Yussif Ahmed Ibn Yussif

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