Yussif Ahmed Ibn Yussif

I can make you sleep at my place but you would have to leave very early in the morning, she said over the phone. That is how I was able to complete my tertiary education. Today, I say thank you to you, Khadija. You gave me accommodation, fed me and even paid part of my fees for me. I can’t write about everything you have done for me. Thank you so much. You have inspired in so many ways. Our relationship has been rocky over the past few months due to my own somewhat intermitent nonsensical traits. But I really hope that we get through it and come back to what we used to be. I love you, girl. I love you and you know I do. Ruth, you are part of the process that has got me where I am today. We became close through Khadija. And since then, just like Khadija, you have been a tremendous blessing to my life. Thank you so much for your goodness. You have fed me, clothed me, sheltered me and paid my fees. You and Khadija, together helped me complete my education. And even today, you both co

Close my zip for me, she said. You ladies arouse men and when they harass or cajole you and have sex with you, you later complain. “we are the preys but we provoke the predators to devour us,” an elderly woman shouted. In about half a minute, I didn’t know whether to close the zip for her or to decline same. With a smiling but confused face, I just closed it quietly. Until this moment, I had never considered sleeping with a lady solely by cajoling her without her actual consent. I don’t know how preying on a woman would be enjoyable to any man. Sure, you will have your happy ending but is that the only enjoyable element in sex? Even your happy ending will be rushed because of the circumstances surrounding same. My female friend who is also a nurse once told me that she will need foreplay of not less than half an hour before the actual sex. In fact, she needs both her foreplay and actual thrusting to last not less two hours. I have been in the same room with some of the most beautif

My community even without the moon is now as bright in the evening as when the sun is shining red hot. There is one reason for that; the 2019 District Assembly elections are coming up on December 17, just a few days away. Over the past few years, both petty and major crimes have happened in my community due to reasons that could have been prevented. Cars have been robbed and people have been kidnaped due to the absence of street lights. Just imagine! The absence of street lights has cost human lives.  But, in the last few days, my community is shining bright like a diamond. Street lights sparkling every nook and cranny of the community. Minor roads have partially been constructed left for the rains to erode it again after the elections. Our thumbs are really precious, aren’t they? Oh yes! We have seen it all before, time and again. Ordinary citizens are the centre of attention during electioneering period and sadly, relegated to the background once voting is over. The rhetoric is

There are three kinds of people on this earth; those who are suffering from constipation, those suffering from a running stomach and those who can shit freely. If you’ve ever suffered from either constipation or a running stomach, you know there is a big difference between the two. Constipation puts you through some strange mental stress and loneliness that is peculiar to it. As for running stomach, well, you may feel some pain but the faeces pass without you having to shout ‘push’ at yourself as though you are a pregnant woman and your own gynaecologist at the same time. I have not written for a while now and when some of my ardent readers ask me why, I just tell them I am too busy with other stuff. And sure it is true that I am busy but I could still write. In fact, I do write but it is not political commentary. I don’t follow the news as I used to partly because I am busy but also because even I have grown weary of hearing the same news all the time.  ‘The budget is so

I have lots of aspirations But I don’t know when I will die I don’t know which of my aspirations I will fulfill before I die What if I am unable to fulfill any of them In the next decade, I would have become a published author I would have become a journalist I would have studied for my master’s degree I would have been an entrepreneur I would have been studying law I wouldn’t have been married yet, maybe I would have put up a building or buying one These aren’t all I want to do All I these I want to do before I turn forty Barack Obama says it is not enough to go through life with only passion, You’ve got to have a plan as well Well, I have plans Roadmaps to achieving my goals But some roadmaps lead to dead-ends I am not my only responsibility I have four younger sisters and a ‘son’ to take care of They would’ve been my father’s responsibility But I watched him take his last breathe just a few months ago So the mantle now falls on me to be the man of the house

It’s 5:38 am and I just returned home from the mosque I went to pray But I felt preyed I couldn’t focus on prayer I don’t know if it’s a betrayal I don’t really know how I feel right now But nothing feels right This isn’t a poem nor is it a narration…. I don’t know what it is…… it may make sense, it may not…… If you find any errors in this write-up, pardon me. I can’t read it after I have written it. Just walk with me to the end I DON’T KNOW IF THE MEMORIES OF HOW I HELPED HONOUR YOU WITH The LAST BATHE AND HAVING TO HOLD YOUR HEAD AND SHOULDERS WHILE WE LOWERED YOU INTO YOUR GRAVE WILL EVER FADE AWAY. Today is Monday, a working day I am committed to giving my best at work But my emotions are derailing my intention My supervisor has a theory; don’t let you're personal interfere with your professional But how can I be efficient when I can’t even think straight He was my one and only father and father-figure all in one My mom called me into a corner and with tears

Need I say that on several occasions I have contemplated suicide? Well, I have. When I first failed Mathematics in my West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), when I thought I could never make it to the university because of financial issues and on several other very tough times in my life. Fortunately for me, I was able to psyche myself out of committing suicide. But many people have fallen victim to it (suicide). The last reported case of suicide in Ghana was on Friday September 6, 2019. It was a third year medical student of the University of Ghana who had allegedly taken his own life for failing an exams. Several of such cases have happened before but what critical attention has been given to this increasing inclination to commit suicide among the youth? Most often the issue is reported, condolences are expressed both in person and on social media and then it ends there. But how does that solve the problem? While section 57 of the Criminal and Other Off

