Sir Sam Jonah’s blueprint: 10 keys to transform young people into nation builders – Nsemkeka

Sir Sam Jonah’s blueprint: 10 keys to transform young people into nation builders – Nsemkeka

Several key figures have proposed various ways to place Ghana on the path of development, with the latest to add his voice being elder statesman and business luminary Sir Sam Jonah.

The experienced son of Ghana, who carried the Ashanti Goldfields Company to greater heights, has offered some nuggets to turn the tide for Ghana.

During a commencement address at Academic City University on Saturday, June 7, 2025, the Chancellor for the University of Cape Coast (UCC) outlined a powerful 10-point blueprint for young graduates to transition from ambitious individuals into impactful nation builders.

His guidance, rooted in personal experience and global observation, emphasised ethical leadership, unwavering purpose, and strategic engagement over mere accumulation of wealth or titles.

READ ALSO: Build relationships that matter – Sir Sam Jonah advises Ghanaian youth

Here are Sir Sam Jonah’s 10 keys to transform young people into nation builders:

1. Build Character for Integrity

When I was invited to speak on the theme “Future-Ready Leadership for Nation Building”, I asked myself: What does the future need most from our leaders?

My answer, in one word, is Character.

Not degrees — you already have those but without character, they are mere documents from an educational institution. Not connections — they help but without character you will corrupt or be corrupted by them.
Not money — it is reward for honest mental and physical investment but without character it will make you selfish, greedy, plunderous and arrogant.

The most enduring trait of any true leader is character. Character is the sum of your values and ethics that guide your decisions and actions.

The future will test your integrity. You will face the temptation to compromise — to cut corners, to bend truth, to lie through gritted teeth; to serve self rather than the country.

I say this with all the weight of experience of my social and corporate journey: Character is the currency that never loses its value. When you are known for honesty, for fairness, for keeping your word — people will follow you, trust you, and invest in you. Therefore,

Let integrity be your compass.
Let compassion be your instinct.
Let discipline be your shield.

Africa does not need more people with power, money or fame. It needs more people with character.

2. Discover and focus on your purpose

When I began my own journey, it wasn’t glamorous at all. I was a labourer in the Obuasi mines. But even then, I knew one thing: I wanted to matter. I wanted to make a difference.

That early experience taught me something invaluable — that leadership is not a position. It is a disposition. A way of thinking, acting, and serving with clarity and conviction; that every choice I made kept me on track for my purpose or drew me away from it.

Discovering my purpose kept me motivated, positive-minded and engaged, focusing on my purpose made me driven and more productive .

I wasn’t just working to make a living; I was serving to uplift and enrich lives.

I bore the weight of responsibility of all my African brothers and sisters in a European-owned and European managed company. As the only African to rise to Senior Management, I felt the need to prove in a hostile environment that the African is capable of leading any group of people in any enterprise and succeeding. Discovering and focusing on my purpose helped me eliminate the needless. All my tasks and efforts had clarity. They fit in with the purpose; and if they did not, they were replaced by more constructive endeavours.

All my tasks and efforts had clarity. They fitted in with the purpose; and if they did not, they were replaced by more constructive endeavours.

I will urge you to read Suzy Welch’s powerful book, ‘ Becoming You.’ She poses the very important question which, I believe, should be the compass for your generation. ’What’s your area of destiny?’ That intersection of your gifts, your values, and what your community, your country, and your continent need from you. What is your purpose?

Don’t chase titles. Titles can be given and taken. But purpose — that is yours alone.

Let every decision, every job, every risk you take be anchored in that purpose because that is what will give your leadership meaning. Take time to reflect. It is wise to think twice. Test your passions. You don’t know what you are capable of till you put your mind, heart and hands to it.

And when you discover your purpose, give it your all. It will fuel your perseverance, sharpen your priorities, and give your service and leadership meaning.

3. Determine your values, and uphold them

Every person determined to serve and lead needs a compass that directs them. This compass is a set of non-negotiable values.

Integrity is key. Without truthfulness and transparency, no man nor woman worth their salt will consider you a valued colleague, let alone a leader. They may suffer you diligently because of some temporary authority bestowed upon you but make no mistake; they will not respect nor follow you.

Those who lead must be trustworthy. To be a future-ready leader, you must demonstrate honesty, empathy and accountability.

Those you lead must find in you a model of respect and reliability, fairness and consistency. Your team, be it large or small, must trust and see you take ownership of your decisions and actions.

