Friday, October 23, 2009

No Water, No Electricity, No Ministry of Foreign Affairs BUT We do have The FIFA U20 World Cup... courtesy of Pastor T.B. Joshua!

This past week has been weird, wacky and also tragic all over the land of GH.

Just to think exactly a week ago the nation had assembled in homes, pubs, clubs and spots to witness the euphoric FIFA U20 World Cup victory. Impromptu parties started all over my 'hood from Friday to Sunday morning.
Black Satellites in Accra
Source: JoyFm online

By Sunday things started to unravel:

Sunday: I got the Light-Off Blues
Accra was hit by power outages with a vengenance. It was not just my area, your area it was like EVERY area! My entire working-week has been punctuated by light offs from Monday morning all the way until Friday morning. Where from all this? Are we load-shedding on a full dam? Is it that rusty transformer from the 50s that still has to be replaced?

Monday: No Water
Ignorance is bliss. I only noticed on Monday that the water pressure at home was worryingly low. I later discovered that the water has been off for 5 days +. We are just about getting to the bottom of our polytank. *Eish* Waiting for the moment when I turn the tap and we are finally out.


Tuesday: Pastor TB Joshua, YouYube and the FIFA U20 World Cup
Turns out that there was much more to the FIFA U20 World Cup victory. The spiritual adviser to the President of Ghana, Pastor TB Joshua of the Synagogue Church of All-Nations 'engineered' the victory in our favour. Not only had he been in consultation with Coach Sellas Tetteh before, during and after the match but he had a video on YouTube to prove it. The snippet I heard on the BBC had the Pastor instructing our coach to play "Number 10" (team captain Andre Dede Ayew) first in the impending penalty shootout. He also asked to speak to Dede directly. A number of questions have buzzed about Accra since:
  1. How come none of us saw the Coach or the captain on any phone just before the shoot-out?
  2. How come the young captain says he never spoke to or has ever met Pastor Joshua?
  3. How come the Pastor did not 'engineer' the Flying Eagles of his native Nigeria staying in the competition or the Super Eagles of Nigeria going to the World Cup?
  4. Why can't we cut out the middle-men and make Pastor TB Joshua the Black Stars coach for our World Cup 2010 campaign?
Oddly enough, the video has since been yanked off YouTube.


Wednesday: Holy (Towering) Inferno!
I stopped watching television a while back. Well, aside from offerings on Viasat-1. As I randomly navigated through channels and landed on Metro TV, I was shocked to see the Ministry of Foreign Affairs completely ablaze! What??!!

Thursday: Where my Ministry at?
The sad reality finally hit. Our Ministry of Foreign Affairs was indeed no more. Property valued at millions of Ghana Cedis completely destroyed and data dating back to the 1950s destroyed. I shudder to imagine how much we have lost as a nation. Three people have been arrested and there are whisperings of arson. One conspiracy theory I overhead: The fire was the wrath of God visited on us for doubting Pastor TB's 'engineering'.


Ghana@50 Emblem
Source: Ghana web

Friday: Ghana@50 Probe Live. Mr. Kwadwo Mpiani finally takes the stand.
The long-anticipated appearance of the Former Chief of Staff at the official probe into expenditure during the celebration of Ghana's 50th anniversary was finally slated for today and was due to be broadcast live on a number of radio and television stations. I have missed almost all the sittings and like many people, had really wanted to hear proceedings. So I tuned into Joy FM and started entering some data while I listened in. I don't know whether it was the data, the fact that my coffee was wearing off, my empty office or the monotonic drones of some of the voices I heard but the Ghana @50 Probe put me to sleep mid-morning! I had to 'leave' the hearings in favour of loud trance music courtesy of DJ Tiesto. If anyone 'sat' through the hearings (including that man and that woman who were chastised by the Chairman for sitting in the wrong place right at the beginning!) please fill me in.

Also, Blogger has not been my friend all week. I'm having a problem with posting comments on other people's blogs...mmm sounds like my procrastinatory wings are being clipped. Hopefully not engineered by anyon
e!

15 comments:

Raine said...

Why didnt Pastor TB Joshua , the generic TD Jakes, engineer us to use our 'cup' to collect water for:

1)Our homes for obvious reasons
2)The Akosombo dam for electricity?
3) Use the 'cup' of water to douse the fire at the Ministry of Foreign affairs??

Mike said...

After conning people all these years, it is funny that T.B Joshua got himself caught in this little lie.
The GH conmen/ evangelists must be fuming that Mills chose him as his adviser.