My words fail me but I pray My knees knuckle but I stand Self-love, strong self-worth and confidence are very essential in life At least, that is what lots of people say But the truth is sometimes you turn to someone for confirmation, for a second opinion, just to be sure An opinion that sometimes overrides your own But what if you have no one What if there is someone but not the one you would prefer It appears that when it comes to you, words fail me My vocabulary suddenly is lost My mind is instantly blank And my head throbs with chaos and understanding How ironic or maybe paradoxical, whatever An indication of my spinning head I look to your chair and it's vacant I look to your bed and it’s been folded Your throaty laughter has suddenly vanished Your hilarious jokes are no more Your absence is much obscene The children in your house are calling your name They are looking for you to sing for them to dance Where is that your toothless smiley mouth Why has

It gripped him by the leg Time treated him harshly Without faith, life would have been unbearable for him Even now, he lingers on While disease strapped him to his chair Old age deteriorated his health completely. The once strong man is now beyond fragile Life is not as it seems The longness of a short life Marred by excruciating pain While some pray for death to sweep them away It stays far away from them You can't expect anything worse than disease in life Life is a golden tragedy sometimes The dimness of light The shinning darkness The bleakness of hope The frankness of lies Life is an ironical paradox The mother of his children suffers to sustain him She shoulders a large family all alone. Has been doing so for decades Fire dries her tears Good looks hides her trauma Women are resourceful Give them credit for it Early marriage is a cancer Especially when young women are married to old men It turns bliss into blanks, gain into loss, marriage into m

The champions of the ongoing AFCON 2019 will be awarded $4 million, runners-up will get $2 million, semi-finalists, $1.5 million, etc. As to how much has been budgeted for the Black Stars for this tournament, we don’t know yet. The team has always faced financial issues which has led to serious problems like disunity among players and the authorities of the team. But that is not my focus today even though it is part of why the Black Stars have not been able to win any trophy for thirty-seven (37) years now. The Black Stars of Ghana at 5 pm today will face the national team of Cameroon, The Indomitable Lions, in the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON). The Black Stars drew their first game in the competition against Benin. Broken heart appears to be more painful than the sweetness love brings which is why it appears the Black Stars have let down their fans, Ghanaians more times than they have made them proud. But, to be fair, the team has done some good and brought some joy and

There is been counter accusations of who orchestrated a gunshot that happened in the Awutu Senya East Constituency during just this limited voter registration exercise by the Electoral Commission which started this June 17, 2019 and scheduled to end on July 7. I thought that politicians will slow down their life-threatening actions and speeches while we continue to find solutions to vigilantism in Ghana, but no, they would not because all they care about is power. I read a story on citinewsroom.com this morning suggesting that the National Organizer of the New Patriotic Party, Sammy Awuku has referred to the NDC’s demand for the immediate release of the report of the Emile Shot Commission of Inquiry as hypocritical. His basis being that the NDC said they would boycott the commission but now they are demanding for the release of their report. I wonder what you think about such comments and its justification. Can you imagine all of Ernest Kofi Abotsi’s secretarial role to the Emile S

“The news of the death of 12 persons in the recent flooding that hit our nation’s capital is very sad. My sincere condolences to the families of the deceased. GHS197 million has been released to the Ministry of Works and Housing to desilt choked drains, the contracts for the works have been awarded and are ongoing. Beyond addressing issues of infrastructure, our attitudes towards sanitation have to change as well, in order to help tackle the problem of perennial flooding in Accra. Every effort is being made by the public authorities to deal with this problem.” That is what Nana Addo tweeted on April 16, 2019. Well, fast forward to today when we are waking up to news of flooding in some parts of Accra after a midnight downpour. So, I ask, when will proper and absolute measures be put in place to curb flooding in Accra and all the other parts of the country? After almost a week out of the hustle of Accra, I came back to it again just yesterday. Nature was benevolent enough to nou

I have not written or particularly updated my blog for some time now due to some reasons. One of the reasons being that I am now in the final semester of the final year of my two year program which requires a lot of attention and concentration. From classroom activities to research works and a whole lot that I need to do. As part of the activities of the final year, I need to register for national service. Now, to do this registration requires that I have one of some four selected national identification cards. I don’t have any one of the cards so I have to register for one. Because of this, I have been to one of the branches of SSNIT offices in the Greater Accra Region to engage in the exercise. Now, when I first went to the SSNIT office, I was asked to write my name, purpose for going there, telephone number, arrival time and then finally sign at the security checkpoint. As I was doing all that, I heard some people complaining about this process which minded me to know that it

