Danny remembered: I had to sing 'I will worship you' 50 times to Tsatsu in prison

Sizing up the impact of a fallen gospel star, Esther Cobbah, wife of legal practitioner Tsatsu Tsikata says Danny Nettey was a marvelous light to her husband during his dark days in prison.

The astute lawyer Tsatsu Tsikata had never heard or seen Danny while he was a free man.

But in 2008 while severing a five-year sentence in jail where he was largely deprived of his freedom and friends, it was Danny Nettey who entered the prison walls.

He came in a few stanzas of lyrics and clung to Tsatsu’s heart with a mighty force.

Tsatsu Tsikata
“He was listening to Sunny FM and he heard the song and it ministered mightily to him”, CEO of Strategic Communications Esther Cobbah revealed on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show Wednesday.

“When he was sick at Korle Bu, everyday I visited him, I had to sing that song about 20 to 50 times and pray with him”

“… and so I really wanted to find the person that composed that song to relieve me of having to sing that song so many times”

After her husband regained his freedom, the two “passionately” began a very deliberate search for the man who became a friend before he was seen in person. It was becoming a fruitless search after a while.

“We couldn’t get anyone to tell us who he was….we actually at a certain point thought it might be a foreigner”, the CEO of Strategic Communications said.

A gospel musician, Felix, was the most direct signpost to them in their search for him. While on a foreign trip, Felix, who sings at the Victory Bible Church, told the couple Danny Nettey was the composer of the son ‘I will worship you’.

“We emailed, we called,” but they got no response, she revealed a disappointment that was not to last.

It was an event, the Gospel Legend Show, that a-yearned-for meeting materialized.

“This young man in jeans and a navy blue shirt with a 'colly high' passed by and somebody said Danny”, Esther Cobbah held on vividly to the memory.

When she was told the man was Danny Nettey, she said “I jumped from my seat and followed him and I said, Danny, my husband and I have been looking for you and so I took him to Tsatsu”.

That meeting began a lifelong relationship where Danny became a son to Tsatsu until death physically severed the relationship on July 15 when Danny Nettey collapsed and later died at dawn.

"The week that he passed away he was on the phone every day with Tsatsu" she remembered. They were expecting to see him later that week. That meeting has been postponed until eternity begins.

Eulogising him, Esther Cobbah described Danny Nettey as a man whose life on stage and off stage was worship. “He was worship walking”, she said.

The late Danny Nettey
She highlighted the man’s humility which many others have acknowledged. “You can’t worship and be pompous because worship acknowledges the sovereignty of God”, she preached.

And so on September 3, 2016 at the forecourt of the State House, Danny Nettey’s funeral service will be one huge worship service, Esther Cobbah revealed.

As one of the organisers of the funeral, she said a worship service will follow the burial at Osu cemetery.

Several tributes will also be paid to the forebearer of Ghanaian contemporary gospel music.

Despite the passing away of the legend, Esther Cobbah held on to a Christian hope of meeting Danny again.

"Those of you who want to see him again, just give your life to Christ” she put finishing touches to her Wednesday morning altar call on the Super Morning Show.

Story by Ghana|myjoyonline.com|Edwin Appiah|[email protected]