The word 'AGENDA' in Ghanaian tertiary institutions. What is means

Before anyone steps foot into any tertiary institution in the country, he or she has already heard a lot of famous words and phrases used daily that mean different things in society. One of the very popular of these words which I believe is in almost all tertiary institutions in Ghana and even beyond is the word GOBE. The word is actually an acronym and thus;

G - Gari

O - Oil

B - Beans

E - Egg

 Those who were not fortunate enough to have heard the amazing story about how this name came about assumed it was a word from one of the local languages and others even thought it was a Twi word. The extent of popularity of the word is undeniably vast.

This post talks about one of the very famous words that is mentioned especially the tertiary institutions in Ghana and its associated assumptions. We are talking about the word AGENDA.

Before stepping foot in one of Ghana's best-performing universities, the word agenda is a word to me that means a list of activities or ideas for discussion in a meeting or something related to that and that is exactly how others know it. As you read, I know you are very curious to know what exactly it is about the aforementioned word making it so popular that it is everywhere.

In the schools, the number of students that fill nomination forms with the hope of being elected as an executive for one portfolio or the other be it at the departmental level, faculty or college depending on the system run is a wonder. 

Why is it a wonder?

The word qualifies all the activities of students who intend to get a position. This word has gained much fame on various campuses as students who are aspiring for positions tend to stand out from their colleagues to catch attention and create awareness about their intentions of leadership.

What they do

The rapidly growing Graphic Design industry which has become a very key communication medium and tool happens to be harnessed so much to create much publicity about the aspirants or candidates. The candidates with the plan of making themselves well known to the student populace take photoshoots with dedicated attires for the campaign which is normally official wear or an African print. It is one way to make them easily recognizable and guess what? Flyers, posters, banners are designed and printed to be posted at vantage points with the flyers being circulated around class WhatsApp groups and social media handles to create much awareness. 

  In fact, the whole thing seems very competitive and more conspicuous when it is getting closer to the elections. Due to the high competition in terms of students who contest for particular positions at times many of the students tend to be speculative about what exactly drives the unrelenting urge to run for a portfolio. So a lot of questions arise in the minds of colleague students:

Is it to become popular? Is it to prepare for future leadership roles? Do the aspirants have special plans to execute? (The Agenda)

These and many other questions are what contribute to how the word gained so much popularity, especially among the students freshers aren't able to understand but with time, they get used to what the folks mean. 

The aspirants who are normally described as going for agenda move from hall to hall, hostel to hostel, lecture hall to lecture hall, talking to colleague students to convince them why they are the best candidate for a particular position. These activities create some liveliness on the campuses. Normally said, the agenda guys greet so many students by standing at vantage points to greet them as they mention their name and the position they're running for. Shyness is at this time out of the game because absolute confidence is the only thing that can enable someone to do this. 

The activities are strategic to catch people's attention and when well planned and executed, some can be voted for and they get the chance to do what they intend to accomplish as leaders.