Mr. Vice Principal, Principal Emeritus, Fellow Regentonians, Distinguished Guests! It gives me great pleasure to be back on campus, among fellow Regentonians, “rallying around” – as the wonderful “Regentonian Song” proclaims, to tell you what has been and share in the joys of being part of the great and rich Grammar School tradition and history.
Though many years may have passed, and many things have been, a Regentonian becomes a pupil again the moment he meets other Regentonians. For you current pupils, This is a typical scenario of “where you are there I was.” In fact, I feel rather nervous now, because it seems like just yesterday when Mr. Lasite’s voice could be heard – “Kaifala, are you lost. . . your class is that way” - from one corner of these buildings where one never expected him to be at all.
The joys of today’s celebrations bring back memories when I would proudly walk this stage to collect prizes to thunderous claps and praises. It’s a blessing to be back as a speaker on such a memorable occasion of the 180th Celebrations of the founding of this great school.
How I came here is firstly because my uncle who I had come to live with in Murray Town, himself a teacher, was a great admirer of Mr. Lasite and the Grammar School. I recall the morning of my interview for admission into the school. I was so excited, got dressed and was waiting from 6am for the 8am scheduled meeting with the Principal. My uncle lived downstairs while I and my brother Joseph, were upstairs. I was upstairs waiting to be told “Let’s go”. My uncle got dressed but the excitement of the morning made him leave the house at Andrew Street, Murray Town, walk all the way to the School compound, waited for Mr. Lasite to call him in. It was only when Mr. Lasite asked “and where is the boy?” that he realised I was not with him at all. Poor Uncle was too excited about the interview and afraid of Mr. Lasite. He forgot to beckon me to come with him. He had to walk all the way back to Murray Town to get me. I will not provide details of how angry he was and what a slap I endured when he got back and met me sitting on the steps confused – It was my first week in Freetown and I did not even know what direction Grammar School was from the house. How did he walk all that long, reached the school, climbed to the Principal’s office, waited until he was called – and did not notice he was alone? We eventually went together and the brief meeting with Mr. Lasite completed the path to destiny that makes me stand here today. That is how my Grammar School journey started – with a very hot slap!
It did not end there with my Uncle and I. My brother took first position when he enrolled. I enrolled the following year. I was very playful and too friendly. Within a few weeks I had many friends around Murray Town and the school. I would play loud music all day and spend a lot of time with female visitors. He did not see me studying much and I was quite the opposite of my brother. But what he did not know is that I studied even with loud music and I stayed up late at night reading when he was already in bed. Every now and then he would jokingly say “you fail na yah, if yu make ar shame pan Mr. Lasite ar dae dreb you go back to yu mama”.
Eventually the time came for report cards. My brother had his the day before. He took first position. I was seated close to Uncle when he came with his Report card. Uncle looked at it and said “me nor worry about you. Na servicemen e yone ar dae wait for”. The next day I took my report card, went back to the house. He said “dis ar dae kam dreb am”. He got up, met me half way and took the report card from me. Looked at the card for almost a minute without saying a word. Looked up at me, looked to my brother and said “ah ah. . .service man look get sense pass yu sef. . . hehehehehe”. I had taken first position not just overall but in almost all subjects and got an extremely high combined score. Since then, I earned my respect in the household.
There is a Buju Bantan reggae tune that says, “you see the glamours and the glitter, so they think a bed of rose - who feels it knows.” Those who only know me as Commissioner Francis Ben Kaifala today might think I was born with a silver spoon and life has always been a bed of roses. Indeed, I have picked my academic and professional roses over the years, but I have certainly been pierced by many thorns before.
However, if according to the popular saying, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, then the tribulations of my early life have made me as strong as a rock - or what they now jokingly call “a dangerously educated man” to me, what they mean is, “dangerously educated” person refers to one who intentionally acquires the maximum practical education and training required for transformative leadership.
I was born during a tumultuous time in our country’s history. Greed, corruption, injustice and bad governance had placed Sierra Leone on the brink. We had become what late President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah described as a “broken vehicle parked in a warzone.” I was lucky, in a sense that by the time the state eventually collapsed and Foday Sankoh and his rebels unleashed great horror on Sierra Leone, my father, who was a consummate teacher, had already instilled an unwavering love for education in me. My brother, Joseph recounts in his book, “Adama Lui” the fun story of when when the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) first attacked Pendembu - my hometown - and everyone was hurrying to flee amidst heavy gunshots and bullets, I turned to my mother and asked whether I would no longer be attending school again. People were running for their lives and my innocent mind could only think of the possible disruption of my education.
I have always loved education and Grammar School sharpened that instinct with its commitment to excellence and integrity. It is that commitment that drove me to display culprits teachers caught red handed facilitating examination malpractices in special rooms for a fee and sleeping with girls who could not afford to pay, to the Cotton tree. The rage and effect of that on my Regentonian mind made me want to send a strong message about how dangerous such practices were on the generation of leaders we are creating in schools and our educational system. But as you know, I ran into trouble. Suffice it to say, I meant well.
I always knew that education has the power to liberate mankind from the shackles of poverty and underdevelopment. The drive to solve the seemingly unsolvable problems of Sierra Leone calls for a generation of highly educated people. It will be my utmost joy to see Regentonians leading it henceforth.
