Working your way to the top in a place like Ghana is hard enough and it a lot harder for people in the deprived areas of the country.
The story of Justice Issah Surugu Musah, was no different, only that Justice is relentless at working hard to achieve his dream. Like many people with his background, the journey to the top was not without hurdles.
Justice had to work his way to the top by becoming a driver’s mate, a cobbler and a scrap dealer. Now, he bags his PhD in grand style to the admiration of everyone present.
He has had to drop out of school to find ways to pay his fees, and has had to go through tough times to live the success story he has today.
Dr Justice Issah Surugu Musah currently works at the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat in Bonn, Germany and believes education should be made free, from nursery right down to the tertiary level.
He reveals he is the third of ten children and the first in his family to again admission to the university
The Journey to the top
Justice Issah Surugu Musah hails from Widana in the Upper East Region and is third of ten children born to uneducated parents.
He gained admission to the University of Ghana in 2007 and graduated with a First Class Honours from the University of Ghana Business School.
A determined Musah furthered his education at the Business School for his Master of Science in Sustainable Development degree.
In 2014, he gained admission to pursue a PhD from the same institution.
Prior to attaining these feats, Justice struggled at junior high school, performing abysmally in the Basic Education Certificate Examination in 1997.
Surprisingly, he was the best in his school. His first encounter with failure prior to moving to the next stage of his education did not stop him, gaining admission to the Tempane Senior High School.
However, he faced another hurdle. Surugu Musah could not enroll because his parents could not afford his fees.
In 1998, he moved from his hometown to repeat the then Junior Secondary School, improved his performance in the 2000 Basic Education Certificate Examination and subsequently gained admission to the Ejisuman Senior High School but missed out on the opportunity because his parents once again could not afford to pay.
In his teenage years, Musah was compelled to work as a cobbler at Cinkase at a popular border city in Togo where he was able to raise enough money to start High School at the Bawku Senior High School in 2001.
He passed his Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination but couldn’t pursue his tertiary education because of financial setbacks.
Forced to move to Ejisu owing to financial challenges, Musah’s moved to stay with a brother, who at the time drove an articulated truck.
Between, 2004-2007 he was compelled to work as a scrap dealer at the Suame Magazine, a trotro mate on the Ejisu-Kumasi-Kejetia route to raise money for his university education.
In 2016, he benefited from several research grants. In 2017, he was awarded an 18-month fellowship with the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management.
Few months before he graduated, he was awarded, multiple research fellowships. Musah is a member of the American Society of Public Administration
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