African Engineers: Dr. RP Baffour
Dr. RP Baffour is famous in Ghana as the first Ghanaian to be appointed Director and then Vice-Chancellor of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi. A close friend of Kwame Nkrumah, the first prime minister and president of Ghana, Dr. Baffour lost his job in 1967 when the military government of the time eliminated the last vestiges of the Nkrumah regime. The author did not arrive in Ghana until February 1971, so he feels fortunate to have met, and even come to know, the great pioneering engineer who left an indelible mark on Ghana’s leading engineering school.
Founded in 1952 by the merger of several colleges, on land donated by the Asantehene (King of Ashanti) Prempeh II, the institution that would become KNUST was guided in its infancy by two distinguished British scholars: Dr. JP Andrews (1952 – 54) and Dr WE Duncanson (1954 – 1960). Dr. RP Baffour was appointed director in 1960, the year Kwame Nkrumah transformed Ghana into a republic with himself as president. Two years later, Dr. Baffour was appointed the fledgling university’s first vice-chancellor. He immediately set out to transform 18 square kilometers of second growth into one of the most beautiful university campuses in the world.
In the task he set himself, RP Baffour’s friendship with the President was of great help. The stories of those eventful years have become apocryphal. Faculty buildings, student residences, a large assembly hall and an impressive library building rose from the red lateritic soil and were surrounded by extensive gardens adorned with flowering shrubs and trees. Shaded, tree-lined avenues linked academic areas with administrative, community, and commercial centers and housing developments.
When the time came when the president got tired of such huge expenses, it is said that the vice chancellor would order the foundation of the next great structure to be dug and invite his friend to come and see the progress and release funds for the construction of the building. . finished. How Dr. Baffour persuaded Nkrumah to fund an Olympic swimming pool to attract distinguished foreign scholars to the university is a secret that may never be revealed.
Dr. RP Baffour who stayed behind in Kumasi has a reputation as a practical engineer. He recounted how, when he was driving from Kumasi to Accra, he came across a state transport bus that he had broken down on. He stopped his car and fixed the problem with the bus before resuming his journey. On another trip to Accra, he decided to go by train and convinced the driver to let him ride the locomotive and take over the controls. Even if these tales have been embellished by retelling, it is clear that the first vice chancellor provided a role model for the kind of engineer his country needed and his university sought to train.
For some years after Dr. Baffour’s departure, and with the former president ousted and in disgrace, the University of Kumasi dropped ‘Kwame Nkrumah’ from its name. However, with the passage of time, the old feelings faded and famous names were restored. RP Baffour was called to Kumasi to receive an honorary Doctorate of Science from the university he once headed. Some time after the ceremony, the author found the great man alone, coming down the steps of the Great Hall, his magnificent robe still on his bowed shoulders. He seemed very shaken and was possibly delaying his departure until he had collected himself. Ever the gentleman, he responded to words of congratulations and with tears streaming down his cheeks added: ‘To think this could happen to me!’
The last time the author met with Dr. Baffour was in Accra at the University Guest House. This time he spoke at length about his latest project. He wanted to build a plant on the coast near his hometown of Cape Coast to electrolyze seawater and produce chlorine and sodium hydroxide. This, in his opinion, could provide the basis for a chemical and plastics industry. The old man is gone and the plant has yet to be built, but when it finally becomes a reality, it would be appropriate for it to be named after him.