It began when we were students and decided to hold the university to its own motto: “Proceed with integrity.” For that, we were treated as enemies. Kangaroo committees were convened.

Punishments were imposed. Our academic records were quietly curated so that we would remain at the lowest end.

Our crime was simple: we chose facts over propaganda, and integrity over convenience.

I graduated with a third class. Then we were told our certificates would be withheld for ten years. In that moment, my future seemed shattered. Some of my colleagues never completed their programs. Others left the university altogether and never found their way back into higher education. A few struggled for years to clear outstanding examinations. Others still remain till this day. Those who managed to graduate with second class degrees were sometimes denied entry into postgraduate study.

What happened to us was not an accident. It was meant to break us. We were meant to become the casualties.

Two decades later, after years of never needing my academic papers, I applied for a copy of my transcript. The response came with a simple inscription: “Results Withheld.”

I do not share this story to frighten anyone. I share it to encourage you.

Because despite everything, I am still here. And I wear this history as a badge of honour, proof that the fight for integrity is never wasted.

There is something deeper that carried me through it all. An inner clock that keeps time beyond human institutions.

For those who say that there’s no God, my response to you is, you are right. God is not an argument.

God is an experience.

And I have experienced Him.

By: Ernesto Yeboah, activist and founding leader of Economic Fighters League