When we were kids playing football, we saw our coaches and team managers do some juju or voodoo gimmicks before and after ‘colts or under 18 and 20 football matches.
At Primary and Elementary school levels, however, we saw a few teachers do that. But, again, it wasn’t a practice like we had in community football up to organised football in the Greater Accra Region and for an endowed football club like Future Internationals, which played teams outside Accra, into the Eastern and Central regions, including the Swedru All Blacks Park.
At SHS, you hardly saw that, because the PE Master didn’t or wouldn’t do it – educated as he was. Again, you didn’t find that in netball or volley or hockey and athletics.
In the case of boxing, we would hear that Sulley Shitu, an aspiring world title holder, would be complaining that he never saw blows coming. All he saw was that it had hit him hard. He was a Muslim. He ended up quitting, despite his potential.
As for the national league, juju or voodoo was a healthy practice, and that was why Kofi Bruce in a match with Eleven Wise would target Sanni Abdulai and snatch his leather necklace that was suspected to be voodoo and a charm against the ball entering Sanni Abdulai’s net.
PNDC
We heard about Nkrumah and the Kankan Nyame. We cannot tell whether that was fact or fiction. And, we heard about Kotoka and Ankrah as well as Major Adekunle who when you thought you had killed him during the civil war in Nigeria appeared at another battle.
As for the PNDC, ‘ways and means’ was ten amulets a cedi. That was why the regime had a prayer leader and Prophet who was traditional and another a Roman Catholic dissident who loved pouring libation. Intriguingly, when both men died, the NDC and the PNDC were nowhere to be seen during the funeral.
In the case of Osofo Komfo Damuah, it was because his spiritual activities were something else, away from the regular. He ended up using his trade to hijack space at the former Association International before court litigation recovered the space for original owners.
Samuel K. Obeng, retired police detective and Prophet, would continue his ministry faithfully, advising JA Kufuor, Otumfuo and a few notable and eminent citizens pro bono. He resigned not a rich person, living in a modest Madina Estate with tight living rooms and surroundings.
He also advised Prof JEA Mills, though JEA would later begin dodging Tugya, who became my friend when I was at The Chronicle. But, by and large, politicians seeking divine support and direction is African and European, including almighty Nigeria. What is wrong or has been wrong in the case of Africa is that most of such prophets have been controversial.
Hero and villain
As far as I know, Ghana’s current credible prophets, after Tugya and Enoch Agbozo – don’t know where Enoch is – are Duncan Williams, Adom Kyei Dua, Yaw Annor and this indigenous Ga and Ukraine-trained Economist Dr Lawrence Tetteh.
There must certainly be others, but these have been around for quite long.
Unfortunately, being a prophet is not only a thankless job from biblical times; it is also a controversial and, sometimes, intriguing trade. Today, you are hallowed and hailed; the next moment you are vilified, like the PNDC and NDC did to my old pal Tugya.
That, I suspect, is the case of Prophet Owusu Bempah. And I am not surprised that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament for Abuakwa South, Samuel Atta Akyea, has put him down, and downplayed recent prophecies made by Rev. Isaac Owusu Bempah, head pastor of the Glorious Word Power Ministries International, regarding the upcoming December 7 elections.
According to Atta Akyea, these predictions should be viewed as mere human projections, rather than divine certainty.
On October 1, Rev. Owusu Bempah prophesied that John Dramani Mahama, the flagbearer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), would emerge victorious in the 2024 elections.
During a prayer session in Accra for Mr Mahama, the pastor claimed that God had elected to give Mahama another opportunity to lead the nation, praising him as a man with a good heart. Despite these claims, Atta Akyea, in an interview with AsaasePa FM on October 2, cautioned against placing too much importance on such prophecies.
He stated that while many people may hold different religious or spiritual beliefs, elections are ultimately decided by the will of the people through the ballot box, not supernatural predictions.
The MP stressed the importance of focusing on the issues at hand, and allowing voters to make informed decisions based on policies and leadership qualities rather than relying on prophecies.
Owusu Bempah made history when, alone in Rome, he openly fought the NDC from 2016 till 2020.
He was viewed as a sympathiser of the NPP after he made similar prophecies in the past, and even prayed for Nana Akufo-Addo prior to him becoming the President. Only God knows what may hurt Owusu Bempah in covering the NPP and its presidential fortunes – when not quite long ago, he openly prayed Dr Mahamudu Bawumia in as God’s anointed President for 2024. Something may have changed in Mahama’s stars as well as that of Dr Bawumia, one, for good and the other for ill…
According to the defection story, when the group laid hands on the former President, the prayers were sealed by Rev. Owusu-Bempah.
“This is whom you ELOHIM have elected to lead Ghana at a time like this. No power can stop it. It is through you that this country will see development,” the preacher prayed.
The founder and leader of Royal House Chapel International, Rev. Sam Korankye Ankrah, the General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God Church, Rev. Dr. Stephen Yenusom Wengam, Rev Kwaku Agyei Antwi, popularly known as Rev. Obofour, among others were present.
That marked the first major meeting of this kind by the NDC flagbearer with members of the clergy ahead of the December 7 polls.
Break the 8; Ditch the 8
Eight is a number that theologians refer to Abrahamic. It means trailblazing as sign. That covenant, the theologians insist, was consummated on the eight day. That deal – sealed by a blood sacrifice – would birth Isaac and Israel’s ultimate blessings jibe that strongman Bibi keep throwing at Hezbollah, Houthi, Hamas and the goons in Iran.
So, analysing the “8” that Mahama claims he has already ditched, will he be able to trail blaze – after slipping in 2012 to be saved by the bell; falling KO in 2016 and falling TKO in 2020.
If that is Prophet Owusu’s Bempah’s reading, let us see how it goes with the last cast of the votes and last count and declaration by the EC or another annoying Election Petition with a calculator thrown at the Mischief Mosquito.
I have been listening to propagandists and their street reading of the flagbearer perming by the EC. Some argue that since we have a history of excessive wastes in ballots, the victim might be JM, probably to the benefit of the vociferous BMW.
Looking through the tall bunch of faces with JM not quite as baby face as he was, the propaganda is that he looks victim as voters sweat to look for his face and image among the pile that may have included Red Beret Bernard Monah, but for cousin Adukwei’s ‘mischief.’
As for the BMW, he must be glad for a Numero Uno slot on the list. The propaganda is as massive as has been the anti-government propaganda in galamsey, though the UN advises a common front by stakeholders in effectively fighting galamsey.
That is why I have a gripe with the TUC for making it look like the NDC didn’t benefit from the galamsey fight. The persistence on the strike also makes it look like the TUC has an agenda to do something that ultimately benefits the NDC, when its flagbearer in 2016 and 2020 was openly egging on illegal miners to perpetuate the illegality, though he JM lost a military officer nephew in the fight against galamsey.
PS
This is December 9 afternoon at 3pm…Party chiefs using their Excel software have tallied up their numbers from Zanlerigu up North to Zongos down South, and from Chuchuriga and Chiana to Chorkor…An eerie quiet has clouded the nation.
The EC and her team of vilified ‘villains’ are seated to announce the figures and declare the verdict…And the winner by 30,000 votes is No…Come see the Zongos…Walahi…Am I a Prophet? No, I only know the Prophets…
By Abena Baawuah
goldcoastnewsline@gmail.com