Permit me to take you momentarily to sea for a picturesque demonstration of the future-ready leader. It is the tradition that Captains are the last to leave a sinking ship. This practice is rooted in a complex convergence of statutory duties, established maritime protocols, and a profound sense of personal integrity.
As soon as you become a leader, you are the captain. You are bound by both statutory and ethical imperatives to prioritize the safety and well-being of all passengers and crew, and you are expected to adhere to your duty of care by remaining with the vessel until all individuals have been successfully evacuated.

Abandoning a ship in distress carries legal consequences, including potential prosecution for failing to fulfill your duty. Additionally, the captain’s presence on board is crucial for coordinating rescue efforts and safeguarding the ship’s salvage rights. The future-ready leader does not condone dereliction of duty nor does he or she abandon their team. No excuses nor chickening out when the storms come and cables strain. You stay focused, resilient, imaginative, innovative, and lead your team to safety and prosperity. What are your values? Determine what they truly are, and uphold them.

4. Build Relationships That Matter

Let me now speak to something too often underestimated: the power of relationships.

Wherever you go, be intentional about making a good impression and building good relationships. Take no fellowship nor meeting for granted.

You are sitting in a room full of possibility — not just because of your talents, but because of the people around you.

Some of the most transformative companies of our time — Facebook, Microsoft, Google, YouTube, AirBnB and more have been founded by college friends.

• Mark Zuckerberg started Facebook with college friends at Harvard.

• Bill Gates and Paul Allen built Microsoft as childhood friends who shared a love for computing.

• Larry Page and Sergey Brin launched Google from a research project at Stanford.

The lesson is simple: Never underestimate the people around you.
Your classmate today can be your co-founder tomorrow.
Your roommate can be your investor.
Your study partners can offer you a seat at their boardroom table in the near future.

Be intentional about networking. Build real relationships — not just transactional ones. Share your ideas. Collaborate. Give more than you take. Be the kind of person others want to build with. Never underestimate the power of peer-to-peer support.

And remember: It’s not just what you know. It’s also who you grow with.

As Writer and Public Speaker Porter Galle puts it succinctly, “Your network is your net worth”.

5. Serve Before You Lead

The world is full of people seeking money, power and fame. Far fewer are keen to offer service yet the greatest leadership comes from those who first serve with humility.

Let me be direct — I would not have become the President of AngloGold Ashanti had I not first learned to listen, to empathise, and to understand the challenges of others. My years as a miner taught me far more about human nature than any executive seminar ever could.

If you wish to lead people, you must understand them. If you wish to transform lives, you must connect with them.

Serve as followers, fellows before you become Leaders.

Leadership is not just about being in front.
It’s about being useful — wherever you are.
We don’t talk enough about the virtues of:


• Following with Discipline: When you find the brilliant, visionary and selfless leaders, don’t be shy or arrogant to follow them. There is much to be learnt for your own development from such gifted people; and much to be achieved with them for national prosperity. Each of you is talented in specific ways, but you all cannot lead in every field of endeavour. Some must follow to contribute your quota.


• Fellowship with Collaborators: Share ideas with others. Don’t shrink nor be silent about your ideas, no matter how small. Discuss them with professional counterparts and mentors. Accept criticism; Do this in good cheer to find the most prudent way forward to create value and solutions for humanity. 


• Serve before leading: Service builds a strong foundation for leadership. It is amazing how serving before leading transforms the mindset for servant-leadership. Imagine a young me; a labourer in the deep of the mines toiling, learning, building relationships and trust before becoming the leader of Ashanti Goldfields. Imagine the moments when your very life depended on the action of a team member. Imagine the things you contemplate before making decisions on people and their families, equipment, regulations and remuneration when you now lead. Service before leadership builds empathy and understanding for those you serve and work with. It helps you develop humility and self-awareness; provides valuable experience and insights, and fosters credibility and trust.

Let me be clear: The best leaders I have known were first excellent followers.
They understood structure.
They respected process.
They were humble enough to grow from criticism.
They were caring enough to share their ideas and insights.


So be ready to:


• Follow with discipline


• Collaborate with empathy, and
lead with sacrifice

• Be teachable. Follow others who inspire you — not blindly, but attentively.

• Embrace collaboration. You will go farther together than alone.

• Serve with your hands before you command with your voice.

 6.  Embrace both Failure and Success with Humility

There’s something we don’t talk about enough: The F word: Failure.

