious process of writing and rewriting the notes made him know everything in the notes by heart and the result was that he moved from a total failure to an honours student in Sociology.

Eventually, he had honours in Geography, Sociology and Economics making him one of the topmost students of his year with what was called ‘Triple Honors’.  He then majored in Economics —a discipline he grew to love, following persuasions from his brother. He was one of the top students in his class with Second Upper-Class degrees.

“In our time, the Economics Department had an unwritten policy to give one first-class honour in 10 years. And, unfortunately, before us, Dr Gobind Nankani had been given First Class.  So, in my class of 28, eight got Second Upper-Class. And, if I tell you what has become of all the eight, you would see that they were super first-class materials,” he says.

“I am referring to colleagues such as Emmanuel Akpah, and Issah Chambah. Per these rules, we were all lumped together as Second Upper students. But, for me getting that grade from Hwiremoase via Wiawso seven years after leaving middle school was more than enough,” Prof. Adei adds.

Prof. Adei’s time as an undergraduate was a period of “greatest spiritual growth” for him. “My degree was only a topping of the ice. More important was learning to have a closer fellowship with Jesus and meeting the best woman God made to be my wife later.”

At age 23 a brave new world was opened to him.

Upon the completion of his first degree, in 1971, Prof. Adei had four job offers – an Assistant Manager at Barclays Bank, an Assistant Economist at Bank of Ghana, Assistant Economist at the Ministry of Finance and an Evaluation Officer at the Capital Investment Board (CIB), now Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) and an opportunity of a scholarship to pursue his Masters.

Despite being attached to the Finance Ministry for three months, he eventually opted for the Capital Investment Board (CIB). He ultimately gave precedence to leaving to study at the graduate level, again in Economics at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, which he completed in 1973 and returned to work at the Capital Investment Board.

Speaking about the experience and the role played by the Head of the CIB, Dr. Kwame Donkor Fordjour: “He was so kind to me and encouraged me to go but that when I return, I should see him for employment. So, I got a job after my first degree, deferred it, came back and took it up two years later. That is what I call the good old days,” Professor Adei reminisces.