AIESEC in Ghana Legends- Prof. John Aheto

Professor Aheto has dedicated his career to academia since 1971, holding positions as a Professor, Trainer, and Consultant. With an impressive tenure of 26 years in the United States, he taught at esteemed institutions such as York College, Hunter College, Florida A&M University, Pace University, and Brooklyn College.

Upon his return to Ghana in 1996, Professor Aheto continued his impactful teaching career at various institutions, including UGSB, WUCG, GIMPA, PUC, KNUST, CUC, MUCG, and KUC. His expertise spans a range of fields, making him a sought-after authority in SME and HR Development, Corporate Governance, Strategic Planning, Leadership, and Management. Additionally, he serves as a Consultant for ECOWAS, contributing to regional development.

Beyond his academic and consulting roles, Professor Aheto actively engages in SME development, community issues, and voluntary work.

Popoola Olaniyi (N)- My name is Popoola Olaniyi, MCVP Marketing, AIESEC in Ghana for the 23/24 term and I’m here with?

Professor Aheto(PA) — Professor John Bright Kobla Aheto, AIESEC board member.

N- Please talk about yourself and your AIESEC experience.

PA- Okay. I joined AIESEC University of Ghana in 1967. That was my first year in university. I was introduced to AIESEC by my senior in secondary school. He was the one who brought me the application forms to come to the University of Ghana and I was admitted to the accounting program and law program, and he has always been my mentor when it comes to AIESEC and life since then. He was in Marketing.

N- That’s amazing. So can you tell us more about your AIESEC experience?

PA- My AIESEC experience has been personally developmental, professionally developmental and societally developmental because everything I learnt in AIESEC is about leadership, about management, about what you can do to improve the lot of other people.

PA- After World War II, AIESEC was formed to bring together nations of the world and that is our primary focus, diversity and leadership, and that has kept me going up till now and that is what Dr Addo, Sister Gifty, and all of them are focused on. And that is what we are committed to and what we breathe every day because AIESEC made us. There was no other person. Our parents were not educated they were illiterate so the only thing that developed us that we look up to is the AIESEC experience. That is where we got trained and developed professionally, personally and socially.

N- When you were in AIESEC what positions did you hold?

PA- When I joined the first year I was a secretary. Then the second year I became the president.

N- So after being president at the University of Ghana, what other positions did you take?

PA- I went abroad on a government scholarship and the African American Institute (AAI) scholarship, so when I went abroad the first thing I did was to find out where AIESEC is. My university was a member of AIESEC so right there we went to a convention in Minnesota. The first thing I did when I got to the University there was to find out if they had AIESEC.

N- What was the name of the LC?

PA- New York University.

N- Did you hold any positions there?

PA- of course! My friend, do you think I’m going to be there as just a member?

I don’t hide myself o! I make myself visible. I make myself useful because that is what AIESEC teaches. You need to occupy positions and not just be a member.

N- Now let’s talk about the effect of AIESEC on your personal growth and development.

PA- It developed me as a leader and as a community spokesperson. It developed me to be upright, to have integrity. It developed me to give to the society. It developed me to be inclusive-minded and that’s what we're supposed to do. To bring the world together as one world after the Second World War. So, everything I do, is AIESEC.

N- What are the effects of AIESEC on your professional development?

PA- I have about 16 different certificates I got for skills I learned through AIESEC. There’s one from UBAC (Urban Business Assistant Corporation) by NYU students. We have connections with the banks. We tell them, if you have any clients, send them to us. Well do their business planning and for them. And everything they’re supposed to do on a monthly basis, we would do it. We would act as accountants, business advisers, and the like.

N- The notable projects that you’ve worked on in AIESEC, either while you were a member or after you left. Do you remember any of them?

PA- Oh I remember a lot of them. I can’t forget them. Number one that I’ll talk about is the international conference that we had in 1968 with Nigeria. At that time Ghana was strong, Nigeria was strong but we were developing. So when I came the first thing I did as president was to link with Nigeria and say we are going to have an international conference between the two of us. We did it and it was very successful. After that, my next experience that I can brag about is we sent out the first batch of interns. The first one went to Turkey, the second one went to the US. He went there with Essien. So those were my very first experiences that I can brag about.

N- Let’s talk about AIESEC values and principles. I would like to hear your opinions on them.

PA- I don’t want to call them values, I’d like to call them core values. They are the foundation upon which we stand and the pillar against which we lean. It should be in every AIESECer. I won’t recite them all to you but I’ll tell you what they touch on. Number one: excellence. Talk about meritocracy. Everything we do must be excellent. Outstanding. Nobody should find faults in what we do. Number two is integrity. When nobody else would know, do the right thing always, because God is looking at you and your conscience will judge you.

