Features
The Prophet part 9
Antubam followed her. She indicated for him to sit down. She was about to call Mary when she emerged from the hall, followed by Suzzie.
“It’s good you are both here,” she said. “There’s something I need to tell all three of you. Mr Antubam, I will not waste time on your so-called interest in me, because you and I are two very different people with absolutely nothing in common. The main point I want to make now is that your so-called church is nothing but a fraud with which you are deceiving people who may be ignorant today, but are still precious in God’s sight.
Apart from deceiving them and enriching yourself, you are using God’s name to commit fraud. Today you may be enjoying money, food, alcohol and women, but you will certainly pay a high price for it, unless of course you are willing to repent now. My concern is for my two sisters.
I am demanding that they cut all links with you, now. No visits to your home or church, and no telephone calls. I have told them to give you back every penny you have given them. I am prepared to find money to pay whatever they owe you. That is all I have to say.”
Antubam rose, furious, and pointed his finger at her.
“Let me warn you, Betty. Yes, I am interested in you, and I am ready to take care of all your needs, even to rent a house and buy a car for you. But I will not allow you to insult me. You better withdraw those words you have used against me now, or I will deal with you very soon.”
“Don’t make me laugh, Antubam. You? Deal with me? Why don’t you deal with me now? You have to wait till you go to the shrine and beg the fetish priest to deal with me? See how miserable you are? I dare you! Leave my house now, and go to that miserable fetish priest and get him to rain down all his powers on me!”
“You will see!” Antubam declared as he moved towards his car. He hesitated for a moment to see if Mary and Suzzie would walk him to the car, but noticing that they were firmly glued to their seats he got in the car and drove home.
He got out of the car and went straight to the drinks cupboard, poured himself a full glass of whisky and gulped down half of it. He sat down and called his batman, Kofi Takyi.
“Which two women did you call today?”
“Aggie, one of the new members is in. She is having supper in the guest room. Priscilla will be coming around 9pm.”
“Good work, Kofi. Now, get me my food.” After wolfing down the fufu and light soup, he gulped down the other half of the whisky and stretched out on the sofa and began a smooth, rhythmic snore. Priscilla entered, walked over and, shaking her head, strolled to the bedroom.
Betty came from the shower to find the two friends still glued to their seats.
“Well? Aren’t you two going to say anything?”
“I have something to say,” Mary said. “I don’t understand you, Betty. You want us to cut all links with Antubam, and to refund all the money he has given us. Now, when we do that, do we come back here tomorrow, sit and stare at the sky and hope and pray that our holy sister (Betty) will bring us manna to eat?”
“Such a stupid statement must not come from you, Mary. What happened to your WASSCE qualifications and your intelligence? Here’s some free advice. Get on the internet. Submit applications for university admission. I am prepared to pay for the two of you. And from tomorrow, start studying the Bible seriously, with the intention of doing what it says. I assure you, there are solutions in the Bible for every problem you face today, and will face tomorrow. All you need, Mary, is to use your God-given intelligence. How could you stoop so low as to take money from a common thief and drunkard like Antubam?”
Suzzie rose quietly and held Betty’s hand. “Do you know, Betty? Until a few minutes ago I did not know that you cared so much about me that you consider me your sister. I promise you. We will do as you say. Mary, we will go and collect the rent money, add it to all the money we have taken, and pay it into the account. From tomorrow, Betty, Mary and I will follow you wherever you go’. With tears streaming down her cheeks she walked away.”
Antubam got up with a start. He checked the time on his phone. It was midnight. He sat up, and was moving towards the bedroom when he heard the voices.
“Is anything the matter?” he said. “You have never come here at this time. I thought you only come at dawn.”
“We are always here. We only contact you when we have to. We have to warn you. That girl is trouble. If you don’t leave her alone there will be problems.”
“I don’t understand. I can’t leave her alone. I must sleep with her as many times as possible, conquer her. Why can’t you get her for me?”
“She is firmly buried in the book. You are sleeping with two women every night, and there are many more available in the church. Leave that girl alone?”
“Do you fear her? What book is that? I don’t know why…..” before he could finish the sentence several flashes of pain like a horsewhip on fire cut across his back, and he yelled, bringing Priscilla and Aggie from their rooms.
“What is it, Antubam?” Priscilla asked.
“Er…er. I saw a revelation about a church member who is in some trouble. I need to pray for her. Please go back to the rooms. I will join you soon.” Aggie went to the room, but Priscilla lingered.
“Antubam, why don’t you tell me what the problem is so that I can help you? It appears you have just received some spiritual lashes. Are you being punished for something you have done?”
“Perhaps your husband is punishing me for sleeping with you.”
“Do you dare insult me, Antubam. You will certainly regret speaking to me like this?”
