Come Home
Can anyone tell me how to comfort a Ghanaian mother whose first son lives and works in The Gambia? My elderly friend, who I fellowship with, has been mourning over her son for the past week.
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I have said all I can to assure her that nothing evil will befall her son in that small country. Yet, she’s failed to dry her tears.
Her blood pressure keeps spiking, her sugar-levels are nothing to write home about. She is so devastated at what could happen to her son, it’s not funny.
So many stories are being told her about the recent state of The Gambia, she is in a state of emotional mess.
She heard something new this morning. She phoned to tell me someone told her that that country has become so dangerous, dogs have been unleashed to bite and kill people instantly. How people are able to concoct stories in a manner as to make them sound real, never ceases to amaze me. That dogs are killing citizens? That is so untrue.
Yes, I read the news about a dog biting someone in Gambia … and he died – Habibu Barrow, the eight-year-old son of Gambia’s President-elect Adama Barrow. But that is not to say, dogs have been released on all citizens?
The incident was a rather very sad one; so disheartening. Mr Barrow’s inability to attend his son’s funeral compounds the pain that comes with the happening. You see, the President-elect had been, for his own security sake, advised to remain in Senegal, after Mr Jammeh declared his intention to contest the election results. Hm Gambia! Not that Mr. Barrow hadn’t taken into consideration the safety of his own family before “fleeing” oo. I hear he was so concerned about their well-being, he sent off his children to live with relatives for safety.
So it was in his sister’s home that this little boy was mauled down by the dog. Awwwww. My heart goes out for the Barrow family. I feel so so so so sad at this news. Lord, please comfort everyone, especially, little Habibu’s mother. Hmm.
Maxwell, my friend’s son, simply has to return home immediately. His mother, who is willing to foot his travel expenses, gave me a number to reach him on to convince him to travel to Ghana. His line was never picked.
I followed it up with an email but he hasn’t responded yet. His mother says the last time she spoke with him (almost two weeks ago), he gave the excuse that he would have paid attention to her request, but he cannot travel without his Gambian girlfriend. The lady has refused to leave her country.
His girlfriend, I hear, says her entire family dwells in Gambia. So she would agree to travel to Ghana on one condition: if her whole family is going to be sponsored to come with her. In fact, I can’t think far.
But she has a point though. How happy would she be if whilst feeling peaceful in Ghana, she hears that anything untoward has happened to her mother, father, siblings or even friends? Will not her joy be cut short?
Now that Mr Jammeh has declared a state of emergency in The country whose population, I am told, isn’t up to two million, I wonder how easy it would even be, if Maxwell decides to leave The Gambia. But he has to.
He must! I heard on the news this morning that at least, three Ministers, including the Foreign Minister, have resigned and left the country. Many, I’m told, are fleeing to neighbouring Senegal. Thomas Cook is also planning to evacuate Britons from the country.
And Gambia’s Parliament has even made the edgy atmosphere in the country worse by extending Mr Jammeh’s term by 90 days. Otherwise, Mr Barrow was supposed to have been inaugurated today. In fact, Maxwell must come home.
If he and his girlfriend don’t want to come to Ghana, at least they should go by boat or whichever means to Senegal or a neighbouring country. The disquieting feeling in that country is so tense I wonder how many people would like to live there willingly at present. So in the name of love, this 29-year-old gentleman wants to risk his life? How? Does he not know you only live once?
Why a young man, the only son of his mother, would choose to flout a good suggestion in the name of “my girlfriend says she won’t come”, is really very difficult to comprehend. Oh how I wish Maxwell was as obedient as the Market Women of Kumasi.
These women have out of respect for the late Nana Afia Kobi Serwaa Ampem II, decided to heed to the directive which prevents anyone to sell in the market today. This arrangement forms part of the respect being shown to the Queen Mother who was born four years after the Yaa Asantewaa War. May her soul rest in perfect peace.
Maxwell. You better come home. Pack and leave. If you’re by any chance reading this narrative, please know that your silence and resistance to good counsel is killing your mother daily. Her arms are wide opened to receive you.
Earnestly, tenderly does she bid you come. You don’t need to travel back with your belongings. All she desires right now is to see you alive in one piece. A word to the wise….
