Two heroic educators of model and example

Celebrating Professors Naana Opoku-Agyeman & Afua Hesse

Just as miracles are where you find them, so is history. And such a history was observed at The Cedi Hall Auditorium, University of Ghana. It was at the occasion of the 6^th Congregation Ceremony, and 10^th Anniversary Launch of the Accra College of Medicine (ACM), 6^th December, 2025.

As providence had it, the special guest of honour for the august event was none other than H.E. Professor Naana Opoku-Agyeman, vice-president of the Republic of Ghana. A heroine in her own right, she’s celebrated as the first woman ever cast in that pivotal role.

Likewise, Prof Afua Hesse has many firsts up her sleeve, including, particularly, the founding of ACM – a leading private medical school in Ghana. Discerning the anaemic ratio of doctors to patients in Ghana, she rose to the challenge. It’s so clear that people who make our lives productive and healthier invariably provide solutions to problems.

At the launch, the spotlight could not escape the two iconic educators: a constellation brewed and patented from Wesley Girls’ High School, Cape Coast.

Prof Afua Hesse

When the vice-president mounted the podium to speak, she was to affirm, “I feel a special joy this morning … Professor Afua Hesse, was my classmate and as memory fondly serves, my Assistant School Prefect at that great citadel of women’s leadership, Wesley Girls’ High School. It remains a place that has shaped many women whose intellect, integrity, and courage continue to influence our national story.”

To her credit, Professor Afua Hesse was the first female professor of Paediatric Surgery at the University of Ghana Medical School, and served as Head of the Department of Surgery.

She also held the position of Director of Medical Affairs, and the Acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Accra. For years, she presided over of the Pan African Paediatric Surgical Association (PAPSA), and the Medical & Dental Council, Ghana. In all, she’s earned about 40 years of international and local experience.

**Professors Afua Hesse (left), Naana Opoku-Agyeman.**

Prof Naana Opoku-Agyeman

In her illustrious career, Professor Opoku-Agyemang has held numerous leadership positions at the University of Cape Coast, including Head of Department of English, Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Dean of the Board of Graduate Studies, Founding Dean of the School of Graduate Studies and Research. In 2008, she made history as the first woman appointed as Vice Chancellor of a public university in Ghana.

Her leadership transcends national borders. From 2018 to 2024, she served as chancellor of he women’s University in Africa, Harare, Zimbabwe, championing inclusive education and women’s leadership on the continent. She amplified Africa’s voice on global education stage with prominent international roles including Chairperson of the Africa Board and the President of the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE),.

In appreciating ACM’s 10^th anniversary, the vice-president noted, “Today, we gather not only to celebrate the accomplishments of this sixth cohort of graduating doctors, but also to mark a significant milestone: ten years of vision, diligence, and enduring purpose—ten years of excellence in medical education. A decade ago, the Hesse family planted a seed driven by faith, discipline and a conviction that Ghana could nurture a private medical institution grounded in science, character, compassion and ‘heart power’. That seed has become a sturdy tree, a living institution where science meets compassion and knowledge is tempered by conscience.”

She advised, “Excellence is not a destination one arrives at and rests; it is a journey one commits to every single day. It is a mindset of discipline, a devotion to truth, and a refusal to accept the ordinary. In the world of medicine, mediocrity costs lives. Excellence, therefore, must remain not an aspiration, but a duty.”

To the congregation, she said, “You stand today as the living testimony of this institution’s vision. Your sleepless nights, endless tutorials, and long hours on the wards have shaped more than your minds, they have shaped your character. You are the living proof that knowledge and compassion can indeed coexist – what ACM beautifully calls Heart Power.”

The sacred calling

The vice-president counseled, “As you step into the sacred calling of medicine, remember always that medicine is not merely a science, it is a pledge to serve. Every patient you encounter carries within them a chapter of that story. Read it with empathy, respond with integrity, and write your part with excellence.

As a lover of words, she was reminded of the poet John Keats, himself once a medical student, who wrote: “ ‘Touch has a memory.’ Let your touch, in every act of care, become the memory of compassion in the lives of those you serve.”

At the end of the day, a true calling combines personal meaning with social impact. Likewise, a well-designed life is generative, ever evolving and productive, as the lives of our two heroines show. Today, even as we ponder the ever-perennial question of how to figure out what to do with one’s life, the words of Ghana’s first president, the Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah, comes to mind: “We want thinkers, thinkers of great thoughts; we want doers, doers of great deeds.”

Modelling women’s pivotal contributions in Ghana, the two exemplary heroines – Professors Naana Opoku-Agyeman and Afua Hesse – reflect the very echo of James Kwegyir Aggrey’s salient observation in the 1920s: when you educate a woman, you educate a nation!

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