TALKING DRUM: When we thought we could praise Nana Akomea

STC bus. Photo source: Culled from the internet

Beside me in the State Transport Corporation [STC] bus with registration number GE 402-16 was a beautiful, dark-skinned lady. She wore [what appeared to be] a Denim blue-faded jeans trousers with a black sleeveless top matching it.

It was the 21^st day of June 2019 and we were headed for the Ashanti Regional capital, Kumasi, from the nation’s capital – Accra. Before our bus could set off from the Kwame Nkrumah Circle Interchange, passengers chorused one thing― they were dying of heat and that the driver should switch on the air-conditioners in the bus. However, the driver sat still. He did not utter a word.

Then, the voices drumming home their discomfort roared again. Yet, neither the driver nor his conductor [mate] showed concern. My new friend – the lady in jeans – stood [up] from her seat and walked to seek for answers from the STC bus drivers.

“He says there is nothing he could do about it. That, they [air-conditioners] are not working properly,” she said to me and other passengers who could hear her sleek voice.

The air-conditioners were actually switched on but the air that flowed from it was nothing to write home about. For four solid hours and some minutes, we sat and endured the heat in the ‘oven’ bus before reaching our destination.

Before my traveling to Kumasi, I had spoken to 3news’ cartoonist – Tilapia – on persons [seemingly] doing well in society whom we could both write and draw about. We aimed at praising such people so it spurs others on to emulate. And, one of these names that came to mind – readily – was the Manager of STC, Nana Akomea.

We had learnt from media advertisement and word-of-mouth how STC had transformed. It now had a crew onboard to readily attend to passengers. The STC of old now serves snacks to passengers to get them enjoy their journeys.

Of a truth, I actually had a very good friend – a lady – who used to work with the STC crew who catered for passengers. When I decided to travel to Kumasi, I sent her a message on whether she would recommend I went by an STC bus.

She said yes, affirming Tilapia’s call on me to go by STC bus so we get to do a better job [of writing/drawing] on the Managing Director of the state-owned transport. Today, if I am to recommend STC bus to anyone, it would probably be a word of discouragement.

On Tuesday, July 9, 2019, I sat in the vehicle of a colleague at work [TV3] and it happened that two STC buses passed us by.

“You see Nana Akomea’s STC? That’s my subject for this week’s write up on my column,” I said to my friend. Little did I know that he similarly had a bad experience of the State Transport Corporation.

“My wife travelled to Kumasi not long ago by an STC bus. She says she had a hell of an experience. The air-conditioners were uncontrollably high that everybody complained in the bus,” he said to me.

So clearly, two different worlds. While we had to endure heat from Accra to Kumasi, another group of STC passengers had to battle frigid temperatures. My checks with some insiders at STC reveal that these buses of malfunctioning air-conditioners were mainly added to the Corporation’s fleet from another transport service and that these buses would be perfect on the road if they were properly maintained.

My air-conditioners rant aside, I again noticed something at STC’s makeshift terminal situated close to the VIP Bus Terminal. After the recent Kintampo-Tamale accident that claimed over 70 lives, transport operators were advised to properly document their passengers. This, the STC needs not to be told. Nonetheless, STC out of laziness – I think – refuses to get the bio data of its passengers as there are provisions made for the computation of the name, age and gender of their clients on its receipt.

“Name: NA [Not Applicable]. Age: NA and Gender, NA,” the receipt I had from STC indicated. The STC cannot spend five minutes on each of its passengers to put down these details? A state transport joining the mediocrity of bandwagons? If airlines are able to properly document passengers, why is it difficult for long journey transport services?

The writer's ticket

My STC experience and that of my friend’s wife could probably not mean that there is a total gloomy picture at the corporation. I am tempted to believe that there are some [or many] of their buses in good shape. However, Nana Akomea must be reminded of the adage which says that the spoilage of a grain of groundnut affects the wholesomeness of a barrel of such.

