A LETTER TO THE NEW CHIEF VANDAL

                                                                                                 A Wanna-Be-Vandal

The Chief Vandal

Commonwealth City, Legon

Your Royal Highness,

A LETTER TO THE NEW CHIEF VANDAL

Enumerating the list of regrettable things I have done and will ever do in my life, my decision not to choose the Commonwealth Hall would only come third to my failure to tell Yaa Serwaa back in school that I had a crash on her and possibly a grave mistake I am yet to commit respectively.

Clearly that should tell you that even though I can’t pride myself a Vandal, my respect, love and admiration for the Capital City of Legon can never be in doubt.

Your Highness I must be quick to add that growing up (my days in the basic and JHS) the argument as to which the best hall in Legon was/is never was absent in my home. For some reasons, the Legon Hall side of the argument represented proudly by the younger of my two elder brothers never fascinated me. I must include that the Vikkings were never in the picture and I fully understand now, obviously they are not in your league despite their noise about being better than the Vandals. But it was the argument of a certain Commonwealth Hall, the activism and the collective display of solidarity, bravery and dissent to administrative dictatorship among others that always caught my attention.

Stories were told of strong JCR leaders, the reverence for the Chief vandals and the numerous courageous voices who inundated the notice boards of Legon with floods of daring pieces of writings. Those were the days when the City of Commonwealth led the course of the student movement.

BUT now Your Highness, it is sad to say that after 3 years of being in this University it is difficult for me to say that all those stories I heard were true. Or perhaps it is this generation of Vandals who are making it hard for me to believe so. And that is exactly the reason I write this letter.

What I have observed over the years are not courageous Vandals who can defy all odds for the student movement but a bunch of confused, arrogant, disrespectful thugs who clad themselves in red with little knowledge of the difference between activism and noise making (charging).

Of course I clearly appreciate the diversity in approach by the Vandals. Indeed stories have been told of the weird and sometimes awkward techniques employed by the Old (successful) vandals in registering their protests and executing their tasks. But respectfully speaking, times have changed and am afraid very soon vandalism will no longer be an interesting venture for civilized and decent minded people and the Commonwealth hall will lose its place at the frontline of student activism.

Today the most visible feature of the Commonwealth Hall is their sheer disregard for decency and their unwarranted attacks on authorities with a barrage of insults blended in a cocktail of profane words.

Now the only time we see the genius of the guys once upon a time touted as the finest gentlemen in Ghana is when they perform a remix of especially gospel songs in a blasphemous manner mostly replacing any mention of God with penis and vagina – and you can trust that Professor Ernest Aryeetey will have his fair share.

Need I add again, the most despicable and outrageous act of all, that even scares the hell out of animals? That is running around the school naked with libidos swinging and ding-donging to and fro like a tennis ball in a classic Federer – Nadal game.

The least said about the anus exhibition exercise the better. It still remains a mystery to me why upon all the many ways of showing courage and manliness, right thinking gentlemen of no other hall than the Commonwealth Hall will choose exposing their anus and going naked on the streets – it obviously makes it difficult for the Mayor of Accra Mr Vanderpuje’s policy of getting rid of mad men from the streets of Accra by 2016 because clearly distinguishing between the mentally challenged and the sane becomes hectic.

Undoubtedly the current generation of Vandals have misplaced the true principles and tenets of “Vandalism”. What they fail to realize is that it wasn’t the occasional noise making and the charging that made the Old vandals special and a force to reckon with but the insistent and consistent fight for the student movement.

Indeed we are all students and it is not the sole duty of the Vandals to fight for the course of the students, however if one would continue to enjoy the prestige won and pride himself as a “Vandal” then it is only fair that he ensures the flame burns on and the student movement becomes stronger than before. However I must acknowledge the few that are still on course to move on in that regard.

And so I ask your Highness in all humility and respect for the love of Commonwealth Hall, which would you rather be, the sakoola-man who has deprived himself the luxury of looking up into the sky to enjoy the beauty of the sun and only keeps  his gaze down to the ground like a shy Krobo girl in a dipo rite parade (since that’s what all Chief vandals do nowadays) or that Chief vandal under whose reign vandalism was redefined, revived and restored to keep the student movement on course.

I pray you don’t settle for the former.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Yours faithfully,

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Wanna-Be Vandal Karim

NB: For those of you who do not know the Chief Vandal, he is regarded as on of the most revered and respected student leaders in Legon. He presides over the Commonwealth Hall's traditional council. The office has rich history with highly reputable people in this country ascending the throne in times past. A name that quickly comes to mind is that of the popular NPP lawyer and former Editor of the Statesman Newspaper, Lawyer Egberht Faibel Jnr

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