As the adage goes, “If you don’t sweat, you won’t eat”. Well, Kwasi Nyamson appears to be one of the people who believe this adage lacks veracity.  He comes from an affluent family and lives in a mansion in Obuoba with his parents.

He was always proud of himself because his parents paid bribe for him. When he was little, his wish was to work hard so he could go to University of Ghana, Legon.

He attended Grace International School, where he always joined bad company that engaged in stealing and truancy. Kwasi often wrote letters to teachers to absent himself just to play video games and roam about.

When he wrote his promotional exams, he performed poorly and as usual persuaded his parents to grease the headmaster’s palm for his promotion. Since Kwasi was their only son, and they always made him feel swollen-headed, they did as he asked and without an iota of sweat he was promoted to the next class.

This continued until he sat his Basic Education Certificate Examination (B.E.C.E) and had an aggregate of twenty. As a result, he could not get his first choice school, so his parents had to induce people to get him his first choice. In all these, they had turned a blind eye to their son’s misdeeds.

In Secondary School, his character became worse, and had no regard for authority. He joined bad company again, but this time he was engaged in amorous adventures and going to night club and bars-a time when they should be at prep.

He never went to church. All advice given to him fell on deaf ears. His parents lavished money and gifts on him, which fluffed his feathers and swaggering his walk to lure girls into his bed. He got many girls pregnant and was asked to leave the school on suspension and only to return after one year. His parents did not receive him as a son. This time, they were fed up with him. While at home, he went through a lot of ordeals.

When he went back to school, he had turned over a new leaf. In addition to his suspension, he was made to repeat his class. He was now going to sit the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (W.A.S.S.C.E) when he was not prepared at all. He failed the examination and thought his parents would pay bribe but to his flabbergast, they didn’t.

His preparation for his examination was woefully inadequate and was not able to make hay while the sun shone. His dream of going to University of Legon had been shattered into a million tiny pieces. He had reaped what he sewed.

Since he had sown laziness and insolence, he reaped failure. One day he ran into an old classmate in town who had become well-to-do. He looked at him with pity as he gave him a few cedis. Kwesi reflected on how he had wasted all the opportunities at his disposal-he had burnt his boat.

All he could tell himself was No pain, No Gain. He wished he could turn back the hands of time but had I known always come last.

By Fiifi Agyir Otu  (2014 Batch)