Third is Sustainability. Whatever you do, ask yourself, can you finish it? Can you sustain it? When you leave, can someone else continue it after you? Not that when you start something and then you leave and it stops working, you’re happy. ‘When I was there’ mentality doesn’t work with AIESECers. ‘Even when I’m no longer there, the program has been expanded, has been sustained’. That is HOW AIESECers talk. Next is participation. We need to get everybody involved. No one should stand back. Then we deal with diversity. Men, women, black, while, minorities, majorities, it does not matter. Diversity is very important to us. And the most important is leadership. Outstanding leadership. Celebrated leadership.

Leadership is everything.

N- Which value is the most important to you?

PA- they’re all interwoven, so you cannot say this is most important and leave out integrity or meritocracy or participation. It is difficult to say it is one as it is all interwoven. They are core values.

And let me point this out, I was the second national president of AIESEC in Ghana. The first president went on to become the minister of state in Ghana. I met him in New York where he was Ghana’s representative to the UN, and my wife was his secretary, so it was like a homecoming.

N- What about your Wife sir?

PA- she’s in the US. We have two kids. Ella and Ben.

N- Are they AIESECers too?
PA- Of course. They went to Harvard. They have to belong to AIESEC. That is what we breathe and eat in the house.

N- Let’s talk about community impact. What are the things you’ve done in AIESEC that you’ve used to touch the community around you?

PA- We had a program together with the National Association for Black Accountants, and there was a very rundown community in a town called Gretna. We the head of the school of business rebuilt that village for them. We did not cut any corners. We got funding from IBM, from various companies and rebuilt the community with amenities as well as winding roads.

The things I do in my village are also driven by AIESEC. They are AIESEC based. We’ve started it that children shouldn’t have to walk 6km to the next village to go to school. Every Christmas, we give packages to the kids. Last year we did 750 packages.

And that is AIESEC. We must give back to the society and make a difference.

N- As a student, how did you balance AIESEC and school? As an adult, how did you balance it with life?

PA- we’ve got 24 hours in a day. As a student, I didn’t have to journey to work, so whenever I woke up, it was either school or AIESEC. The easiest thing is to be a student. You have time to do everything, except fool around and drink Guinness. Your full-time job is school as well as other things that go with school.

When I started working, I worked with 3 outstanding human beings who molded me, shaped me, and taught me everything I need to know. The very first person I should mention is Professor PTK Adam. He was my teacher at the school of Administration at the University of Ghana business school. I think he’s the most outstanding accountant Ghana ever produced, he’s also the godfather of my two children. The other two are Senior Bonny, who helped me get admission into law school and the school of business. Due to a conflict between a law exam and an accounting exam, I had to choose between both of them as in those days you couldn’t defer your admission. I spoke to my uncle and he told me to choose accounting as he said lawyers are liars, but accountants tell the truth. So I chose accounting.

Law was still in my blood, and I went on to get my law degree at the age of 60 after I retired.

N- Wow! That’s impressive!

PA- I started it, so I just wanted to complete it.

N- We need to have more of these interviews.

PA- There’s a lot of stories that people can tell, from people who have experienced us. People who were our national partners. They experienced us, they know who we are when we go for internships they give it to us because they know who we are. That thing has died now, and we need to go back to raising partnerships and internships.

N- We are actively working on that.

PA- I’m glad. Not holiday visits. Professional internships. We are not a tour company. We are a professional organization.

N- You’ve had a very wholesome experience. I wish everybody’s AIESEC experience could be like yours.

PA- Oh mine is full. Full. Full.

N- What advice would you give to current members of AIESEC?

PA- Number one: integrity is lacking. Number two: Volunteerism is lacking. Number three: Meritocracy is lacking. Number four: Some of them are becoming very dubious characters. I am so ashamed to say that. Dubious characters, and we need to get rid of them. We need to make humanity and society our focus. When I came back, I worked at the University of Ghana they didn’t pay me for 6 months, so it didn’t matter to me. I went to KNUST as the first chair of banking for nearly a year they didn’t pay me it didn’t matter to me. I’m here to serve humanity and society. My focus is on how I can make a difference to the student, just like PKT Adam did to us. Mentoring. It’s very important.

Professionally, personally, community wise, I am AIESEC. I reflect AIESEC.

N- Please give your closing remarks.

PA- We need to go back to the foundation concepts of AIESEC. What we were supposed to do to bring about diversity, peace, and unity to the world as leaders. We are youth leaders. We are an institute of leadership. Global youth leadership in an integrated world where there is no stress, no friction, just love for one another. And we must have integrity. Integrity is above all. Accountability. Above all, reaching out and helping other people. Making a difference. Being visible. Getting ready. Like the Boys Scouts say, always prepared. And were too concerned about money. Society is important. Make a difference in the society. They’ll remember you. You’ll serve as a role model to them, and counsel the little ones.

N- Thank you very much, sir. That’s all the questions we have for you now. We’ll be back if we have more as I realise we have a lot to learn from you.

PA- Anytime. Anytime.