Otumfuo Osei Tutu II
The Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, has been given the right to be referred to as an old student of Prempeh College in Kumasi.
The decision was unanimously taken by the authorities of the school during the 70th anniversary and speech and prize-giving day celebrations of the school on Saturday.
This means that old students of Prempeh College, including former President Kufuor, can now call Otumfuo as ‘Senior’, as Prempeh College old students are affectionately referred to.
The decision was taken after the Asantehene had shared an interesting story during the climax of the 70th anniversary of the school in Kumasi on Saturday about how he narrowly missed out from becoming a student of Prempeh College in 1964.
Telling his story, Otumfuo said 55 years ago, he was a teenager who had sat the Common Entrance Examination and passed, with Prempeh College as his chosen school.
He said he then visited Prempeh College with his uncle, Oheneba Mensah Bonsu, to pick his prospectus to enable him to prepare to start secondary education.
“We started to buy my clothes and other needed items to start school at Prempeh College just to be told in August that I am no longer going to Prempeh College. I was rather sent to Sefwi-Wiawso Secondary School to start my secondary education. This means that I also would have become ‘Amanfuo’ or ‘Senior’ now,” he narrated.
The Asante Monarch said he was supposed to be a ‘Senior’ or ‘Amanfuo’ as all Prempeh old students are referred to, so “I deserve to be honoured as such.”
Beaming with smiles, Otumfuo said he was looking for the day when former President Kufuor and Mamponghene Daasebre Osei Bonsu, who are alumni of Prempeh College, would call him ‘Senior’.
Minutes after the Asantehene had concluded his emotional story, the entire school, including the board, management and students, agreed to make him an old student of Prempeh College.
Right in the presence of President Akufo-Addo and former President Kufuor, the board and management of the school conferred on Otumfuo the ‘Senior’ title.
FROM I.F. Joe Awuah Jnr., Kumasi