I understand that STC no longer has the crew on its buses to attend to passengers as it used to previously. If this is true, as they were absent in my bus, attempts must be made to bring them back. They save drivers of passengers’ complaints and all that. The drivers need a peace of mind to do their work while driving. And it must be stated that if people call for the comeback of STC serving its passengers snacks, it does not mean they [passengers] cannot buy same for themselves. I only think that that treatment to passengers distinguished STC from the fleet of other transport services making them the preferred choice.

In the world of business, it is all about branding. Someone says, the difference between Spiderman and Kwaku Ananse is but branding and that is indisputably true.

Dear Nana Akomea, deliberate efforts must be made to ensure all your buses are well maintained. STC’s success story must be told with a broad smile. All is not lost. You have started a good fight. Finish it well.

Lest I forget, on my way back to Accra from Kumasi, I chose another transport. Someday, God willing, I will travel by STC bus again and if I realize that things are in good shape, I will write another lengthy piece – this time – to praise you. Until then, I wish you the best, Sir.

The writer is a broadcast journalist with TV3/3FM. Views expressed here are solely his and do not, in anyway, reflect the editorial policy of his organization.

Email: nehusthan4@yahoo.com

Twitter: @aniwaba

TALKING DRUM: Mr. President, ‘Unu wan mi fi tell unu fi legalize ganja?’

Marijuana. Photo: Culled from the internet 

NOTE: I use marijuana and ganja interchangeably to mean ‘weed’ in this piece.

Apart from his family, I think nobody knew his real name. He was nicknamed Kilo, a man who served as a barber somewhere in Sunynai, the capital of the Bono Region.

In Kilo’s barbering shop were about seven calico-cloth-made caps. They [caps] were usually temporary gifts to his clients. Clients who were mainly outsiders who went to Kilo’s salon to have a shave.

“Senior, for this haircut I have just given you, I must give you one of my caps. You must return it when your hair grows,” Kilo would say to his unsuspecting clients.

The man [Kilo] could not separate his pleasure for smoking marijuana also known as ganja from his job as a barber. So, getting him shave your hair meant giving you a ‘killer’ haircut. The story of Kilo and many others nationwide and probably across the globe have demonized ganja. In the local parlance, the herb is even referred to as ↄboronsam tawa – the devil’s herb.

Ganja, indeed, is so powerful that it could let a sane wo/man act weirdly or at worse, go mad. In Sunynai, at a marijuana base, a smoker in the company of his friends ‘lost’ his left leg after puffing on the herb. Hearsay had it that the unnamed smoker stood [upright] while he bent his left leg to touch a mango tree under which they smoked. It was after the ‘madness’ had taken over his head that he told his colleagues – who foolishly believed him – his left leg was missing!

Last week, the Rastafarian Council of Ghana was in the news after the Ghana Police Service thwarted their resolve to embark on a demonstration to get ganja decriminalized in the country. This generated a buzz as to whether it is right we legalized ganja or not. The issue has had the nation sharply divided on ‘yes’ and ‘no’ lines. For Professor Joseph Bediako Asare, a retired chief psychiatrist, his answer to the debate on legalising the herb is a big NO! That, Ghana’s marijuana is of high grade and that ligalising it will mean seeing many mad wo/men on our streets. 

Professor Asare’s position was endorsed by Mr. Gabriel Bernaku being the National Chairman of the Coalition of Non-Governmental Organizations in Health. The two granted interviews to 3FM News.

Whereas I understand their fears and concerns, I think it is about time we sat down to take a relook at the herb gifted to mankind by God. The million question is, “Is ganja only for smoking”?

“Most people think cannabis [marijuana] is a plant you smoke. My point is, it is much more than that,” says 88-year-old Professor Emeritus Raphael Mechoulam of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem as reported by latimes.com under the headline, ‘Israel is banking on cannabis as its next big industry’. He is credited for being one of the pioneers of researching into the medical use of marijuana in Israel – God’s nation.

The report continued, “Experimenting on his newly acquired stash, Mechoulam was able to isolate and identify tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the main mind-altering component of cannabis, and cannabidiol, or CBD, which has therapeutic properties but does not get the user high. He was building on work by Roger Adams, an early 20^th century American chemist, who first identified certain chemical components of cannabis in the 1940s but whose efforts were slammed shut by J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI.”

