On April 3, 2025, renowned American rapper Jeffery Atkins, popularly known as Ja Rule, officially commissioned a six-unit classroom block at Nuaso in the Eastern Region, fulfilling a pledge he made during a visit to Ghana a year earlier.
However, as soon as pictures and videos of the project surfaced on social media, some netizens expressed shock at the structure, with some labelling it as ‘substandard’ for someone of his status.
They compared it to a school built by popular Ghanaian-American comedian Michael Blackson in the Central Region, claiming Blackson’s project is more state-of-the-art than Ja Rule’s.
In light of all these, details about the project have emerged, shedding light on the design and reasons behind the classroom unit’s style.
According to a post by Arts and Culture Journalist Kwame Dadzie on Facebook, along with other sources including GhanaWeb, here are some key facts about Ja Rule and the project.
They are as follows;
The classroom block was an initiative by an NGO called ‘Pencils of Promise’.
1.In 2024, when the announcement was first made by the NGO, Ja Rule was a primary donor to the project. Thus, he may not have total control of the design of the unit.
After its construction, the unit was handed over to the management of the Nuaso Anglican School.
2. No additional funding will be required from the NGO or Ja Rule. This is in contrast to the school built by Michael Blackson, which requires continuous funding for maintenance.
3. Regarding the design of the unit, while Michael Blackson’s school was an ultra-modern unit, the classroom unit funded by Ja Rule is a simple unit similar to the typical classroom unit of any government basic school.
According to Kwame Dadzie, this minimalistic design is intentional since government funding may not be adequate to cover an ultra-modern building.
“For a government school, you may be doing a cos 90 job if you put up a facility that will require more resources to maintain. The government will not give money to maintain it. PTA can’t pay. The missions in charge won’t use their church ‘collection’ for that,” he wrote.
See the post below:
ID/EB
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