Nana Oteng Koranye the II, Nananom, The President of Ashesi University, Dr. Patrick Awuah, Members of the Board and Executive team, Distinguished guest Speaker, Mr. Kwabena Owusu-Adjei, Alumni and University leaders, Members of Faculty and Staff, Dear Parents and well-wishers, Ladies and Gentlemen, my name is Alhassan Mohammed and it is a great honor to be here to find words worthy of a class that has, in four years, rendered ordinary words insufficient. A class that has refused to be ordinary in the most ordinary of circumstances, a class of many firsts whose story is just now reaching the end of its prologue, a prologue filled with the promise of those many unique stars. I refer of course, to this complex, magical, and endlessly glamorous constellation that is the Class of 2026.

Our story began one hundred and sixty-three weeks ago. We arrived from the fishing villages of the coast, from the dusty roads of the north, from Lagos and Nairobi and Kigali and Abidjan and Dar es Salaam and Kampala and Angola and Accra.

In this same square, we were welcomed very warmly as is an Ashesi tradition, by drinking from the calabash. As we sipped and took our vows, we felt, perhaps for the first time, that we belonged somewhere new. Little did we know that this warmth of welcome would one day become the very heat that would get us roasted in these walls.

For most of us, after surviving that Jomen’s Calculus class, Miriam’s mechanics examinations, Bob Sowah’s COA project to build a CPU with iced caffe, and Dr. Djan’s presentation grilling, we reviewed our expectations from wanting to graduate with a first class, to simply wanting to graduate in peace.

Suffice it to mention also that this class is a class of many migrations.

I vividly recall some engineering students fleeing to join our colleagues in Business Administration, Computer Science, MIS, because the arduous task of building a mini Mars rover in the first semester was just too much a weight to handle. And when they arrived in BA classrooms, thinking that it was a much easier path, Dr. Cook’s Macro and Microeconomics class would ensure that they clandestinely tiptoed back to where they belong. No department was offering any kind of peace. And we learnt our first lesson, that there is no easier way in Ashesi, only different varieties of the same demand, dressed in different clothes, waiting patiently at every door.

Through these migrations, however, we are proud to have been the class to produce Ashesi’s first ever batch of undergraduate Economics students.

As we were charging forward into our second and third years, the accelerated semester system came to add more petrol to the fire we had already been subjected to. A true test to our resilience and resolve. For four consecutive semesters without breaks, we were trapped in the webs of 11:59s, numerous projects and presentations, and loads of quizzes and assignments. Indeed, Prof. Angela played her part in ensuring some amends be made to the curriculum. While these amends ensured that some workload be reduced, I dare say the grading scale remained the same throughout this period. And so, in effect, we still got cooked.

By our celebration today let us raise a toast to the submission portal that crashed five minutes to 11:59. To that code that crashed in the middle of the demo. To that pop quiz that somehow covered next week’s reading. To that particular classmate who always has a question the moment it’s time for class to end. And to Dr. Naa who never jokes with their 5 minute rule.

We have been, as the potter does with clay, pressed and shaped and fired in the kiln of this place, and what has emerged, what is emerging today, a group of young nobles, as Robert Kennedy would describe; “not a time of life but a state of mind, a temper of the will, a quality of imagination, a predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease.”

That is the source of all greatness in all societies, and it has been the key to progress in our days here at Ashesi.

Speaking of greatness, I cannot but boast that as a constellation, this class has produced many stars whose lights shine beyond the classroom. How could we not mention Pfungua when talking about football? Zoie, Belinda, and the dribbling genius of William A.K.A Pounds, Forson, Senyo, Victor, PY and our very own Onana, Issah.

And when we traded green grass for hardwood, Eugeno, Sean, Trueman, Benson, would not stop shattering the silence of the late-night basketball rims. Or when studying became difficult in the calm hours after a submission, one could switch to the melodic music of HKR Manuel or vibe to the simmering songs of Beyonce and Joanna.

Talent was never in short supply in this class and that is why, we have, without doubt, been the most vibrant, and creative class that has spiced up the Ashesi culture in our own way.

Our four-year journey has been peculiar, in the way that all genuinely worthwhile things are peculiar, demanding more than we offered and returning more than we deserved, binding us to one another with a commitment that outlasted every deadline and every difficulty.

But more importantly, in and outside of the classroom, we dared to be unique in our own ways, and we rose, despite the exacting demands of our programs, to light up the world with the knowledge we had gained.