Different people from different backgrounds and experiences have different characteristics that partly define their personality. One of such defining characteristics is temperament or anger. Some people flare up at the slightest provocation. Anger is a dangerous thing if not controlled well. Now, over my almost two-year stay in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana, I have observed a growing tension between bus conductors (mates) of trotro vehicles and passengers. The underlying cause of this growing anger as I have observed is contempt. Both parties have a fair amount of contempt for one another. This contempt is gradually brewing undying anger between the two parties that may one day escalate to an unquenchable level. Admittedly, being a mate is not the most glamorous job one would want to show off with. Passengers knowing the nature of this job often want to exhibit their disgust for mates. And the mates also knowing this always want to stand their ground in an attempt to step up

The Ghana Institute of Journalism launched its sixtieth anniversary today. Sadly, it rained in my area this morning so I could not make it to the launch on time. Well, I got to the campus around 3:30 pm. It was also the same time that the canopies erected for the occasion were being packed. It was like being given the black (kanzo) part of the rice you helped cook because you were not around when it was ready to be consumed. Just serve it to the goats and curse the people in your head. Satan also hears silent prayers. I stood under one of the ‘permanent’ canopies on the campus as God continued to wet the earth while He stayed in a dry heaven. While I stood and gazed and imagining whether the school is actually sixty years, something happened that I cannot resist writing about. Ghana would be far advanced in terms of civilization and development if we, the citizens were law-abiding and not as obstinate and insistent on the wrong things like the devil himself yet we pretend to wo

Unless John Dramani Mahama intends to contest 2024 if he loses the 2020 elections, one way or the other, we will have a one-term president in the history of this country come December 7, 2020. As to whom it will be, only time, campaign messages, and the thumbs of Ghanaians will tell. Yesterday, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) gave a resounding victory to John Dramani Mahama to lead them into the 2020 general elections. He won over 95% of the total votes cast by the NDC delegates yesterday. In fact, Prof. Joshua Alabi, a contestant jokingly said that the gap was too much. Umaru Sanda Amadu Of Citi FM/TV calls Dr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah the ultimate loser of yesterday’s elections. Some people too have commended Prof. Joshua Alabi for coming second even though his performance was awkwardly awful. Some political commentators have already said that for John Mahama to choose a running mate from amongst those who contested him, Prof Joshua Alabi, Alban Bagbin, Goosie Tanoh, Dr. Ekw

For an entire university academic year, I stayed with my uncle. Now, make no mistake, it was the first time I was meeting him. Imagine yourself moving from your comfort zone to live in a city you have only heard so much about and a person you have never spoken to before not to talk of seeing him. Yes, that was the feeling initially but with time, I settled in just fine. I settled in not just with the different lifestyle I had to adapt to suit the academic challenges of the university but how to cope with living with a person I had never met. I would say my uncle is a semi-liberal person. He doesn’t often talk about what others do. He observes for a while before making any observatory comments. Frankly speaking, for the fun part, I enjoyed living with my uncle. But the part where he would descend on me to make his observatory comments about all the wrong things I had done, I really didn’t enjoy it.... (Yussif smiles).. Don’t get me wrong, I like it when someone points out my mi

Yes, I went to a wedding ceremony last week on Sunday. Now, before the trotro vehicle which would eventually stain my white dress the next day (weird) pulled out of the Darkuman Official Town circle spot, a lot of dust began to settle in it. We, the passengers looked around and found out that a mentally challenged individual was sweeping along the street. Some of the passengers began to make some unsettling comments. While others insulted the sweeping mentally challenged lady to be insane, others spoke of how nobody had sent her to sweep the roadside that early morning. After they have made all these comments and many others like them, it got me thinking. So, the mentally challenged person has realized that the place is dirty and for that matter needs cleaning but the mentally sane people don’t see that. The mentally challenged sees that we need a clean environment to live healthily but the mentally sane individuals don’t see the same thing. Above all, the mentally chal

There is a growing perception of the Ghanaian media that it only feeds into negative news. They rarely report or give much attention to positive news or happenings in this country. This, as the argument suggests, emboldens foreign media to also report only negative news about Ghana and even Africa as a whole. I strongly disagree with such perception about the Ghanaian media on grounds that the media gives attention to issues that are prevalent in its environs. Because Ghana is fraught with so many challenges, the media is forced to focus on giving attention to the same to draw the attention of the leaders. Yes, the news must be balanced with both positive and negative stories. But if the country is suffocating under so many challenges, the media cannot turn a blind eye just because they want to put the country in a positive space on the international front. So, if almost all the roads in this country are worthy and not deplorable, the media would still report negatively about roa

Out of about twenty-eight comments that followed her post, only about two people suggested that she could have done otherwise. Well, she disagreed with them anyway. In fact, my heart skipped a beat when I saw her post at first but I eventually calmed down. I thought she wanted to disgrace me in public for getting some of my facts wrong in an article I had written. But I later realized that even though she could have chastised me in private instead of in public, the public rebuke will better put me on my toes to do better next time. I was impressed with something her husband had done and I wrote an article about it. He had provided some dustbins in some parts of Accra to help curb the poor sanitation in the city. Now, in the article, I referred to Bilqis Binta Umaru Sanda as Umaru Sanda Amadu’s wife instead of referring to her as his daughter. So his wife who is Bilkis Nuhu Kokroko took to Facebook and lashed at me for getting this wrong. Indeed, not that I didn’t know the fact