If Professor Mechoulam, at his age, still spends sleepless nights researching into medical use of marijuana, then it should tell you he is up to something spectacular.

“The ailments that Mechoulam and his associates say are being treated effectively with cannabis-based medicines include epilepsy, osteoporosis, obesity and all sorts of pain,” latimes.com says.

It is the fool, the popular adage says, who does not change his mind. So, in 2013, writing under the headline, “Why I changed my mind on weed,” CNN’s Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta apologized for previously kicking against prospects of ganja.

“Long before I began this project [referring to a documentary], I had steadily reviewed the scientific literature on medical marijuana from the United States and thought it was fairly unimpressive. Reading these papers five years ago, it was hard to make a case for medicinal marijuana. I even wrote about this in a TIME magazine article, back in 2009, titled ‘Why I would Vote No on Pot’,” he said in his apology article.

Last year, I chanced on Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s documentary titled Weed on YouTube and what I saw was revealing. In the said documentary, this is what Dr. Sanjay Gupta shared on his findings: “In fact, sometimes marijuana is the only thing that works. Take the case of Charlotte Figi who I met in Colorado [in the US]. She started having seizures soon after birth. By age 3, she was having 300 [seizures] a week, despite being on seven different medications. Medical marijuana has calmed her brain, limiting her seizures to 2 or 3 per month.”

Indeed, Dr. Sanjay Gupta was right opining that they [Americans] have been terribly and systematically misled for nearly 70 years in the United States. It is not only Americans misled on marijuana. My people, Ghanaians, have had their own share. In particular, churches – pastors for that matter – have for long demonized and continue to paint the herb pitch black. They do so without making the effort to research into the issue, only basing on hearsay.

Medical use of ganja is but one of the many uses of the herb. Mention could be made of marijuana playing an active role in the manufacturing of [some] creams, cloths and even for fuel.

If you live in a country where most citizens together with their government’s main concern is to wake up every day, get some banku or fufu to eat and engage in partisan politics of NDC-NPP gibberish without finding solutions to even the filth killing them, it would be hard for such a group of people to buy into the idea of decriminalizing ganja. No wonder that after many years of malaria killing our active labour, it is the white man coming to us with a malaria vaccine in 2019. Nothing concerns us!

But, I am here to make my position known that we must decriminalize and legalised the herb. The Nana Akufo Addo government and other subsequent governments must ensure we have a state-controlled-farm of marijuana cultivation coupled with a team of scientists [researchers] reviewing the claims by the Israeli weed industry and improve on such. This could possibly stabilize our economy as Ghana would become medical tourism for persons who would want a cure to their sickness the marijuana way.

Then, after the decriminalization and legalization would come another hurdle to cross. Must we allow people to smoke it [anyhow]? My response is no. Currently, in Israel where marijuana is on top of the agenda, it is still illegal for people to smoke it.

Nonetheless, if we feel that we have decriminalized it and would give persons who would want to smoke it their right, then I have a suggestion. Marijuana joints – each – must be set up in all our [military] barracks across the country. One lion’s den [barrack], one marijuana joint. Here, you go to the proposed joint with your Ghana Card – also proving you are above 18 years – and you have the chance to smoke the herb say once a month. Remember that, we cannot entrust our corrupt police to handle this task.

This suggestion [marijuana joints] should tell you that although fire is good, it could be bad, hence, the need for stringent measures in place. Did you know that when it comes to gun crime in the world, Japan has one of the lowest rates? That, in 2014, there were just six gun deaths compared to 33,599 in the US? “What is the secret?” asked the BBC in article titled “How Japan has almost eradicated gun crime.”

“If you want to buy a gun in Japan, you need patience and determination. You have to attend an all-day class, take a written exam and pass a shooting-range test with a mark of at least 95%.”

“There are also mental health and drugs tests. Your criminal record is checked and police look for links to extremist groups. Then, they check your relatives too - and even your work colleagues. And as well as having the power to deny gun licenses, police also have sweeping powers to search and seize weapons,” the BBC article says.

