Aquinas boys and commute hustle: Danquah, 37, Circle, Tema station etc.

St. Thomas Aquinas Senior Secondary School – that was the name when I was a student. We belonged to the ‘High’ strata long before the ‘Senior High School’ thingy. Yes, we did and we got zero explanations for that.

We strategically call ourselves a ‘boys day school’ but many boys were actually full-time boarding students who travelled the length and breadth of Ghana to reap the benefits of belonging to the fraternity.

I schooled in the days when Father Batsa (bless him) ruled that you are either in at 7:30 am or remain out for the day. That rule forced me to use the "illegal route" for the first of two occasions. Could not miss Senyo Damali’s Core Maths test on surds. Eventually I failed that paper.

On another day the 7:30 am rule caught me but there was a complication. I’d been spotted by WO – the security chief. If I entered and he saw me, it means I used an illegal entry point. WO at the time will ‘chook’ you for all it’s worth. Dull boy, I went home and cried.

To cut a long story short, the hustle to get to school on time thrusts into limelight the hustle that boys go through in different parts of Accra to get to school – to have an education. Headache, the school was in a residential part of town.

Long before Osu trotro started plying the route ‘limited’ number of boys picked the expensive taxis at 37 station or opt for the usual – walk through a gutter to Italian Embassy and pass the Switchback road estates.

Those that connected via Nkrumah Circle will drop at Danquah Circle and begin the walk in front of or through the prisons offices and residential complex. Most of those that went through were chasing early morning waakye or kenkey.

Two groups of commuting students were privileged to say the least. Those that connected from Accra Tema Station and from Achimota station. The Tema Station car had Aquinas as its bus stop. It was a kingly ride for a friend of mine like Kwame Asante – a.k.a. B Banku.

Then the Labadi cars at Achimota also passed right in front of the school and so those who came from New Achimota, Nsawam, Ofankor and other outskirts of Accra were that fortunate.

And how can I forget, I cannot and would not. That some of the Nima and Mamobi folks crossed Kanda and used CIA and FBI routes to arrive at Cantonments. Those hustlers of Osu and Labadi also did same. Vintage survivors, yeah?

And of course what were you thinking, that none of us came with private cars. We get plenty such. Those that lived behind the school but were dropped in flashy air-conditioned, washed cars. Those guys were nice eh, they’ll even pick a sweaty dude galleying his way in.

We were that family that came to love and appreciate each other for who each one was. The rich kids, the poor guys, the sandals wearers and the foot slayers. The sticking point is when it came to studies – all of that was left outside the door.

But is that really not the essence of this life? That when you put in the right type and amount of effort into something – many other considerations do not matter. At the heart of being a student was studies – but we learnt ‘so much more’ (like DSTv) during our time in Aquinas.