Features
When a Ghanaian international soccer legend loses his life in a tragic earthquake disaster in Turkey
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My good friend and colleague of the inky fraternity (Journalist), Edem Mensah-Tsotorme, has rightly and aptly posted on his Facebook page a short tribute and it reads; “This life? He went to Turkey to make a living to feed home and the downtrodden only to meet his untimely death…”.
Yes, the body of our very young vibrant, skillful and hardworking Ghanaian footballer of international fame, Christian Atsu, has finally been recovered from the rubble of the collapsed buildings of the earthquake disaster in Turkey and has been declared dead by the search parties.
CONFIRMATION OF DEATH
His death was confirmed in a statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration in Ghana on Saturday, February 18, 2023, and according to the Ministry, our Embassy in Turkey with the assistance from the Turkish Government was making arrangements for his body to be flown home for burial.
The recovery of the body on Saturday morning, comes 12 days after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit Turkey and Syria claiming more than 40,000 lives. Atsu’s relatives- elder brother, twin sister and an official from the Ghana Embassy, were present at the site when the body was recovered.
Indeed, the death of this young Hatayspor FC player which has rocked the entire world, especially his home country Ghana, is difficult to comprehend and imagine considering the circumstances of passing.
CONFLICTING REPORTS ON ATSU’S WHEREABOUT
A few days after the earthquake, the 31-year-old Ghanaian footballer, was reported missing. Indeed, there were conflicting reports on social media as well as people who were somehow close to the player that, he had been recovered from the rubble and had been taken to an unknown hospital in Turkey, with some form of injuries, especially respiratory problem and that he was recovering.
That gave Ghanaians including the government and other top officials a little amount of hope, expecting his total recovery so that he could continue to ply his football trade and career.
Many were those who called for total prayers for the young philanthropist who had been supporting the downtrodden, especially, Ghanaian prisoners aside his professional football career.
TEAMMATES AND FORMER CLUBS MOURN ATSU
In the midst of the conflicting statements and uncertainties about his whereabout, there was a report from his football club in Turkey that he had not been found contrary to the earlier reports that his body had been recovered and taken to an unknown hospital.
Saturday’s recovery of the body, had therefore, seen a lot of loved ones, including most of his football mates in Ghana and across the world, as well as the former foreign clubs he once featured for, paying him tributes after hearing the sad news.
His friend and former Black Stars teammate, Mubarak Wakaso, was reported to have tweeted of his heartbreak after hearing the news. Other senior and veteran sports writers and commentators such as Yaw Ampofo Ankrah, Carl Tuffour, Rosalind Amoh, Kwabena Yeboah and others, have eulogised and given good account and various impressive testimonies about that great footballer.
Atsu’s former club Chelsea FC, tweeted as follows, “Everyone at Chelsea Football Club is devastated to learn of the tragic passing of our former player, Christian Atsu. Our thoughts go out to his family and friends.”
Indeed, as a great footballer on the international scenes and a hero as he was, tributes have started pouring in from across the world about his demise and circumstances that led to it. Many have lost their lives but the death of Atsu has overshadowed everything.
I am compelled to use my favourite column to wish all families that have lost their loved ones and breadwinners in this tragic earthquake disaster, my heartfelt condolences. May the good Lord continue to bless the souls of their departed loved ones and grant them eternal rest.
May the Almighty God also console the bereaved families making them to understand that, everything happens for a reason and, therefore, they should continue to give thanks and glory to the Almighty God.
ATSU’S SHORT BIOGRAPHY AND FOOTBALL CAREER
Born at Ada Foah in the Greater Accra Region on 10th January 1990, Christian Atsu Twasam who happened to be a twin to Christiana Atsupie, attended the Feyenoord Football Academy at Gomoa Fetteh, now the West African Football Academy (WAFA) at Sogakope in the Volta Region.
We are told that despite his struggles of club football, Atsu was able to play a top-flight league in Europe for the majority of his career. After being scouted by Porto during his time at the defunct Feyenoord, the Portuguese club recruited Atsu in 2009 into their youth team at the age of 17, and it did not take long for him to be invited to the senior team.
It was difficult to allow him to go because of his incredible football skills. He eventually did and spent a season on loan with Rio Ave, where he made an immediate impact, which eventually earned him a place in Porto senior team upon his return.
JOSE MOURINHO RECRUITMENT
The arguably biggest move of Atsu’s career was in sight and he grabbed the opportunity with both hands. Chelsea manager, Jose Mourinho, demanded his services at the end of the 2012/2013 season when he rejoined the then UEFA Europa League champions.
It was interesting to know that Atsu never kicked a ball for the London-based club for four years in a row. He was offered a series of loans before landing regular playing time with another English club, Newcastle United.