If you care to know, in Japan, I learnt in that article that you can only buy fresh cartridges by returning the spent cartridges you bought on your last visit.

This is how Ghana’s laws must work. Guns are not illegal in Japan but the system will ‘frustrate’ you owing one since it could cause mayhem. We must wake up as a country and act as responsible humans.

I do not follow what I see or read blindly. Before you get my trust, it means I have painstakingly researched into who you are and what you do. I have done an extensive search on the good uses of marijuana and we cannot brush the herb under the carpet just because it is getting people mad.

If we would let common sense have its way, no single person will get mad out of legalising marijuana. When you are done reading this piece, kindly go to YouTube, search for Kofi Annan by Blakk Rasta. Listen to that song and send me your feedback afterwards.

The writer is a broadcast journalist with TV3/3FM. Views expressed here are solely his and do not, in anyway, reflect the editorial policy of his organization.

Email: nehusthan4@yahoo.com

Twitter: @aniwaba

She sat before me naked, I trembled; my harrowing account in 2017!

The writer, Solomon Mensah

Somewhere in 2002 at the eye clinic at the old Sunyani Municipal Hospital in the Bono region, I sat together with persons we all shared a common problem. We all had problem(s) with our eyes in one way or the other.

While we waited patiently to go see the optometrist – individually – a young man of about 28 years old walked into the eye clinic with newspapers. He was selling them.

“Yes, Graphic, Ghanaian Times […],” the man announced his presence. He wanted us or perhaps any of us to buy his papers. The man, whose name I did not know, paced up and down the eye clinic till a patient – an old man – called him.

“Krakye, bra ha,” the old man said in Asante Twi, to wit, gentleman, come here.

When the newspaper vendor got to where the old man sat, he stooped to listen to the message he [old man] had for him.

“You are selling newspapers at the eye clinic? Do you think patients here have eyes to read the papers even if they bought them?”

The old man’s questions to the newspaper vendor got almost all the patients laughing their worries off. It is, indeed, true that when the bush is on fire, grasshoppers have not time to say goodbye. When some people constantly ‘watered’ their eyes with drops and others their eyes bandaged, one did not expect them to have patience at trivialities as reading newspapers which were fully-filled with political lies. 

Wherever you are in the world reading this, I hope you are in a stable health condition. Health, the popular adage goes, is wealth. And one would appreciate the importance of good health probably when they get knocked down by sickness. That was how I got to appreciate good health more as the single most important commodity on earth. I think what comes next to good health is a peaceful mind.

On December 24, 2017 while I had about 17 minutes to go read the news on 3FM [92.7], I suddenly went shivering. I felt as though I was in a refrigerator. Then, I called a colleague named Anthony Jackson that he had to rush to radio to read the news for me. The show was Newsweek [news analysis show that spanned an hour]. Before AJ [as we affectionately call him] could get to radio, I had left with an Uber.

The danger of living in a ‘foreign’ land like Accra without any relative around looked me in the face at these times of need. Getting home from work that Sunday, I had to sleep a while and later go to the hospital.

Laboratory tests said I had typhoid fever. If I had died, it would have been out of negligence – I think – as for about a week or so I felt symptoms of what appeared to be malaria and ignored till I ate oil-containing food on the Friday before that fateful day.

Interestingly, a man who could eat balls of banku to satisfaction now had no appetite for any food. I had food in the refrigerator including tilapia ‘light soup’ but still had no appetite for such. Me? Solomon could not eat just half of Nfante Kenkey? Certainly, one must not wish even their arch-enemy ill!

A man who weighs 58kg was reduced to 49kg. Typhoid Fever medication, I realized, requires good food intake but I could hardly swallow a morsel of food.

The writer, Solomon Mensah. Photo by Fred Photography, January, 2019 

At a hospital in Ga South in the Greater Accra region that I attended, at a point, I wanted to use the washroom there. I asked and was directed to the washroom. Walking rather slowly than the pace of a tortoise while clinging onto the walls, I opened the washroom’s door. Trust me, I was too weak to check whether it was that for males or females!