Life was easier for me as a new pupil because my older brother had already made an extraordinary name for himself here. I don’t know how things are now, but back in the day, one’s nickname at this school illustrated what your peers thought of you. In my years we had names like "Bololo", "Lombo-Lombo", "Timbereland", etc. I remember, even Mr. Lasite once declared at devotion that he had heard of a certain “Lashoh” at this school. Well, he was the last to know, because we were all aware of a “Lashor” before coming here. My older brother, Joseph, became known as “Oxford.” because of his brilliance. Suffice it to say “we came, we saw, and we conquered.
I hope my sons will someday uphold the legacy we left at this Good Old School - their older sister is already setting her own record at the Annie Walsh Memorial – just last week, my daughter, Francess, collected thirteen prizes during her school’s Prize-Giving - 13 Prizes! I do not recall doing that myself! No pressure on the boys!
As a Professional, I have had an extraordinary career as a lawyer, which I do not have to repeat due to the fact that the introducer was very generous. But I have had challenges and controversies – like the one the Bar is grappling with – because they shared videos to the public that tell half the story. In their videos, you will see ballot papers all over the floor, broken tables and hooliganism at the Bar. How did the ballot papers get there. The same people who attacked the process violently, destroyed things and threw the ballot papers on the floor to get their way. When they met a determined me, they later took out their phones to video starting from my resistance and not their prior actions. Now they are everywhere playing victim. To me, “Sundered never, vanquished never” were not just words in a song. It was a mantra! You must learn to stand your ground in the face of disrespect and bullying of you, and sometimes, others.
There were 500 plus others in that hall when they came. I could not allow them to disrespect those by insisting on their way violently.
I share these stories with you not to boast of my achievements or to bemoan my past, but rather to inspire you to apply the best of your human potential in the pursuit of education, because to be dangerously educated requires an unrelenting commitment to the pursuit of knowledge in spite of poverty or privilege. Without an unrelenting commitment, even those who are privileged might not succeed, and those who are underprivileged will certainly fail. I walked through these halls on many days with no lunch, and on some days I left school with no expectation of a meal at home, but these deprivations became my motivation to study harder and succeed. Nelson Mandela, a man who was the embodiment of victory of tribulations and triumph, wrote that “education is the great engine of personal development. It is through education that the daughter of a peasant can become a doctor, that the son of a mine worker can become the head of the mine, that the son of farmworkers can become the president of a great nation. It is what we make out of what we have, not what we are given, that separates one person from another.”
What you make of your present opportunities will determine the future privileges you acquire. Therefore, like sculptors, the shape of your future is in your hands.
My fellow Regentonians, at this moment, let me humbly leave you with Six pieces of advice derived from my experiences as a pupil at this great school:
Love Learning - make education an enjoyable venture and not something you do to please your parents. I urge you to come to school with the vibrancy and vitality of a curious mind, yearning to explore and discover new ideas.
Be Tenacious - in education as in many undertakings in life, there will be abundant reasons to throw in the towel and give up, but I encourage you to always keep your minds on the goal. Those who are tenacious will easily bounce back from failure and those without tenacity will quickly succumb to the minutest obstacle.
Cultivate Friendship - most of my best friends are those I made at the Sierra Leone Grammar school, and others, like Dr. Jowo Aberdeen, Nathaniel Decker, and Rev. Daniel Rhodes are now my brothers. In this regard, I admonish you to make friends who are not in your academic streams. I am professionally versatile because I made friends in different streams of study. You will become a great lawyer if you can understand the multiplicity of subjects involved in any legal matter or a great engineer if you understand some history - or a different language.
If your friend is from another ethnicity try your best to learn a few words of his language. You will be amazed at what difference it makes to greet a crowd in their own language or to ask a patient how she is feeling in her own native tongue.
Make Technology a Tool - we live in a time of stupendous technological innovation when artificial intelligence threatens to superintend human intelligence. Do not be left behind.
Read, read, read - Reading offers a window into an infinite universe of knowledge that could inspire thoughts and ideas to help us shape our country. My brother, a renowned author, often describes himself as “a writer in a country that does not read, yet.”
I encourage you to grab a book sometimes. Our country needs wide-eyed readers who cultivate innovative minds to squarely confront the challenges of our time. Feed your minds with what is hidden in books
For the rest of your lives be ready: People will want to fit you in their own boxes. Feel free to create your own box of life and live it unapologetically. A teacher here who I probably had the worst relationship with and he and I did not like each other at all once gave me the advice that I will never forget after I met him a year after leaving the Grammar School. We met along High Broad Street. I was coming back from class at Fourah Bay College. We exchanged greetings and I told him I was now a Law Student. He said “you will do well always Francis. I know this, but be humble and a little prayerful”.
Prepare to be misunderstood and misrepresented. It is a difficult world but like the Bible says “stamina, fortitude and endurance, bring these qualities to every man and every mountain shall be level”.
Mountains are going to stand in your way to your destination, be humble, prayerful but ruthless to demolish them trusting God on your path to destiny. The same Bible proclaims “Seeyest thou a man diligent in his works, he shall stand before Kings, not mean men!”. The best thing you can do for yourselves and country is to study, because as Robert F. Kennedy put it, “in your hands, not with presidents or leaders, is the future of your world and the fulfillment of the best qualities of your own spirit. Let the Regentonian spirit guide you forth, brothers. The eyes of this great school Old School are upon you!”.
Live forever, Sunder Never, falter Never! For you are Regentonians True!
Thank you very much!
Floreat Regentonian!
And God Bless Our Grammar School!
©️ Public Relations Unit, ACC