MIghTy African said...

hehe, TB Joshua paa! He wanted to use Youtube to his advantage.

I was wondering the other day, would he get people going to his church or listening to him anymore?

No water, no electricity, that's not new. I really don't have anything to say there. We are watching this government.

And it's been a week since we won the World U-20 championship! God bless our homeland Ghana ei, nkunimdie yɛ yɛn deɛ a!

novisi said...

this TB Joshua guy is getting too much attention!

well... for me it all boils down to one thing only... knowledge. and knowledge of God, i bet TB Joshua aint got it like all other human beings- unless he can prove to be more than human!

the final match though was nervy to the dead end. i enjoyed every passing second of it. i was happy when the Ghana got the red card. unlike TB Joshua pretending to know, i was happy bcos i guessed that would make Ghana team a bit more serious and that happened. it could have happened otherwise too anyway!

posekyere said...

Eish, Abena.
Ain't we all enjoying the antics of this theater called Ghana.
I cannot imagine how Ghanaians will take it when all these bad jokes that so very much define our existence somehow come to an end.
I am not sad. I am just tired of the same old thing.
We can surely do better!

Femme Lounge said...

interesting! team coach gets advice from pastor.

ImageNations said...

Abena, I dey feel you. Well with TBJ I have no problem. Just after the game ended I heard a lot of people saying our victory is the work of God. Thus, if we agree it is the work of god and not the work of the boys or the coach wasn't it engineered by a middleman? like a pastor? say TBJ? That's it!

@MigtyAfrican: Didn't you hear the pastors who were insulting themselves in absolute profanity? You mothers'.....700? Well they still have members in their church. So don't be shocked if you see that his church is overflowing with members.

Abena we all had lights off. As for water it had not flowed for the past four years. Hahhahaha...4 solid years.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs was razed to the ground simply because we did not have the ladder and the crane to fight the fire. Priorities properly set.

Abena Serwaa said...

@Raine, *LOL* You had me rolling on the floor with laughter!!! Pastor TB Joshua can do soooo much more for our country.

@Mike, You are right, TB Joshua managed to stay under the radar...well, at least my radar that is. This whole spectacle is drawing attention to him...and not the good kind! It's like the Balloon Boy saga.

@Mighty African: you must admit that the use of YouTube technology is really cutting-edge! TB Joshua has an eerie appreciation for the use of multi-media in reaching people..mmmm.

@Novisi: as usual you put a smile on my face! You are right, the red card definitely made them work harder. Many people do seem to think TB Joshua is super human.

@Posekyere:
Theater that is Ghana is a good one!However, I think 'Concert Party that is Ghana' is more accurate! Indeed we CAN do better but will we ever? The tragic MOFA demonstrated the lack of planning and foresight plaguing our successive leaders for years!

@Femme Lounge: Yup, at first it seemed that simple advice was given and taken but now it is turning into something else!

@Nana F-A: I'm rooting for TB Joshua becoming the new Black Star coach. Not only is he closer to God but appears to have an excellent appreciation for football strategic play.

As for the battling pastors insulting each other, the fact that people remain in their churches is a real indictment on these very people and Ghanaians in general. Are we so undiscerning and gullible?

Sankofa said...

I especially like the 3rd point about Mr. (I refuse to use Pastor) TB Joshua. Why would he choose our advancement over his own country's? Lol!

I can't really comment on the light and water blues because I don't know what kind of super generator they have here but I haven't had the lights off. The water pressure is extremely variable though. Either way, I sympathise. Is anything being done about this seemingly recurrent problem?

The Author said...

Great round up. Maybe this could become a regular feature of your blog, no?

Abena Serwaa said...

@Sankofa: Hehehe! T.B. Joshua appears to be selflessly putting aside his own patriotic feelings in favour of the much bigger picture.. lol

I envy you! Super generators are a must have in this part of the world. Along with super tolerance and super patience!

@Nana Yaw: That would be a lovely idea! But since I tend not to be a regular feature on my own blog...mmmm. Do like the idea though..

The Author said...

Are you coming to 'Blog Meet' this time?

Abena Serwaa said...

Blog Meet up: weekday evenings are not good for me for various reasons but I'm hoping to make it even if it is briefly. Did I mention I'm painfully shy of people?

Edward of PathGhana said...

I blame the TB Joshua series on our limited knowledge regarding who God is and who he is not. I always say that God will not give anyone preferential treatment over another just because you serve him more. "The sun that he allows to shine on the righteous is the same sun he allow on the sinners" !!!

Abena Serwaa said...

Well said Edward!