On October 1, 2026, the Department of Political Science, University of Ghana, gathered to honour one of its pillars - Emeritus Professor Kwame Akon Ninsin. Political scientist, statesman, avowed Nkrumahist, activist.

True to his influence, the room was full. Emeritus Professor Atsu Ayee and many faculty members were present. So were leading civil society figures including media freedom advocate Prof. Kwame Karikari and Dr Emmanuel Akwetey, founder of the Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG).

Speaker after speaker rose, but a clear picture emerged of who Ninsin was.

The Trinity Who Built a Department

Former Speaker of Parliament, Prof. Mike Oquaye, who was both taught by Ninsin and taught in the Department, described the trinity that built Political Science.

"Folson founded the Department, Kofi Drah nourished it, and Kwame Ninsin became Emeritus of what they established."

He remembered Ninsin's eye for talent, his conspiratorial discussions about how to grow the Department, and the period around 1988 that gave them the chance for a second wave. "We published and flourished. Morally, he stood above what was required of a lecturer. He promoted a system of collegiality and conviviality."

Mr F. K. Drah, the grandfather of the Department who joined in 1969 and led it for two decades, spoke of a friendship so deep that people wondered who taught who. He recalled barbering the young Ninsin. He also noted Ninsin's deliberate mentoring of women scholars - Dr Beatrice Allah-Mensah, Dr Maame Gyekye-Johnson and Prof. Rosina Foli among them.

"I am sad because we no longer enjoy his company," Mr Drah said, "but it is not for us to determine. God the Creator knows where He wants him to be."

Provost of the College of Humanities, Prof. Joseph Yaro, summed it up: Political Science is one of the best departments in the University because men like Ninsin built it.

The Teacher Who Was Not a Populist

If the first part was about institution-building, the second was about teaching.

Prof. Kwame Boafo-Arthur, a former Head of Department who was taught by Ninsin, remembered his Marxism and his bluntness. Ninsin was not a populist lecturer chasing student popularity.

"The course outline is your baby," he would insist. Getting a C is also a grade.

He pushed his students to think beyond the classroom, even advising Boafo-Arthur to look for an income-generating asset - advice that sent him to Nigeria for a while.

Prof. Abeeku Essuman-Johnson recalled that Ninsin visited him at home when he missed classes after flight challenges from Nigeria. He often ran errands for Ninsin. Prof. Atsu Ayee, who clarified that Ninsin arrived when he was in his final year, said they later bonded deeply as colleagues navigating academia together.

Kwesi Jonah, who straddled the Department and IDEG, described his relationship with Ninsin as father and son. They shared an office where they spent hours gossiping about national affairs, a habit that continued at IDEG and culminated in Ninsin's last book, The Corrupt Elites: Anatomy of Power and Wealth in Ghana. He was not just an office academic; he visited staff at home.

The Activist Beyond the Classroom

The tributes also remembered Ninsin the public intellectual.

Prof. S.K.B. Asante Danso-Boafo, now Secretary to Cabinet, credited Ninsin for helping publish his controversial book on former President Rawlings - an act of academic freedom.

Dr Emmanuel Akwetey recalled Ninsin's alarm about state capture of Parliament. In 2007, worried whether Ghana was a tribe or a nation, Ninsin wrote a paper to address the nation. That intervention grew into a conference drawing scholars from across the continent. He worked extensively on elections to prevent violence and served as Director of Research at IDEG.

My Last Student

I was his friend and his last MPhil student. I first met him as an undergraduate at a lecture on Darfur organised by the Forum for Student Affairs, a campus group he founded.

As a novice, he cut my teeth in academic writing. As a member of the Young Pioneers Movement - a youth movement of which my grandfather, the late Z. B. Shardow, was Director and a prominent member of the Convention People's Party - he had high expectations of me.

He was very fast with drafts and never happy with my slow moments. He would say, "I was expecting you to work like your grandfather, Z.B. Shardow."

Though far advanced in age, he was no laggard. In the one year I worked with him, there was not a single hard copy. Everything was electronic. He read meticulously, flagging every detail. We met only twice in person, yet by the time I finished, I understood what research really is.

I once submitted what I called a concept note. He looked at it and asked, "What you sent me is incestuous. Do you know what incest is?" It was his sharp way of telling me I was citing only scholars from within the Department. "Look beyond," he said.

Even after the thesis, he kept checking: "How is our work? Has the work been passed?" He refereed for me, shared PhD opportunities in the UK, and agreed to supervise my PhD in the Department.

Then, as fate would have it, he fell sick.

We have lost a teacher, a builder, and a conscience. But the department he helped build, and the students he mentored, remain.

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Authored by Dr Mohammed Shardow, a political scientist and a former student of the Department of Political Science, University of Ghana.