Our geniuses did not fail us. Ama Annor and Blay designed an IoT-enabled glucose instability screening system for diabetic patients in Ghana. Nana Kwaku Amoako built DuoSign; a platform that makes digital content accessible to the Deaf and hard-of-hearing community. Vera Anthonio and Amoah applied machine learning to detect illegal mining in Ghana. Francis Sewor would hike down to Berekuso every weekend to teach programming to young underprivileged students. And the list goes on.

This was the real curriculum of our class. A curriculum in scholarship, leadership, citizenship, and above all, in the messy, glorious art of being human, together.

I should add that Ashesi gave us teachers who sacrificed every bit of their time and resources to see us succeed. A friend of mine shared with me, some weeks ago, about how his capstone supervisor, Kofi, used his personal funds to support a good portion of their capstone. Charles of Operating Systems and Networks would always begin his class with a quote and advice about life. Teachers like Dr. Nathan and Dr. Ayawoa turned the class WhatsApp groups into classrooms and made themselves available to assist us in any way possible, no matter how deep into the night we needed help.

And so, teachers, please look upon our faces today and take pride in the work you have done on us.

While affording to attend Ashesi was a dream too far to reach for some of us, our donors and sponsors ensured that financial incapacity should not be a barrier to quality education.

I recall the excitement and joy on my parents’ faces the day I told them about my admission to Ashesi. My mother smiled briefly. “But how do we intend to pay for your school?” she said. I told her it was a fully funded scholarship, and the joy that followed could not be measured.

Today, like many others, I have my parents sitting here in this gathering, and for all of them this is the first time they have attended a college graduation.

To all parents, thank you for not giving up, for the struggles and turmoil you go through to give us a quality education. Thank you for your ever-kindling support, your prayers, and encouragements, and of course, your scoldings and discipline, for they have led us to this point, and we promise to keep making you proud.

My remarks will also be incomplete if I fail to acknowledge the questions some may have about our class. Many look upon our class and wonder about the path we have chosen, the stands we have taken, or refused to take.

Many ask why our class did not simply sign on to be on the honor code in the conventional way. Why we chose this path. Why choose to be upheld to all manner of scrutiny and doubt during exams, especially when a quieter, simpler road lay open and well-trodden before us?

William Bradford, speaking in 1630 of the founding of the Plymouth Bay colony, said that all great and honorable actions are accompanied with great difficulties, and both must be enterprised and overcome with answerable courage.

We did not choose this path because we are contrary or rebellious. We chose it because we understand that the building of a prosperous future for Africa requires two kinds of leaders: the ones who make their ethical intentions clear to all, and more importantly, the ones who do the right things in the quiet, when many others think otherwise.

We chose this path because we understand no significant revolution, whether political, economic, or moral, can ever occur if leaders are not willing to subject themselves readily and without reservation to scrutiny.

Therefore, we are unalterably opposed to a worldview that exalts indifference and masks it as moral conviction, for it spreads stories that deem whole people “unethical,” and it unleashes the wrath of society upon those who are simply different or who have erred but have learnt.

The way to oppose this indifference, however, is to enlarge the space for genuine human connection.

We entered Ashesi four years ago as the most diverse class this institution had ever received, sixteen African countries represented in one generation, and we leave today as Ashesi’s most diverse graduating class.

If Pan-Africanism has ever needed a proof of concept, we offer ourselves, four years of living evidence that when Africans unite and put aside their differences, what emerges is a convergence of bold and different ideas, all pointed, with great seriousness of purpose, at the development of our dear continent.

Class of 2026, the road that brought us to this moment was far from effortless. And as we celebrate our conclusion of a tedious and exacting four-year journey, I know that some of us will be tempted to stay where we are. To chill a little longer, to wait, to rest.

But may I say to you, that all the great works ever done in the world, including this Ashesi University, were not built by those who waited and rested and wished to look behind them.

We must be ready to charge into the world with the audacity, genius, resilience, and magic that we have shown in our days here.

There is a Chinese curse that says, “May he live in interesting times.” Like it or not, we live in interesting times.

Our time on this planet is too short. The work to be done is too great. And the overwhelming troubles of our world, the scale of poverty, disease, injustice, and hatred, cannot be overcome by the actions of a single man or woman.

But each of us can contribute a small portion of events. And in the totality of all our actions, will be a glamorous new world society for this generation and the ones yet to come.

Some people see things as they are and ask “Why?” We must dream things that never were and say “Why not.”