EVERYONE HAS a story to tell. Sometimes, people get the opportunity to tell these stories themselves, but other times, they get someone to tell their stories for them.
I met Professor. Jonathan Dakubo on Tuesday, May 25, 2021 at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.
Flanked by a team of eager young doctors, Prof, as he is called, walked into my ward to take a look at me.
From just examining my wound and without poking his finger into it like other doctors, he told the students where he believes the beginning of my then-fistula tract was.
I felt safe. Everyone said he was the best and an expert at his job. I must admit I was disappointed that a female doctor was not going to operate on me, but this doctor knew what my issue was and how to solve it… and I actually had no worry.
After the surgery, he was patient with me. He took me through the dos and don’ts to ensure a speedy recovery and always had time to share a joke or story whenever I came for review.
It was through these sessions that I got to know that he knew my father. As fate would have it, he operated on him in 2012.
That operation saved my dad’s life. I remember daddy’s admission at Korle Bu although the details remain quite scanty.
As a writer, I made a mental note to tell my story and then his. Fortunately, I have been able to share my Korle Bu experience in an article I titled, “My Korle Bu experience; the good, the bad and the ugly.”
It is now time to shine the spotlight on one of the best surgeons I have met.
I describe him as the best because although other doctors have operated on me because of this same condition, and it has reoccurred, my experience with him has been different.
To the glory of God and thanks to Dr. Dakubo’s expertise, I have not been under the knife this year.
So who is Jonathan Dakubo?
He was born in 1962 to a manganese miner and a seamstress in Nsuta, a community in the Western Region of Ghana.
According to him, his parents moved from the Upper West Region to the community in 1949 in search of a job. They went ahead to raise their family there.
He is the fifth of ten children.
“Yes, we are a lot. But you know in those days our parents used to have more children. It is not like these days that people have two or even one,” he said while smiling.
Later in 1968, the family moved to Obuasi after his father showed interest in working with Ashanti Goldfields Company. However, his plans of landing a job in the Company did not materialise as expected.
He resorted to making smocks, while his wife – who was primarily a seamstress – took up a palm wine business as her second revenue stream.
The move from Nsuta to Obuasi interrupted the studies of young Dakubo for about a year as the family settled into its new environment.
“I missed a year because I should have started schooling. I was in nursery when I was at Nsuta but when I moved to Obuasi, I had to stop school for one year. So eventually, I started primary one (1) in 1969.
“Then in 1976, I passed my common entrance for the first time. I wanted to attend a school in southern Ghana but my elder brother – who had already finished Nandom Secondary and Tema Secondary School – said our parents could not afford it so I should go to Nandom Secondary school.”
This decision took him to the northern part of the country for the second time, this time as a teenager.
“I entered secondary school in 1977. But the interesting thing about my going to secondary school was that I was a baby or a child when I went to the North for the first time which was around 1966-67 thereabout.
“I had no idea what the north looked like again. When I passed the common entrance in 1976, my father took me to Kumasi Aboabo and left me with a driver to drop me at a village in the north,” he recounted.
However, Dr Dakubo was unable to enter Nandom Secondary immediately due to his father’s sudden illness.
He noted, “I say it was a miracle my father survived because he became bloated, deeply jaundiced and could not pass urine. I can figure out today that he had Hepatorenal Syndrome; mind you, we didn’t know what that was at the time. That’s what we thought but, miraculously, he recovered. One of his cousins came and took him to Enchi. So when I came back from my interview in 1976, I couldn’t go because my father was not there – there was a financial challenge too.
“In 1977, we had to mobilise every resource and I went. I was about 13 or 14 years thereabout.”
Dr Dakubo describes his years in Nandom Secondary School as fun because secondary education was free during the time.
He was also taught by white Reverend Catholic Brothers (Brother FUC, whose apostolate is education) since local teachers refused to accept postings to the deprived northern parts of Ghana.
According to him, the Reverend Brothers, who were mostly whites, were much disciplined and very punctual.
They came from Holland, where their mother Convent is, to build the school; they relied mostly on Peace Corps, Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) and the Canada University Students’ Association (CUSO) for teaching staff for the students in the school.
Despite the tuition being free, students were required to purchase other essential stuff like clothing, stationary, toiletries and others, and that was a challenge for many students.
Due to this, Dr Dakubo had to engage in petty businesses to earn some money for his upkeep.
His father’s ailing health – even after recovery – forced him and his siblings to learn to adapt quickly to their village and learn how to farm with the hoe in order to provide for themselves and the rest of the family.
“He [my father] came home still very ill. He couldn’t farm. He was so weak, so quickly we had to learn how to farm. You will be surprised that we knew nothing about farming,” he admitted.
BY Felicia Osei