Right in front of me when I opened the door was a young lady of about 19 years of age. The beautiful lady sat on the water closet naked, her panty and skirt pulled down, piece of cloth haphazardly folded on her thighs and she leaned her head and right shoulder to rest on the washroom’s wall and bandage and plasters – so I remember – tied a little beneath the left arm like a captain of a football team. Perhaps, she was receiving drips and needed to use the washroom too or whatever.

We looked at each other, dumbfounded by sickness. Within me, I felt I should have said, “I’m sorry for bumping into you.” But, I could not. I was shivering. My lower and upper lips kept slapping at each other and I trembled in pain. Again, I did not even feel I had seen a naked woman. Grasshoppers, indeed, have no time for goodbyes when the bush is on fire!

By God’s grace, today, I am still alive. I triumphed and survived typhoid fever. This harrowing account of 2017 has taught me lessons. One of such lessons I have espoused on valuing life of a healthy living.

Another lesson I would want to share with you is the lesson of not enshrining your trust in material things. You just won an award? Bought that car? Built or rented that beautiful house? Purchased that expensive perfume or perhaps fantasizing over that phone? The truth is, none of these things would cross your mind when you are knocked down by illness [that which I pray should skip you].

Your cry, should you fall ill, will be that God speaks so you could live a healthy life once again. So, why don’t you – now that you are in good shape – make God the bigger picture? This is not, in anyway, to say I am holy before the Lord. I only believe in serving God one day at a time while keeping at the back of our minds the need to make the day a glory unto Him. Such could help us avoid lifestyles that could get us ill.

My third lesson is, do not rely on your fellow humans as admonished by the Bible. Dear reader, I can say without fear of contradiction that many people who saw me in my skeletal frame or heard of it and expressed shock never ever bothered to call/text to ask how I fared. A mention, however, could be made of family and a handful of friends. I do not begrudge whoever ignored me in my trying times. The title of Ahmadou Kourouma’s book, Allah Is Not Obliged, says it all. Remember, nobody is obliged to wish you well in life.

The sad narrative, however, is that people who ignore you while you languish in life will be the same people to fight, at your funeral for space to read pages of heart-touching tributes of how dear you were to them.

The fourth lesson has had me praying for the sick every blessed day. As I write this, the time is at 1:54am and I had paused on my writing to pray for the sick in Ghana, Africa and the world at large. I believe someone somewhere who never knew me but prayed for the sick, in general, coupled with my prayers and other loved ones’ got me back onto my feet. The world, I believe, needs our prayers.

And my final lesson, we all know. Death! December 2017 taught me that no matter what, just one day we all will leave this earth. In one of his songs titled Mukyea, the Black Chinese Ͻboͻba J.A Adͻfo wisely says that if you fall ill and you do not die, it does not mean you will not die again. While we live on borrowed time, I have the opinion that the best mansions must not be built on mother earth rather in the hearts of our fellow humans and even animals.

Reach out to the needy if you can. Let’s place human life above any other thing but God. Yesterday, June 27, was my birthday. "Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk," Peter says in Acts 3:6.

I should have invited you to a huge birthday party but silver and gold have I none. In the near future God willing, there will be abundance of ‘bread.’ For now, all I have are these words encouraging you to let God lead and love your neighbor wholeheartedly for this life is crazy. May He continue to be our guide and guard. Shalom!

The writer is a broadcast journalist with TV3/3FM. Views expressed here are solely his and do not, in anyway, reflect the editorial policy of his organization.

Email: nehusthan4@yahoo.com

Twitter: @aniwaba

TALKING DRUM: From ‘found’ to ‘hope’? Maame Yaa Tiwaa, ‘Aboro so!’

COP Maame Yaa Tiwaa

For both professional gossipers [journalists] and those who consume their gossips, the past week has been overly packed with hot headline news. Talk of the Western Togoland Separatists, the National Democratic Congress’ National Chairman Ofosu Ampofo’s tango with the Police CID, Helena Huang gone missing, the National Communications Authority’s ‘fight’ with both Radio Gold and Radio XYZ and the headmaster of Salvation Army Basic School, in the Eastern Region, allegedly murdered by six young men among others.