With the exclusion of the Magpies, Atsu played on loan for four different teams while he was contracted to Chelsea. Vitesse, Everton, Bournemouth and Malaga, were all beneficiaries of Atsu’s services when he struggled to make the mark at Chelsea.
ATSU’S ADVENTURES WITH NEWCASTLE AND HATAYSPOR FC
When he joined Newcastle in 2017, having already played a season on loan, he played 121 times and contributed to 10 goals. When he finally left Newcastle in 2021, he joined Saudi Arabian side, al Raed FC, but he had to battle with injuries and as a result, only made eight appearances in the Saudi Professional League.
In an attempt to relaunch his career, he joined Hatayspor FC where he scored his first goal on his fourth appearance which snatched a win for his club, moments prior to getting trapped under the rubble for days, which claimed his life.
During his days with the Ghana Black Stars, Atsu was awarded the best goal for his strike against Guinea in the quarter-finals of the 2015 AFCON. He was named the best player of the competition. He represented Ghana in the 2014 FIFA World Cup and two Africa Cup of Nations tournaments.
HIS MARITAL AFFAIRS AND HUMANITARIAN SERVICES
Atsu was a devout Christian and no wonder he had Christian as his first name and until his death he had been sharing Bible verses on social media. He was married to a German author, Marie-Claire Rupio with whom he had two sons and a daughter to mourn him.
Atsu was well- known for his philanthropic and humanitarian services in Ghana. He had a project of helping to free convicts who owed fines by paying their penalties and giving them money to start small-scale businesses on their own. Besides, he had helped many in the society both materially and financially.
BEFITTING FUNERAL AND BURIAL OF ATSU
Meanwhile, the government should be commended for the prompt and immediate steps taken to ensure that his mortal remains were brought home as quickly as possible on Sunday, February 19, 2023 for a befitting funeral and burial.
All that Ghanaians are expecting now, is for government to liaise with the family as assured by the Vice President when he received his body at the Kotoka International Airport, to give him a state burial befitting his status. He was a national asset who had paid his dues to his dear country and, therefore, deserves to be accorded as such.
A WORD OF CAUTION TO SOCIAL MEDIA BLOGGERS
This article cannot end well without cautioning Ghanaian bloggers on social media and other media outlets who continue to post all kinds of false and unconscionable information on their Facebook walls to deceive innocent people for no apparent reasons.
The way and manner some of those bloggers handled the issue regarding the Turkey and Syria earthquake, especially the involvement of Atsu, was so bad, knowing very well that his family, especially, the wife and children would be gravely disturbed by their posts.
For instance, the photograph showing how he had been trapped dead under the rubble in his apartment was unnecessary and uncalled for, especially at this time when the family, especially the wife and children are so traumatised. We need to be extra careful about the way and manner we report on this particular issue. Very sad indeed! Atsu you died a martyr and you will forever be remembered by the whole world.
Contact email/WhatsApp of author:
ataani2000@yahoo.com 0277753946/0248933366
By Charles Neequaye
There is a scripture that is found in Matthew 6:22 which says that the lamp of the body is the eye and therefore the eye must see well to enable the body to get to its destination.
What most people do not know is that behind the scenes, there is a strong interaction between the eyes and the brain before a picture becomes clear. The state of mind therefore is crucial to the eye seeing clearly to enable the body to process accurately the information the eyes are feeding it for proper identification of what the eyes see.
This is similar to how a person behaves i.e. what informs the decisions that forms in the mind that results in the actions that a person performs. The actions of a person does not therefore just happen but is as a result of things that went on in the mind, which in most cases resulted from information passed on to it by the eyes either consciously or unconsciously.
There are so many issues that affect our society which makes one wonder, whether the people who displayed such acts were created by someone or something other than God.
How can a person see a beach created by God with beautiful beaches and fresh air blowing all around, decides to defecate at such places, and therefore desecrate the environment? lt is simply mind boggling?
When other people in other countries who dwell on the coast are using their beaches for tourist attraction purposes as a means of livelihood and also to promote environmental health, some people living around our beaches, have turned them into rubbish dumping sites and toilets.
It is a very sad situation and the earlier we did something about it the better. It is a national emergency that must engage the attention, first of the government and then the citizenry, where religious bodies and NGOs must play a critical role.
The things we focus on in this country, needs to be addressed. Our minds which processes the info the eyes send to the brain, must be disciplined. There are certain behaviours that a disciplined mind can ignore even when the eye has provided info to the brain. One of the things a disciplined mind does, is the avoidance of a second look, which is critical for every person who wants to avoid adultery or fornication.
Once a person is not blind, he will see things. The boobs, the ‘shankus’, the coca cola shapes, the light complexioned, the dark complexioned etc. the eyes will definitely see and report same to the brain. What the brain or the mind decides to do or instructs the eye to do is the issue.
