The second launch of the Best Journalist of the Year 1997 and former columnist of the Daily Graphic Newspaper, Mr George Sydney Abugri's autobiography "The Newsmonger's Apprentice; The Life and Adventures of a Ghanaian Journalist", has taken place at the Corpus Christi Parish in Sakumono estates, Tema.
Launching the book, Mrs Paulina Estella-Tambro, a former Parish Pastoral Council Chair said Mr Abugri is one of Ghana's best writers, capturing stories from the circumstances surrounding his birth to switching from teaching to writing in the most humorous way.
Mr Abugri, who has been a parishioner of the church for almost two decades, designed the Parish Bulletin which is the church's news bulletin and also served on various committees responsible for the planning of the church's activities.
Mrs Tambro urged parishioners to support the auction since proceeds from the book will be donated to the St. Vincent de Paul society in the Parish to cater for the sick, poor and less privileged in society as well as help in publishing three of Mr Abugri's manuscripts: Sample Features For Journalism, Letter to Jomo Volume 2 and Hail Mary On The Beach (a collection of poems).
Chapters in the book include "A Dying Mother And Her Baby, A Monster Welcomes Me To School", “Meeting President Rawlings” and “A Tip From Miss Brainbridge".
Presiding Member for Tema West Municipal Authority, Mr Kwesi Poku Bosompeng bought the first copy for a GH1000,00. Mr Bosompeng encouraged parishioners to always sow seeds because they come with many blessings. He also said that the future of Ghana is in the hands of Christians and not politicians hence the need for intensive prayers especially as the election year approaches.
Mr Bosompeng was in the Parish to call on the Parish Priest, Rev Father Emmanuel Gosu and also make a donation to single breast feeding mothers in the church.
It will be recalled that in November 2018, the first launch of the Newsmonger's Apprentice was held at the International Press Center by the President of the Ghana Journalists Association Mr Roland Affail Monney. He lauded Mr Abugri for his contribution to Features Writing and Journalism in Ghana over the past decade. He also congratulated him saying "you have made your mark and I believe your mark will remain and extol your name".
Mr George Sydney Abugri is a prolific, multi-award winning, Ghanaian newspaper journalist. He trained as a science and mathematics teacher, but migrated to journalism after a decade of teaching.
He began his career in journalism with “The Punch” weekly and moved to Ghana’s largest daily newspaper, the Daily Graphic in 1982. He has since worked with the Daily Graphic as a reporter, regional correspondent, feature writer, features editor, editorial writer and weekly columnist.
Mr Abugri has written more than 1,000 humorous and satirical essays under the “Friday File” and “Letter to Jomo”, weekly columns in the Daily Graphic since 1993. He has also written many articles and book reviews for the West Africa magazine. He is the author of “Soul Blast”, a collection of poems and a 327-page collection of some of his work, published under the title of his weekly column, Letter to Jomo.”