OPEN LETTER TO HON ISAAC TETTEH AGBO, MCE OF LOWER MANYA KROBO Echoes from Odumase Presby School Dear Hon. Agbo, When on Wednesday August 12, 2009 Zain handed over the new Odumase Presby Junior High School block for use, you proudly graced the occasion in the presence of your boss, Hon. Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, then the Eastern Regional Minister who expectedly wowed the crowd with some promises, one of which was the walling of the entire school compound as a guard from the flood that runs down the mountain onto the compound and, of course, as security for the heap of flashy equipments the school was blessed with by the telecom giant. Not too long after that event, we saw you take the good step of giving practical effect to the promise- which until then appeared a mere political talk- by erecting a wall north of the compound toward the Zimmerman Presby Cemetery. In fact, Zimmermann Presby Church even simplified your work by already raising a huge wall which separated the chapel from the then shameful, dangerous and “colonial piggery” of a classroom block which collapsed to give way to the new one we see today. South of the compound toward Salosi also saw a Jericho type of wall constructed from the coffers of the same Church, when in fact those resources could have been channeled into first putting back the school into shape- but hey !!! That is my church for you, scale of preference turned upside down (Hard fact, isn’t it?). In effect, you were left with only two of the four-sided compound to wall to claim the bouquets of glory and what would have passed as your invaluable contribution to your alma mater. We the past and present students salute you for at least starting the project, being one of us and we pride ourselves in your current status and what the future seems to hold for you, but in case you have not visited the school/site in a long time, the contractor you assigned the job has ran away after deliberately setting a trap that nearly caught a game when part of the wall fell flat on reopening day (Jan 8, 2013) to welcome students back to the dangerous ground. Without any external force, a section of the wall came down with a blast enough to “faint” the faint-hearted even from a distance but the school was spared another casualty and pre-mature death because students were indoors, otherwise you can be sure we would have been heading for the cemetery again with a body/ies of innocent school children (whose only crime was their desire to get educated) if they were on break- which they do twice daily, even today, they will. The rest of the blood-thirsty monster of a defense wall is loosely standing with gaping gaps supposed to be filled with “iron-rodded” pillars to hold it firm. Hon. the good work you have started is washing down the drain; if you care to know, when on that fateful reopening day (Tuesday Jan 8, 2013), a calamity nearly visited the school, myriad of accusing fingers started pointing in your direction for importing onto campus a monster with jaws wide open to hound the pupils. If there is something you can quickly do to finish the work, please do it without delay- in fact this is the time- because with the onset of the rain, the scary and dreadful memories of the disaster that led to the demise in 2008 of that 12 year old class six pupil- Bernard Narteh- and the subsequent reconstruction of the school have been raked again, and even worsened by the sight of your falling wall. Students and passers-by are in constant fear with your name always on their lips. Yours sincerely SGND Henking Klono-Bi Adjase-Kodjo (An old boy)