But let me assure you — failure is part of the journey. Every leader, visionary or star you admire has stumbled. Every company you see thriving has had challenges; even moments of near-collapse.

Failure is not the opposite of success. It is often the path to it.

When you do succeed — as many of you surely will — wear your success lightly.

Do not become arrogant. Do not look down on others who may have worked even harder than you. Never let success disconnect you from others. Stay grounded. Stay connected. As you rise in stature, never forget your values that got you there. Never let success outgrow your humility.

What matters is not whether you fall — but whether you pick yourself up, dust yourself down Rise again; this time with insight; with resilience; with humility

Am reminded of a quote attributed to Michael Jordan, the famous basketball player, “ i have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed,” and as Winston  Churchill also said, “ success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts.”

When you do succeed — as many of you surely will — wear your success lightly.

Do not become arrogant. Do not look down on others who may have worked even harder than you. Never let success disconnect you from others. Stay grounded. Stay connected. As you rise in stature, never forget your values that got you there. Never let success outgrow your humility.

7. Be Adaptable — Never Stop Learning

We live in a fast-moving, unpredictable world. The jobs of tomorrow do not yet exist, and the tools of today may be obsolete in a decade.

To thrive, you must embody adaptability — the capacity to pivot, to evolve, to begin again without fear.

And for this, I turn to the wisdom of our ancestors encapsulated in the Adinkra symbol Denkyem – the crocodile.

The crocodile lives in water, yet it breathes air. It adapts to its environment with grace and resilience. It teaches us that strength is not rigidity — it is flexibility without losing essence.

So too must you:

• Learn new skills.

• Reinvent yourself when and where necessary.

• Stay curious, stay flexible, stay open.

Never despise new and humble beginnings. Stories abound of professionals who were in a particular sector yet pivoted to learn and start afresh in another. 

You may change industries. You may switch careers. You may fall short at something you thought was your dream.

That is not failure. That is experience. That is learning. That is growth.

Let books be your companions. Let learning be your lifestyle. Let curiosity be your currency, Let wisdom and knowledge be your guide.  The discipline of learning is humbling and in the words of the French Philosopher Voltaire,  “The more I read; the more I acquire, the more certain I am that I know nothing.”Never stop learning because the day you stop learning is the day you stop leading.

8. The Call of This Generation: Youth Leadership Now

The winds of change are blowing. All around the world, young people are leading:

• Gabriel Boric became President of Chile at 35.

• Sanna Marin led Finland at 34.

• Emmanuel Macron begun leading France at 39.

And here in Ghana, I must commend our President His Excellency John Dramani Mahama who became Vice President at 49, and President at 51.

Today, what is even more remarkable about President Mahama’s leadership is his empowerment of young Ghanaians.

His appointment of young professionals to key roles — in ministries, departments and agencies.
He has shown his trust in youth leadership.
He has given youthful Ghanaian talent the platform to perform and shine.
He has demonstrated his belief in their ability to lead.

But hear me, and hear me well:

With trust comes responsibility.

Public service is an honour and privilege.

I entreat every person bestowed with this honour and privilege to serve with integrity ,humility and compassion.

Emulate the endearing humility of President Mahama .

Let every action you take in public office be one that you and your children can look on with honour and pride long after your service.

Let everyone appointed into Ghana’s public service show and prove to be a person of integrity and competence, committed to national development, with a strong aversion to corruption and greed.

In the face of the numerous reports and ongoing investigations of endemic corruption and criminality over recent years, the Code of Conduct and Ethics for all political appointees launched by President Mahama is a refreshing initiative worthy of admiration and support.                      

That he ensured this was done within 120 days of taking office sends a positive signal to Ghanaians that all who are offered positions of authority must serve with integrity, humility and accountability.

And so to those who have been — and will be — given these opportunities:
Do not betray the trust reposed in you.

Do not become what you once vowed to change.

Do not confuse privilege with purpose.

Because the truth is — and I say this with pain —The state of our nation today demands better.

We are dealing with:

• Endemic corruption        

• Greed and selfishness

• Lack of integrity               

• Shallow patriotism

These are the failings of generations before you: the shortfalls of my generation.

And let me be direct — you have no excuse to repeat them.

You are better educated.     Better exposed.
Better resourced.                  So when you’re called to serve — as you will be, 
Bring:

• Principle, not opportunism

• Sacrifice, not entitlement

• Accountability, not arrogance

• Vision, not vengeance

Let your generation reclaim, protect and project Africa’s  dignity — not with slogans, but with competent and selfless service.

