I thought I would become a Catholic priest - Oppong Nkrumah reveals

The Member of Parliament for the Ofoase-Ayirebi Constituency, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, has shared an interesting story of how he thought he was going to end up as a Catholic priest growing up.

Oppong Nkrumah who grew up in a Catholic family spent most of his time in church serving at the altar and doing things associated with serving God.

Sharing his childhood memories in an interview monitored by GhanaWeb, the Information Minister-designate noted that not in his wildest dreams did he ever think of becoming a broadcast journalist and even move up to become an astute politician.

Oppong Nkrumah who had his primary education at the St. Bernadette Soubirous School in Dansoman disclosed that “I thought I would end up as a Catholic priest but it didn’t happen. At some time when you are a boy, you would fancy the idea but I think as I moved on for some reason I didn’t get the call.”

Recalling boyhood days, Oppong Nkrumah said, “I was an altar boy at the Holy Family Parish in Mataheko here in Accra. I very much enjoyed serving mars, being on the altar and being associated with the matters of God. But I don’t think I got the calling in the end.”

According to him, after the call to become a Catholic priest was not forthcoming, he decided to pursue a career in the corporate world.

“I moved on to Cape Coast University, where I studied Bachelor in Commerce Degree, so at that time when I was leaving, I was convinced I was going to work in the corporate world somewhere. Indeed British American Tobacco offered me a job as a Treasury Analyst and that is where I started until the blessed accident of Multimedia happened,” the MP said on Citi TV.

Despite not having any background in journalism, Oppong Nkrumah revealed that a school debate at tertiary school is what architected his pasture into the world of broadcasting.

Having distinguished himself among his peers at the debate, Oppong Nkrumah disclosed that he was offered two job opportunities at the British American Tobacco and Multimedia, but he chose the latter.

The Ofoase-Ayirebi MP further went on to reveal that he had to combine working at BAT and a broadcast journalist at some point in life because his former boss at Multimedia gave him a flexible working schedule to do both.

An opportunity opened up for me to do what you call the news night on the 6 pm belt and the business show on Komla Dumor’s show. So I will do that and then I will go and work during the day, so I was doing two jobs until Komla was leaving for the BBC when I was called in and offered the Morning Show,” the Ofoase-Ayirebi MP narrated.

According to him, replacing Komla Dumor was a “very big shoe” he had to fill which came with its ups and lows.