Personally, I have had people sending me messages on WhatsApp or relaying such to me in person to comment/write on one issue or the other. Just as I could settle on one of the aforementioned news stories, a friend of mine on Monday, May 13th 2019 drew my attention to something uttered by the Director-General of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID).

COP Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo-Danquah on Saturday, May 11th, had told Atinka TV – on The Big Story – as monitored by starrfm.com.gh that, “I made that comment because I wanted to give hope to the mothers but I have been misconstrued. Maybe, people didn’t understand me. For timelines, I cannot say. I just want to assure everyone that the search is still on. We are not sleeping at all.”

Maame Yaa Tiwaa was speaking in relation to her earlier announcement that the CID together with the Bureau of National Investigations [BNI], after a thorough search, knew the whereabouts of the Takoradi missing girls. 

Our elders say, we do not doubt claims by the woman who has ten children that she knows every single thing that happens at night. So, for a whole CID boss to have come out to claim she knew the dark world of the kidnappers and where they have kept the missing girls, who were we to have doubted her? Nonetheless, it panned out to be a mere joke of lies. We bashed Maame Yaa Tiwaa for such a shameful joke and for making the CID a cheap bowl for the world’s spit.

Indeed, our elders, again, say that a woman who bends over and exposes her buttocks to other women in the market sells her husband's respect. Our CID boss has sold the respect of her office so cheap by ‘bending’ unnecessarily to freely show her ‘buttocks’.

At this juncture, we only thought Maame Yaa Tiwaa had learnt her lessons and would mind whatever she says thereafter. But hey, she appears to have bought the right to Daddy Lumba’s song Yɛntie Obiara – as she continues with her cheap talk; goofing as usual.

That, you made that comment because you wanted to give hope to the mothers [or the police as Graphic says]? Wow! Is COP Maame Yaa Tiwaa now a motivational speaker? Interesting! As Bishop Daniel Obinim would say, “aboro so” to wit; it is too much!

Credit: Tilapia, 3news

It greatly beats imagination that a whole Criminal Investigations Department of our country is so much engrossed in incompetence. From my monitoring of proceedings at the front of the CID, so far, if you [Maame Yaa Tiwaa] and your officers are better off than the cadet corps in our various Senior High Schools, it would be on the grounds that you have been taught how to fire AK47 and other guns.

Interestingly, Maame Yaa Tiwaa is much more determined to grab the seat of the Inspector General of Police [IGP] as David Asante Apeatu retires in three months.

“I don’t see why anybody should say women are not ready for the IGP position. Women could even do better than men. Leadership is all about how you manage the people you work with. Your ability to manage your human resource is what makes you a very good leader. The appointing authority will take so many things into consideration. It’s not about your gender. I’m more than prepared to be Ghana’s next IGP,” Maame Yaa Tiwaa told Atinka TV as captured by pulse.com.gh.

This gets my heart beating as fast as though a boxer is trying his punches on my chest.

Dear Maame Yaa Tiwaa, would you – in anyway – blame anyone advocating for all and sundry to totally condemn you like an outcast leper based on your recent track record of goofing laurels? Perhaps, the families of the Takoradi missing girls are not bellowing in anger as I expect, hence, your unending funfair of ugly noises of ‘found’ and ‘hope.’

Literal wizard, Chinua Achebe, in 1967 said, “Being a Nigerian is abysmally frustrating and unbelievably exciting.” Indeed, such is the feeling of being a Ghanaian. While we often get frustrated of happenings in the country, we take solace in Ghana being ‘unbelievably exciting’, hearing comments by people we call leaders including Maame Yaa Tiwaa.

Of a truth, it is highly unfair these leaders of ours actively compete with comedians like DKB, Foster Romanus and Clemento Suarez. I may have thought that comedy had no place in the operations of the Criminal Investigations Department but I may have been wrong. President Akufo Addo appointing Maame Yaa Tiwaa as the IGP would be a coup d'état on the profession of the DKBs!

The writer is a broadcast journalist with TV3/3FM. Views expressed here are solely his and do not, in anyway, reflect the editorial policy of his organisation.