“You have a loud mouth, but your only abilities in life, Priscilla, are sex and extorting money. I will come and sleep with you shortly, and give you money in the morning. Now leave!” She slipped out quietly, and the voices resumed.
“Next time you talk like that you will receive a much bigger punishment. We are only trying to protect you. You are planning to go to the shrine tomorrow morning to invoke curses on the girl. Be careful. Our master may grant your wish if you press him, but you may regret it.”
“I am sorry if I sound ungrateful, but I just can’t resist that girl. She is so beautiful and sexy. Moreover she has insulted me, and I must punish her.”
“Remember we warned you. You are already in danger. One of your competitors is asking questions about you, and thinking about the possibility of dealing with you. Jehoshaphat Agyiri. Everyone calls him Gidigidi.”
“I have heard of him. But what have I done?”
“He belongs to us. We work for him. He wants to check if you will threaten him. He can’t do you any harm as long as you use the stick. But your main problem will come from the girl.”
“Thank you for your help. As for the girl, please talk to Nana Broni for me. I am ready to pay anything for the pleasure of catching that girl in my bed and disciplining her.”
“Antubam,” Priscilla started, “are you going to apologise for the way you spoke to me? And are you going to apologise for bringing another woman here even though I am here with you?”
“Are you going to collect money from me tomorrow morning, Priscilla?”
“Get into bed, you idiot. I wonder why those women in the church cannot see you for the cheap fraudster you really are.”
Antubam took off at dawn, and arrived at the shrine before five.
“You are welcome, Antubam. We know, yet we still ask, as the saying goes. What brings you here?”
“You already know, Okomfo. I must have the girl at all costs. I am prepared to pay anything.”
“I have already consulted Nana Ama Kokoben. I have prepared a fire for her. She will be here any minute, with her mirrors. What you are asking is beyond me, but she is willing to help you. Ah, here she is.”
The small woman sat on a stool next to Okomfo, and stared into Antubam’s eyes for several minutes.
“I will try to help you, but the effort will come from you.” They moved over to the fire, and she placed the two mirrors over the fire.”
“Look! You will see the girl. Take this needle. When she appears in the mirror, pierce her eyes with the needle. By the time you get back to Tafo she will be at your house. From today, she will follow you just as a dog follows its master.”
By Ekow de Heer
Features
The Cop, press and lost fingers
The job of a policeman, whether he is short or tall, is not a cheap one. He is supposed to keep the peace, protect society and monitor the activities of local magicians and money doublers who are specialists in making civil servants lose their pay within seconds.
By far the most difficult job of the policeman is when he is expected to arrest a murderer who is not only armed but also has a record of appearing and disappearing at will. Even if the tough cop is in the company of other policemen all armed to the teeth, his stomach will turn to water when the criminal suddenly appears.
He is terrified not because the criminal is a better marksman, but because nobody dies twice. The problem also is that a criminal might be prepared to die in a bid to shoot his way to freedom. But is the police-man prepared to risk death in the course of duty when he has a family to rear.
If he had just acquired a new girlfriend with whom he is enjoying life, should he not run away with his tail between his legs and tell his boss that the criminal is uncatchable?
Before some policemen go on patrol duties, they actually pray solemnly. “God send me into the wilderness and bring me back safely with my nose intact because I’m worth more than a common rat. I also do not want to die like a stray dog. If a bullet is targeted at my forehead, Holy Spirit please let it go over the bar, because six children is not a small palaver. If I die, who will look after them? Lord keep me safe day by day. Amen!”
The Sikaman policeman’s job is a risky one because he is not properly equipped with even a trained dog to help track down criminals easily. So he has to use his own nose judiciously in sniffing out suspects while making sure a bullet doesn’t catch him square on the jaw.
My friend Sir Kofi Owuo, a.k.a. Death-By-Poverty was telling me journalists are in an even riskier profession. Apparently, he had been reading about the palaver of journalists in places like Algeria and Columbia. Algeria, even women journalists are not spared assassin’s bullet. You’d see them lying in front of their homes with their heads full of bullet holes.
In Columbia, no journalist is safe. When a journalist is leaving home, he has to tell his wife. “Darling, when I don’t come back by 7 p.m. check the mortuary
The drug trade in Columbia has made journalism a profession not worth practising. If you write on cocaine and the harm it is inflicting on society, you’ll certainly receive a phone call.
“Hello, Mr Journalist, your article yesterday was great. Congratulations! We never knew you were such brilliant writer, championing the cause of society. Again we say congrats! But you know something, by your article, you want to take the bread out of my and that of my family. You don’t want us to beak. We are aggrieved beyond measure”
“Oh, I was just… “You’d try to say something
“You don’t have to explain. The harm has already been done by your award-winning masterpiece. We have an appointment with you. You’ll hear from us.