It can decide to instruct the eye to take a second look and let the mind drool over it or say ignore it and that will be the end.
If the mind becomes trained to focus on environmental issues like clean environment, the eyes will automatically be reporting on insanitary conditions to the brain as and when it sees them. The mind will pay attention to such data and begin to process them and to identify solutions to deal with the reported insanitary conditions.
There is the need to encourage citizens to train the mind to focus on the right thing so that in tandem with the eyes, focus will be maintained. When the mind is so trained, it communicates with the eye to also focus on hood things that helps in both are spiritual life and our secular lives, for indeed the eyes are the lamp of the body. God bless.
THE relationship between New Times Corporation (NTC) and African Concrete Productions (ACP) is based entirely on matters of the stomach. Each depends on the other in a dietary symbiosis, reinforced by the close proximity of each other
At lunchtime, you’d see a particular set of Times workers marching regimentally to ACP to face the wall. You’d think they are soldiers. It has long been declared that the company manufactures the best kokonte in the Greater Accra Region. ACP is, therefore, a culinary haven for those NTC kokonte fans, both male and female.
As the NTC kokonte warriors cross the border to ACP, you’d see some ACP banku fanatics dancing joyously to NTC. They are lucky folks because they do not have to obtain visa to enter into ‘Times’ to attack the balls of banku with precision and accuracy. They also claim that the lightsoup at ‘Times’ is arguably the best in West Africa.
So the relationship between the two entities was quite cordial and based practically on stomach palaver, until ACP workers staged an industrial revolution, whereupon the managing director, accountant and estate manager were allegedly stripped naked and locked up in a room. An insurgency had began in earnest.
An ACP worker came to ‘Times’, this time not to eat banku and okro. He had come to inform newsmen that juicy stuff awaited them at ACP. It could make a front page lead story.
A camerawoman and a female reporter were accordingly dispatched to go and bring back news, juicy news as juicy as kokonte and groundnut soup.
I was driving to work when I espied the familiar camerawoman clicking away outside the ACP premises. I didn’t see any ‘Times’ reporter but angry workers who were on the verge of getting violent. I slowed down and the driver behind blew his horn at me like a lunatic. I drove on.
Later, I heard the reporter and camerawoman were harassed and brutalised. The report came,. “The camerawoman, Mrs Salome Adonu-Agbottah and reporter Mrs Doreen Allotey, in an attempt to retrieve the camera which the workers had seized from them were severely beaten. They were manhandled and almost pushed into a big gutter opposite the company’s premises.
BRUISES
“….The camerawoman had bruises on her body, her hand bag was destroyed and the money in it stolen. Mrs Allotey’s watch was also snatched and her feet stamped on.”
Luckily, it was not her nose that was trampled upon. She has a beautiful nose.
The bad news was received with extreme sorrow. If the victims had been men, it would not have seemed too bad. But to brutalise women is just unacceptable. The New Times Corporation has not stopped mourning the incident which has been condemned in many circles.
Some people keep asking me why Times sent females to cover a potentially violent demonstration. I tell them they might as well ask why CNN’s amazon, Christina Amanpour, is assigned to cover the carnage in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Rwanda. She is always on the frontline in jeans and jacket.
Journalism is a potentially hazardous profession, and once you accept to study and practise the trade, you might as well bone up to face any assignment as long as your superiors feel you are capable of handling it or you have demonstrated the capacity to handle it. Both males and females can be assigned anywhere, anytime just like policemen and women are assigned.
The only difference between cops and pressmen is that the latter are armed only with a pen and the former with a gun. The question is should newsmen also arm themselves so that in any event of an assault they would not be found wanting in self-defence? They can’t adequately defend themselves with a pen and a jotter. A pen cannot even disfigure an opponent’s upper lip.
Photo-journalists have particularly suffered violence. Spectator ace-cameraman Vincent Dzatse was severely assaulted by AMA men when he attempted to take pictures of their indiscretions.
Sports cameraman, P. K. Arthur has been beaten more than once at the sports stadium when riots errupted and he wanted to capture it on his lenses.
Some sports journalists have been banned from entering the Accra Sports Stadium by supporters because in their comments, they didn’t write “sense”. Some supporters once nearly lynched Christian Abbew, Spectator Sports Editor, near a courtroom. He was stoned like the biblical Stephen. He had gone to defend a contempt charge.
I think it is time journalists met and discussed how best to defend themselves in any event of an attack by individuals or mobs. In the pursuance of their duty, they must be free from harassment and assault.
Some journalists go to work and return home with a black-eye or a double fore-head. It is just not right. Something has to be done about it. I think journalists should be armed. But first we must be trained in the use of firearms so that our warning shot do not hit below the belt. What about training in Kung Fu?
This article was first published on Saturday, October 17, 1998.