Email: nehusthan4@yahoo.com

Twitter: @aniwaba

TALKING DRUM: A villager’s first flight aboard Passion Air

Passion Air plane at the tarmac, Kotoka International Airport. Photo: Passion Air

“Chief, is that normal?” I asked my cameraman named Richmond Tano. He sat by me.

“I was about asking you, too,” responded Tano.

“Ajala! [comic exclamation] And there are no stop points in the air, too,” I said jokingly.

We shared seats 11C and 11D respectively. I was just by the window. Whereas I had enjoyed peeping through the window admiring nature― God’s handiwork― I had my intestines pacing up and down like a drunkard trying to find his way up a hill. I was gripped with fear when the flight attendant, who I later learnt she was called Matilda, gave an announcement.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we are about entering a turbulent zone. Please, fasten your seatbelts and remain seated. Thank you,” she uttered.

The beautiful lady believed to be in her late twenties was not entirely responsible for my uneasiness. Yes, so I think. It was my first time aboard an airplane and I never really knew there could be ‘pot-holes’ in the skies that could make the big metallic bird shake.

We were en route Tamale [in the Northern Region] from Accra aboard a Passion Air plane. It was Wednesday, January 23, 2019 and we were headed for Bolgatanga and its catchment areas to cover the National Food Buffer Stock Company’s takeover of some warehouses. A sponsored trip it was.  

I did not want to appear the only villager in town, or perhaps in the skies, so I decided not to ask anyone anything. After all, we were told to fasten our seatbelts.

The airplane moved on. A crew member in the cockpit announced the level of altitude we were flying. All this while, a hot cup of coffee Matilda had served me was held tightly in my hand. I had temporarily lost appetite for it. I looked to my left. Tano had his tightly pressed to the small board of a table that one could fold downwards from behind the seat next to them.

“I wish we had travelled by bus,” I said to Tano.

“Mesee,” he said in Twi; to wit; I tell you.

The writer, Solomon Mensah, aboard Passion Air en route Tamale from Accra

We laughed out our fears and consoled ourselves that once everybody aboard the plane seemed very much comfortable, we must enjoy our flight as the voices of Matilda and that from the cockpit had previously assured our safety.

So soon, we had moved past the ‘turbulent zone’ and everything was so smooth.

“You don’t realise the plane is even moving,” I said.

“Exactly. It’s so smooth,” replied Tano as he sipped his fruit juice together with a pack of biscuit. Mind you, he was done with his first meal of a cup of coffee.

Fruit juice is not my favorite so when I took it from Matilda as she served us, I told Tano he could enjoy mine too. About 30 minutes into our journey, I felt uncomfortable in my ears. I could feel pains in my ears that at a point I cocked them with my fingers.

I think it was due to the sound the aircraft’s engine or whatever made as it was close to where I sat. I carefully looked around and everybody sat seemingly comfortably.

“Ah! How? Could I be the only one feeling this way?” I asked myself. Few seconds later, I posed the question to Tano. He felt the pain in his ears, too, but not that much as compared to mine.

Unknowingly, a woman who sat to my left― on the seat directly in front of Tano― had spotted me struggling.

“Feeling pains, right?” she intoned.

“Yes, please.”

“Okay, try yawning it will go. You will be okay,” she told me with cock-assuredness.  

I tried it and I was relieved.

“People have experience,” I said to Tano of the woman after thanking her. A reporter and his cameraman in the plane, we spoke about everything. It was rather unfortunate Tano did not have his camera on him to shoot our first flight experience.

The plane landed safely at the Tamale Airport. I said a prayer, “Thank you God.”

Our flight was very smooth. Straight from the airport, we headed to Bolgatanga, moved to Zuarugu and Pwalugu and went to lodge at a guest house in the evening.

The following day, Thursday, January 24, we moved to Navrongo and Bulsa North and South all together with the aforementioned in the Upper East Region and took coverage of the warehouses the National Food Buffer Stock Company was to take over its management.

