Story of one John Elliot Hagan is inspiring many across Ghana. He rose from a common newsroom cleaner to become Best Graduating Journalism Student. That was not all. He graduated with first-class honours in journalism.
He actually worked at the same time going to school.
“At certain times, I tried to play smart by nibbling on snacks throughout lectures just to stay awake, but even with that, I was caught ‘off guard’ a few times,” John wrote about his struggle in a Facebook post.
His struggle was real. The path was unclear. But he persevered. And conquered the gloom.
John dropped out of St. Thomas Aquinas Senior High School in June 2002. He was a second-year General Arts Student, but he could no longer fund his education and there was no helper.
His father had died, and his mother was struggling to barely take care of the four boys. Family members had given some hope, but it was a hopeless hope. John, the eldest, says he decided to sacrifice his education for his siblings.
In 2004, he got a job with a cleaning company and he was assigned to the Graphic Communications Group. At Graphic, John went beyond the cleaning. His hard work endeared him to the reporters, old and young. He would stay on after work and run errands for them. They sent him to buy food and anything he could do.
In 2007, a woman who worked in Graphic (now a judge who wants to remain anonymous) struck a conversation with John after he had cleaned her office for some time. She asked him what he wanted to do with his life and John narrated how his hopes had been truncated. This kind woman, according to John, said she saw great potential in him and wanted him to go back to school.
John was now 22 years old. Going back to the mainstream senior high school was a bit problematic so he enrolled at the Accra Technical Training Centre (ATTC) to study electrical engineering, between 2007 and 2011. For the first three years, it was a part-time job so he was working alongside the school. The benevolent woman paid his fees.
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In 2011, one of John’s friends at Graphic, Maurice Quansah, hinted him about a vacancy at The Finder newspaper.
The newspaper was looking for an office assistant and the key quality was someone the company could trust. When John went to see Mr. Kwadwo Larbi, the first editor of The Finder, he was told that Maurice Quansah had spoken so well of him that he didn’t have anything to prove.
With time, he took on additional responsibility for cleaning when the cleaner stopped work without any notice.
His transition from being a cleaner/office assistant to a reporter began in 2013 when, on his way to work one morning, John saw a dead body at Asylum Down. That dead body resurrected John’s hope and he dreamed beyond office cleaning and assisting the editorial team.
When he got to the office, decided to write the report himself. He had spent his spare time at the Daily Graphic and The Finder reading so many reports that filing one came effortlessly.
The editor at the time, the late George Koomson, was so impressed with his report that he encouraged him to write more. The editor thought the cleaner report in a way some reporters could not.
With time, whenever there was an assignment and the reporters were too busy, he would be asked to go and cover. His output impressed his editors and he was assigned to cover weekend assignments.
In 2015, Elvis Darko, the editor of the paper to whom John says he owes a lot of gratitude, said he was too good to be a substitute. That was when he was made a full-time reporter. And he played in the newsroom’s first eleven with ease and excellence.
It is one thing learning on the job, and another thing understanding the theories and the academic intricacies that come with the job. John wanted to study journalism. Fortunately, GIJ had introduced a diploma programme for mature students so John took the advantage.
The publisher of The Finder, now minister of state for Business Development, Mohammed Ibrahim Awal, sponsored him to go to school. After two years, John decided to enroll for a top-up degree programme.
It was a happy ending to an inspiring story last Saturday.
John Elliot Hagan says his success is hinged on the kindness of people who came his way. He wants to make them proud and give them a reason to believe in others like him and support them when they can.
He is back to The Finder, where the major transition began, and is looking forward to life’s menu. But he already has his eyes on a master’s degree. It is unclear how he would fund that and what the future portends for his current state.
But he is optimistic that the powerful hand of Providence, which has brought him this far, would continue to hold and direct his path and use him as a reason one should not give up when one is stuck in a quagmire of hopelessness and appears to have all the odds against them.
