By Anny OSABUTEY
As a teenager growing up, I once lived in Tema Newtown for many years. Awudun, near the lighthouse, not far from the naval base, was and still is a popular settlement for different tribes across the country: Dangmes, Ewes, Efutus, Asantes, Fantes and more.
Most residents worked either at the fishing harbour, like my now deceased mother – trading in fish and kenkey, or cab drivers like my friend Nanabanyin’s dad. We also had market women who traded in foodstuffs like Aunty Esi from Winneba who would cook a big meal for the kids in the compound to come and eat.
We also had Awonye Maku, a fishmonger whose husband Wofa Asamoah – a skilled carpenter and a choir member in the Methodist Church – offered free apprenticeship to most children who could not make it to the mainstream school.
Back then, we had morning and after sessions in public schools, and those who had afternoon sessions also took advantage to study under his feet. It was a happy place to be, and we had some tough love from him. Originally from Krachi in the now Oti Region, he came to Tema Newtown in search of work at the harbour but ended up falling in love and learning a trade which would eventually benefit most of us from the community. An Accra Hearts of Oak supporter, you don’t speak to him when his team loses – especially to Olympics; you won’t have it easy.
The community was also an interfaith one and we happily lived side by side one another. Children who misbehaved were disciplined by any adult who happened to be around. The parents would later be informed and another dose applied. In cases where the punishment had not been immediately applied, the deferred punishment is then applied in the middle of the night, when no one was around to rescue you. And you dare not scream; “swallow the tears” was always the refrain. It was a tough environment but also gave us some happy times.
We would spend Fridays at the mosque and then later in the evening, joined the Ewe community for a borborbor dance party. We knew one another and our parents too did. It was, therefore, difficult for one to possess a strange item without questions being asked. Who gave you that thing in your hands, where did you get it from, etc.
If the answers weren’t convincing enough, the item was then confiscated and the parent(s) informed. Unsatisfactory answer meant the item was stolen, and an example had to be set. In those days Valco was functional and around the factory was a huge dumpsite, where people went to scavenge for precious items uncommon to our homes, for a small fee. One eventful day after we lost contact with a kite we were flying, we decided to track it.
Unfortunately, we didn’t find it but ended up at the dumpsite. There were five of us. During a careful walk through the site, we came across an item in a brown paper box – it was water pump (we had zero clue what it was at the time). We took it and shared the carrying. We had barely made it home when words got to the area that we were coming home with a big box.
Unsurprisingly, almost everyone present at the time waited for us around the Assemblies of God church. Feeling excited as conquerers from war and expecting a heroes’ welcome, we had a shock of our lives when we were interrogated about the pump. We narrated how we first got to the site and how the discovery was made.
As if that was not convincing enough, Ataa Nii – a fisherman and a skilled linguist notorious for evoking ghosts stories on children in the community – threatened to charm one of his ghost friends to visit us later that night if we lied. We were, however, vindicated; and looking back, those watchful eyes in the community remain abiding light in how I approach things in life.
Talking about ghosts, Ghana’s public sector remains a fertile ground where ghosts are entertained, thanks to the rewards they bring to those who engage their services. One needs to just grab a copy of the annual Auditor-General’s findings or past records from the sittings of Parliament Select Committee and the hard testosterone of ghosts and how they continue to reward some members of the living would be found plastered all over the place. There are other reports as well.
In the run-up to the 2024 elections, the Fourth Estate – an independent investigative media organisation belonging to the Media Foundation for West Africa – releases snippets of reports about how ghosts managed to find their way into the system of the National Service Scheme, and were dishing out hefty amount of cash to some of their heads. The story was not fully told because a court in Ghana decided to slap an injunction on it.
But following the expiration of that injunction and another one challenged, and with the elections over, the investigative body decided to confront those ghosts and their friends, not with schnapps and eggs but verifiable data about how some flesh and blood at the scheme had employed the services of these ghosts, who were making them millions of Ghana cedis through the back door.
And those ghosts are said to be in their 80s and more, fondling the toes of their great grandchildren in their hamlets away from the presence of those who have benefitted from their unknown works. The report also listed a ghost imported from Kenya, whose services had equally benefitted the living. I don’t know how a Kenyan ghost looks like but the thought of bringing a ghost from Kenya to help generate wealth for some shows how potent the said ghost can be. Who knows if that ghost had been allowed to remain in Kenya, perhaps Kenyans wouldn’t be blaming President John Mahama over allegation that he didn’t vote for Raila Odinga to serve on an African Union panel.
The National Investigations Bureau has been asked to go into the matter and confront the ghosts without fail; expose those who hired their services and make sure they are put before the law courts for them to explain the drastic growth in their lifestyle and food appetite. You cannot go from sipping palmwine in a calabash to ordering a box of russian vodka in a matter of days, considering the salaries and benefits one may be on.
If in the past, Schnapps and eggs could not do the trick in exorcising ghosts from the public sector payroll; maybe a physical force with the law must be applied!