The evening of that very Thursday, we flew back to Accra aboard another Passion Air flight. This time, Tano and I relaxed and enjoyed the flight as much as possible. Again, the flight attendants and a voice from the cockpit assured safety. We landed safely in Accra a little after an hour.

For Richmond Tano, he had heard of Passion Air before. He tells me he was the cameraman from TV3 to have shot the launch of the airline in Accra; he had even entered one of Passion Air’s planes but that [plane] did not move from the tarmac. In my case, it was my first time experiencing Passion Air and, again, my first time flying by air.

Having had a successful trip to Tamale via Passion Air, I have come to love the airline that much. So, on Tuesday, March 5, 2019 when it happened that I had to make another [personal] journey to Tamale from Accra, I chose Passion Air. I have downloaded the airline’s mobile app; PassionAir. In the comfort of wherever you are, provided there is internet, one can book a flight and pay through mobile money [all networks] or using a Visa card. There is yet an option of paying your fare later on.

For being aboard Passion Air on two separate round trips, I would recommend it to anyone who wishes to travel via flight from Accra-Kumasi, Accra-Tamale and vice versa. Right at the check-in points at both the Kotoka International Airport and the Tamale Airport [that I know], the Passion Air crew there meet you with smiles and humility unlike some services in the country whose workers make you feel you are nobody.

Aboard a Passion Air plane, the cabin crew are equally professional. They show you smiles and respect. On my first day I went aboard Passion Air to Tamale, I realised that their customers’ safety is their topmost priority.

“Hello sir, please resume your seat and fasten your seatbelt,” said one young man so politely but sternly. I think when I later asked of his name, he mentioned David to me. A passenger had gotten up to use the washroom but David, a cabin crew member, would tell him to hold on as the seatbelt sign/light was on. I think that was within Matilda’s turbulent zone and, for David, I suppose it was not appropriate the man walked in the plane.

“Hello sir,” said David again to the man, “you can please go now.” He told him when we had bypassed the shaky zone.

Nonetheless, aside Passion Air’s remarkable services, I think there are a few issues they must address. Using the airline’s app, one after booking his/her flight would at times get a different fare from what was originally quoted. So, when I wanted to book a flight to Accra from Tamale on Sunday, March 10 2019, the app kept messing me up on the fare. I had to get their toll-free line, call them and one lady I spoke to had to book the flight for me at her end. Still on the app, I think there should be [a]n option/button for customers/passengers to be able to share their fight details with persons they think must know of their intended journey.

These aside, aboard Passion Air’s planes, I realized their public address system was not that audible. At times, one has to strain their ears before getting what is being communicated and the feed from the cockpit, I humbly think, has always not been that audible [to me]. The seeming noise in the plane should be looked at, too.

Dear Passion Air, get these issues addressed and you are good to go. Please, permit me chip in this; would you [all airlines] agree with me that your passengers must be made to wear the life jackets [which in Passion Air’s case we were told were under our seats] as we board the plane than telling us to do so in case of an emergency? Considering Ethiopian Airline’s Boeing 737 Max8 crash, was it possible any of its passengers quickly wore their life jackets in hope that that could have saved them in any way?

Well, I once again congratulate your cabin crew. They are fantastic. My only suggestion is that they should not learn from Ghana’s business news reporters who would say/write ‘the year-on-year inflation rate was …’ and expect their audience to understand that with ease. What is year-on-year?

Whereas I understand ‘turbulent zone,’ I could not properly understand that aboard a plane. Perhaps, re-wording that caution will do. Something like: “Ladies and gentlemen, we are entering a zone that could mildly shake our flight. Fasten your seatbelts and relax. The shake is normal as driving on a pot-holed road. Thank you.” Or, what do you think?

Anyway, lest I forget; my first flight experience teaches me two things. That, God deserves every praise for His beautiful nature and the wisdom given mankind to do marvelous things. And, secondly, a massive thanks to the people behind the making of aircrafts as they really have made use of their brains.  

The writer is a broadcast journalist with TV3/3FM. Views expressed here are solely his and do not, in anyway, reflect the editorial policy of his organisation.

Email: nehusthan4@yahoo.com

Twitter: @aniwaba