FIVE ‘SECRETS’ OF ESINAM AFI SEADE, SRC PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF GHANA

Esinam Afi Seade is well known. She is popular. It’s quite safe to say she is a celebrity. And why not? As the second female to become President of University of Ghana’s Student Representative Council (SRC), she has no choice than to accept the recognition and popularity (and sometimes distraction) that come with achieving extraordinary feats. She is known as a beauty queen, having won the 2013 Miss ECOWAS beauty pageant. But she is also a marketer, an MC, a debater, an entrepreneur, a philanthropist… And she appears adept at juggling all these.
Well, ugfile.com has been finding out what the public may not know about this phenomenal lady. Here are five of these ‘secrets’:

She learned to fend for herself quite early in life

She came to the university with a chauffeur. So she was driven to lecture halls, to the Night Market, to the Bush Canteen, to the Accra Mall and maybe to that ‘special someone’. But she didn’t get all that on a silver-platter; she worked really hard for it as an emerging entrepreneur and a beauty queen. Beauty pageants these days are much less about just being physically beautiful; they are more about having ‘substance’, a lot of grey matter. “My parents trained us to be the kind of children who will be able to live independent of them,” she noted.

She got some mentorship from the current Chief Justice

This is likely one source of her unwavering confidence! Who wouldn’t be inspired by the head of the Judiciary? “They picked ten students from my school to go and dine with her…up till this day, I still feel the taste of the food in my mouth,” she said, laughing. She added that the chief Justice sparked her interest in law. She hopes to read law after graduation. All other things being equal, we have a Chief Justice in the making.

She is a good cook.

As a good cook, ‘inheriting’ her mother’s culinary skills, she cooks really good jollof. And if the Nigerians accept our challenge to an open jollof cooking competition, Esinam will likely lead the pack from the University of Ghana. She finds joy cooking for friends. “Shafic [the all-round intellectual] is the best beneficiary,” she revealed, light-heartedly. Shafic is a lucky dude!

She is a Southpaw

A Southpaw is the affectionate name for lefties. If you realise that only about ten percent of the world’s population is left-handed, it should be a ‘big deal’. And lefties are known to be exceptionally good despite some cultural misconceptions. Examples abound. From well-renown athletes (Maradona, Abedi, Messi…) through world-changing entrepreneurs ( Henry Ford, Bill Gates…), authors ( Hans Christian Anderson, Mark Twain…), and to modern day quintessential geniuses like Albert Einstein, Southpaws have really shown their mettle. It’s an endless list of world influencers. Left-handed! And Esinam is one of such!

She was prom Queen at Union High School,Camas, Washington State.

In American high schools, the most enviable position in senior year (final year) is to emerge as the Prom Queen or Prom King. Now, the Prom Queen can be described as the most sociable, most orderly, most impactful, most influential, most loved, most lovable student in the given high school. And she is probably the most-sought-after girl. And I mean sought by the boys. After the ceremony of glamour where they are crowned, there is the ‘post-prom’ which is more glamorous. She must have adapted to the American lifestyle, accent and all, really fast.

Honourable Mentions

She is an alumna, old student, of KETASCO, Krobo Girls and Union High School. Who can beat that? Yes, she began at KETASCO, and through an exchange programme, she went to Krobo Girls’ Senior High School for a year and then to Union High School where she graduated as an honour student ( GPA of more than 3.9). She returned to KETASCO to graduate again as the de facto Senior Girls’ Prefect.
She became Miss ECOWAS before she gained admission into the University of Ghana. One thing is quite clear: she was already overflowing with self-confidence and self-belief before entering the University of Ghana.
She is singer and choir director. A member of the Victory Bible International Church, she sings as a lead vocalist and directs choirs. “A lot of people know me for my music. Some people wonder why I have not released an album. They think I will do really well as a gospel musician. ” she told ugfile.com
But as is the case always, human beings are an enigma, never fully knowable, never fully known, endowed with strengths and weaknesses. And so when people strive to attain higher heights, the final work seen by us should not always be condemned or criticized destructively. Such people deserve our commendation and support. The achievements of Esinam call for a celebration.
She reminds us that we all can, if we trust God and work towards our goals. Her biggest secret, she revealed, is her faith in God.