Rest In Peace!” After such a phone call, you just have to pray to your soul, sing a hymn or two and get prepared fort appointment with death. For, death will surely come
I think pressmen in Sikaman would also have start informing their families appropriately before leaving for work now. “If I don’t come back early, I’m probably at the Ear, Nose and Throat Department of Korle- Bu checking a leakage in my left ear due to a gendarme slap from an AMA official. If you don’t see me there, track me down to the emergency ward. If you see a newly-made cripple, I’m the one”
What about referees? These days they are guarded during football matches so that the risk they bear in terms of lost teeth is minimal. Formerly, it used to be a job full of woes and tribulations.
You were expected to oversee a match in such way that would favour a particular team. If that is not done, you’ll get back home and your wife will not recognise you. She’ll mistake you for Frank Bruno who had just lost a bout. When she finally recognises you, she’ll fix some hot water to massage your poor face.
I hear that these days, apart from the protection referees receive, some are well-armed with Damfo Dzai, a kind of jack-knife that can carve a rowdy supporters face in several designs.
My Press Secretary and part-time bodyguard Devine Ankamah, was telling me if he happens to be a referee, he’d surely carry a Kalashnikov AK 47 rifle with him, complete with loaded magazine, before officiating matches. According to him, that is the only way to do the job without fear or favour. Anyone dares will lose his jaw.
Anyway, risky jobs require good remuneration. As Kwame Korkorti once said, risky jobs require risky salary. A policeman would require a good pay so that when a criminal targets his left ear it would be worth the ‘amputation’. Same for journalists and cameramen.
But go round private workplaces and factories and you’d see really risky occupations where workers are receiving salaries they can’t see with the naked eye.
In fact, in some private workplaces, environmental safety is completely absent. Workers breathe in fumes, poisonous gases and risk lung and respiratory problems. Their employers do nothing about protecting them against these hazards. Check out their payer.
In other places, workers have their fingers chopped off on the job, some losing as many as four fingers in stretch. The compensation they get can best be described as “wicked”. Their employers live big, chop big, ride big but are not willing to pay more than ¢120,000 for lost fingers.
Actually the more fingers you lose, the more money you get. So if you intend losing your fingers on the job, it is advisable to lose as many as possible so that you can get more cash. Those who have lost one finger have not benefited much and are encouraged to lose more next time around.
Sikaman Palava is undertaking to investigate some of these cases of very risky jobs in private setups and companies where workers are being exploited to unnecessarily but not offered protection against health hazards, and not properly compensated when they sustain injuries.
This article was first published on Saturday, September 28, 1996
Features
Position yourself for God’s blessings
Motivated by the impending 40-day fasting and needless to add prayer programme, preceding the Greater Works Conference scheduled for August in Accra, I would like to draw attention to how believers can receive blessings from God.
There is a scripture in Hebrews 11:5 that “By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: and before his translation, he had this testimony that he pleased God”.
This clearly shows that in order to receive blessings from God, you must please God. How can one please God? You can only please God by obeying him and walking in line with God’s word. Just like how children who obey their parents, enjoy special treatment, so does God deal with his children who obey his word.
There are ways by which people receive blessings from God and holiness is an important criteria in the whole equation. Holiness is a process and not a one day event.
It is a mindset borne out of walking in obedience to God’s instructions i.e. his word. In order to have a mindset of living to please God, requires studying God’s word coupled with praying and fasting.
This helps us to develop trust in God by knowing his nature, what he likes and dislikes. This is what will enable us to live to please him and for our faith in him also to increase.
The Bible says in Hebrews 11:6 that “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him”
Fasting is one of the required criteria for blessings to be released and it goes with prayer because fasting without prayer is just a physical exercise. Fasting enables a person’s inner man to be in tune with the spirit of God and also becomes spiritually empowered to hear from God and also obey God.
Fasting enables a person’s spirit to feed on God’s word in a much more focused manner as compared to studying God’s word in normal times. As a result our spirit gains the upper hand to dominate the body and the soul, so that we are more conscious of the presence of God in our lives which causes us willingly the desire to live to obey God.
Holiness which is a prerequisite for pleasing God, can only manifest in our lives if we are able to overcome the desires of the flesh and this only happens when the flesh is subject to the spirit.
Apostle Paul said that “But l keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means when I have preached to others, I myself should not be castaway”, according to 1 Corinthians 9:27.
In order to bring the body or flesh into subjection so that believers will be able to live to please God, we have to study, God’s word in a certain state of mind which fasting and prayer appropriately provides.
Our minds are the battle grounds for decisions that either please God or the Devil. In order to please God so his blessings can be released upon our lives, we must continuously engage our minds with thoughts that is in line with God’s word.
Philippians 4:8 says that “Finally Brethren whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things”. May God help us to live to please him by meditating on things that please the Lord, so we shall be blessed in all aspects of our lives. God bless.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT’
By Laud Kissi-Mensah
