Yussif Ahmed Ibn Yussif

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 ...