APRIL FOOLS VIGIL IN JANUARY

Krinnnnnnnnnn…Krinnnnnnnnnnn… That was my cell phone ringing; perhaps I must use the right word to describe an annoying call which came in the wee hours of 2.07am on the 18th of January, 2010. What was it about, something special or should I say something provocative, it was a call from Maame Efua, she yearned hastily as if she was running a hundred metre race, ‘Yemmey, quickly leave your room and stand outside. They said an earthquake will occur soonest. I love you. Bye.’ She had hung the call before I could even blink and reciprocate. The only thing I quickly did at a short notice was to hop from my bed, jump into my shorts and ran outside. You may smile asking, ‘why did you run outside?’ to either save my life or avoid the ‘had I known’, last message. But on a second thought, how about those who did not give a hoot at the ‘announcement’? Like my bosoms for real, Shadrach Meshach, and you hoping to hear Abednego? No lie. Then I whisked again to take the first option and boy-oh-boy what I saw was a throng who have gathered outside our compound to circumvent death. I smiled and went back indoors ruminating over my own stupidity of running outside when I know fully well that death can come to one no matter the location. Casualties do take place irrespective of a million and one caution. Now think with me on this; the ground we all ran to outside our rooms, wasn’t it a very suitable location for the quake to consume us all in bunch? What even pissed me off was that we copy almost everything we see others do without a re-think. Because thousands Haitians gathered in open spaces overnight in the capital because they were scared to sleep inside damaged buildings. Ghanaians also decided to leave their abode even when it was a rumor; they decided to troop outside and stay overnight until morning. The only difference between the Haitians and Ghanaians was that the Haitians sang hymns to keep up their spirits while an average Ghanaian was so scared to even open his mouth and utter a word of praise, rather they busy murmuring and gossiping on issues irrelevant to their sleepless status at that point in time. 

Funny enough, I wasn’t the only one who had such a phone call, almost all the inhabitants in Ghana got such either from a distant friend or from a closer foe, calls sure did come. My neighbor had woken all his five children to stand outside by the road side all in their pajamas. One wonders what will drive a hefty man with his beautiful wife and children to stand still all keeping vigil. My cousin was cooling off at a night club with his new ‘catch’ in town. One wonders what will have been his fate with his new girlfriend had the rumor mongers succeeded. Funny it sounds but my dear strange things happen each day and this wouldn’t have been an exception. Claris who has never misses her bed time once it is 9.30pm, no matter where she is or she is doing, kept the ‘vigil’ till morning. Amazing, right? I tried calling my pastor for divine prayers ahead of the mass death, but he wouldn’t picked his calls and the next thing I knew was that his phone had gone off either deliberately or otherwise. Another sick thing that sickened my heart was the disadvantage a house which was robbed during the rumored earthquake and its equivalent aftermath. All tenants had run outside screaming for help from the quake which was invisible and not the visible armed robbers who squandered away with their belongings.

What breathes live into this tale to be pleasant is the fact that Haiti recently witnessed an earthquake in which the world celebrities cum world powers are still trying to put their houses in order to support the small Haitian country. Another hilarious thought is that was Ghana going to be another point where the Red Cross team will fly to, to give aid? Arcane as it may be, a top Accra based radio station lamented on the issue or need I say that they helped ignite the ‘vigil’ among innocent Ghanaians. When I heard of the pre-proposed ‘earthquake’, I quickly imagined that we may soon become like Haiti but God was on the side of Ghana. 

Let me take your mind back a bit on what happened in Haiti. An earthquake occurred with which even the President is still staggered at the exact amount of persons dead. Now for future reference, the earthquake in Haiti was about 7.0 magnitude quake. It struck at 4.53 local time, which is 9.53 GMT on 12th January, 2010, 15km south-west of Port-au-Prince. According to the earth sciences department at the United Kingdom’s Durham University’s Prof. Roger Searle, ‘the energy released from that quake was the equivalent of about half a megaton of TNT.’

Must we be tricked or fooled every time for no course? Must we be so childish in our brains not to know truth from lies? Must every fabrication be our portion served to us even at odd hours just as this day turned out to be? Where did all our faith varnish to? Where were all our men, women and children of God? Is it that we have soon forgotten our celebrations such as Christmas Day, New Year Day, Easter Day and April Fools Day? Have we soon forgotten that we are still in the month of January, so there was no need for the chicken tricks of April fool? So why did we so mess up our sleep with some kind of unscrupulous communiqué from vague source? Kuukua called me as soon as it was 5am GMT and her question sparked me a long thoughtful day, thus she asked, ‘Yemmey will God have sat up there and see Ghanaians go down like it did happened in Haiti. Then we will all have asked HIM, where have all our prayers we do have gone to?’ She went on, ‘Yemmey are you there? You see it pays to be a Christian if not the uncertain would have happened.’ I couldn’t just say anything but all I did was to sigh and tell her to call me back in thirty minutes; there and then I switched off my phone and went into a deep thinking.

I asked myself that if the rumored quake did not occur then God must be a Christian as Kuukua hunted me to understand. Then I figured it out that maybe the Haitians must all be ‘sinners’ that was why God turned his back at them? This question of Kuukua reminisced me of the discussion I had with my soul brother, Cookey on whether God was a Christian? If HE was, then why have the Pharaohs of Egypt in terms of African soccer being the only team that have won the trophy for a records six times? I quizzed because the Egyptian national team will only allow you to play in their colors if you believe in the ‘Islamic faith’. Nothing more, nothing less. Jokingly, we decided to check out the title: ‘Godstian’, and remain in that our new found faith until we get further insights into our sought of ignoramus state, if you think so. But thank God it didn’t happen if not where would you and I have been?


Back to the issue on ground, I strongly feel that there was somebody out there to tease our faith or better still I feel that there was something out there wanting to mock the reserved dignity for such a ‘peaceful’ state. On a brief thought, there must be a news house that broke such news of terrific gravity, and surely should be brought to panel on why and what led it into such a rumored state to scare the amicable masses of Ghana. It wasn’t a case study of taking a deep breathe on the ‘April Fool’ thing, because if it was, my calendar tells me that we are still in the month of January. So why the fool fooling himself or herself? Little jokes root the biggest mishap, so we beg of you, all rumors mongers to desist from your pranks for it shall only tear off our school shorts and enemies go fall.