The baton is in your hands now. It is your turn to do better.

You are not just the future — you are the present. And our beloved country is counting on you.

9. The STEM Mandate — The Engine of National Transformation

You graduate today from a university with a bold and unapologetic focus on STEM and entrepreneurship. And rightly so.

Because let’s face it — no country has built prosperity in the modern world without science, technology, engineering, and mathematics at its core.

Nations that have made transformative leaps have done so by placing STEM at the centre of national policy — not at the periphery.

            •          China, now the world’s second-largest economy, produces over 4 million STEM graduates each year.
But beyond the numbers is a deliberate philosophy: almost every modern Chinese leader has been trained in STEM. Engineers, technocrats, scientists — leaders trained to think systematically, solve problems pragmatically, and build solutions with scale and speed.

            •          In India, a country that once struggled under colonial poverty, nearly 3 million students graduate in STEM fields every year. Their success in global IT services, pharmaceuticals, and space science is not an accident — it is the result of sustained national strategy.

            •          In the United States, over half of international students are in STEM fields. Silicon Valley didn’t appear out of thin air — it was built on the back of government investment in research, a culture that celebrates innovation, and educational policies that prioritize the future.

            •          • Singapore, at independence, was a poor fishing port with no natural resources. Today, it is one of the richest countries per capita, largely due to its long-standing investment in STEM education. From the 1970s, it channelled students into science and engineering tracks, created institutions like NUS and NTU with global reputations, and became a hub for biotech and electronics.

            •          • Israel, lacking natural resources, invested early in STEM and now leads the world in tech startups per capita, with its universities producing large numbers of engineers and computer scientists.

            •          By contrast, sub-Saharan Africa produces less than 10% of our graduates in STEM, despite having the youngest and fastest-growing population.

These countries understand a basic truth:

“The future is not imagined — it is engineered.”

And that engineering begins in the classroom.

Now, let us reflect on our own story in Ghana.

At the dawn of independence, President Kwame Nkrumah, with his unmatched foresight, made STEM education a national priority.
He did not merely encourage students to pursue the sciences — he incentivized them.

            •          Students who studied science and engineering were given financial support.

            •          Graduates in these fields were rewarded with higher salariesin public service.

            •          There was prestige attached to technical competence — and STEM was seen not just as an academic pursuit, but as a patriotic duty to help build a modern Africa

That is leadership. That is vision. That is what it means to build a nation deliberately.

Sadly, over time, that national prioritization waned.

Today, the focus must return. Not just through slogans, but through deliberate action:

            •          Let’s provide financial incentives and scholarships for STEM students.

            •          Let’s build world-class laboratories in every region.

            •          Let’s reward teachers of STEM with career pathways and public respect.

            •          And let’s make STEM graduates central to national development planning — not afterthoughts.

Don’t get me wrong, we need all professions and vocations to play their part in nation-building.  That said, Let me make the point that at this point in our development, we need to prioritise STEM subjects. These words of former Governor Richard Lamm who was himself an Attorney ring so true today: “All we know about the new economic world tells us that nations which train engineers will prevail over those which train lawyers. No nation has ever sued its way to greatness.”

 A nation’s greatness is achieved through technological innovation and expertise, particularly in the field of engineering. 

Let us be that nation.

10, Final Reflections: Future-ready leadership: Service, not position

Dear Class of 2025, this is your moment — and your mission.

In whatever position you find yourself, be minded to serve with purpose, Whether in followership, fellowship or leadership, play your role with humility and integrity. You will find, sometimes, that the ones who actually lead, do not carry a position nor title. Leaders help the team win. And leaders eat last.

Now go forth and:

• Build companies with purpose.

• Build institutions with integrity.

• Build communities with compassion.

• Build networks with character

• Build a continent worthy of your dreams.

And as you rise, remember the street wisdom of our people:
”Avoid outside gentility and home cry.”
Don’t lose yourself trying to impress others. Stay authentic. Stay rooted.

Africa needs your courage, competence and commitment. The world awaits your boldness and brilliance.

Live an honest life. Dream with audacity.
Serve with humility. Lead with accountability.

And may Ghana be proud of you.

 Class of 2025 — I believe in you.

I salute your courage and commitment.
I honour your purpose and journey.

Now go forward — not just to succeed, but to matter.

Thank you.