Life is a Journey: Live it (Part 99)

The other autobiography
I laughed my head off, knowing African politicians by that time very well. Big words with great emptiness. One year later, a report came out saying the building had collapsed because it was constructed as an office building, never to carry the heavy load of a supermarket. Anyone in Ghana and the AMA administration knew the landlord had rented part of the building out to the supermarket chain Melcom. In Germany or Europe, the authorities would not permit such a move. Full stop. In Ghana...clocks are ticking their own way. While in Germany, the landlord and responsible officers of AMA would stand in court and face justice, and the head of the organisation AMA would do the only decent thing and step down from its responsibilities, even not being directly responsible for the disaster...the former AMA boss is an MP and highly decorated.“

„Madness!“shouted Charles Darwin Jr. out of anger.

„This is Africa for you!“ was my response. We kept silent for a minute to pay tribute to the victims of the Melcom disaster who lost their lives and never saw justice served. „Let me refer to another disaster and the typical African handling of it. On June 3rd 2015, it was raining heavily in Accra. The sewage system was no longer coping with all the rainwater for the streets were overflowing. Cars got stuck in the water, and around Circle, the situation was really bad. Behind the GCB Headquarters and the GOIL petrol station opposite a nightclub was my office. Located inside Bediako Brothers Pharmacy, I used one room when meeting business partners and potential buyers from Kantamanto Market just up the road.

On that particular day, around one o`clock in the afternoon, I had a meeting with Stephen Amegee, by his own account, a cousin to former Ghana President J.J. Rawlings. We discussed the issue of the Euros 10 Mio., which was given to UT-Bank in the form of a UBS bank guarantee, SWIFT code 713, with him being a witness to the contract by signing it alongside me. This contract is intended to invest 1 Billion Euros in Ghana for the housing project of his nephew Gordon Dey from Adabraka, and for us for the cocoa business, cocoa farming, and cocoa processing. Half an hour later I saw him off. Debs Bediako one of the Bediako Brothers had prepared the office for us and before leaving the place I thanked him again for the nice gesture. He smiled at me wishing me a wonderful day. I left for Greda Estate.

The following morning, I received an SMS from Mensa Bediako that Debs had passed on. In the night behind the pharmacy, a small group of people had dinner, and one of them threw his cigarette into the water below his feet. More than one hundred people had found shelter from the rain under the roof of the GOIL petrol station. They did not see that the water had surfaced diesel from the underground tanks. They were standing in liquified diesel. When the cigarette was thrown into the water, the fire rushed to the GOIL petrol station and burnt the people. On that night, around circle 150 people lost their lives. Debs Bediako had tried to rescue lives. The level of the Pharmacy was lower than the street. The water from the street runs into the pharmacy, drowning the assistants and himself. Before he lost his life, he had successfully saved the lives of three people. One rescued man told my wife and me later that, before falling unconscious, he felt the hand of someone dragging him to a safe place. He was convinced it must have been Debs Bediako. Russ and Mensa Bediako searched the area in the early hours of the following morning. They found their brothers behind where the restaurant was located, and the disaster originated from there. He was a flood victim, while others had burned flesh wounds.

President John Dramani Mahama and AMA boss Alfred Okoro Vanderpuije rushed to the scene and proclaimed into the cameras of national and international media outlets that anyone responsible would be held accountable and that all victims of that tragic event would be fully compensated for their loss and all their medical bills would be paid for by the state of Ghana.

Around two months later, at State House grounds with 4000 people in attendance, including celebrities like Stephen Apiah from Black Stars, Mr Beautiful and Ernest Sarpong and many others, we all sat under canapes, eating jollof rice with cold chicken and had our usual soft drinks. As we knew the family personally, we were warmly welcomed. Before the gathering, Alberta and I, alongside Russ and Mensa Bediako, gave Debs Bediako at Osu cemetery the last farewell. He was lowered into a concrete grave before soil was put over the casket. While his coffin was lowered, a young man came up to me to stand side by side with me. At first, I did not recognise him. The moment he mentioned his name, I remembered him. Both his hands were covered in plaster. It was the shop assistant from the pharmacy. I asked him about the fatal night, and he told me his story. I asked him whether what was promised to the flood victims had been fulfilled. He denied. He, like so many others, had to pay for their own medical bills. No money given; no government support. Nothing. Was I surprised? No. Was I angry? Yes!

It must have been three days later when I took a TroTro from Accra Mall to Sakumono Estate. Sitting on my bus waiting to leave, I witnessed a young man in another TroTro using his laptop while eating fried plantain. After he had finished the chips and his FanMilk yoghurt ice-cream he dumped it onto the ground. I was furious and got out of my seat to walk over to the young man. I insulted him very well. I said because of his stupid behaviour littering the environment, my partner, Debs Bediako, had died. I had a serious problem restraining myself and not slapping him in the face. He looked at me as if he would see a ghost or a madman. He tried to argue himself out of the situation by saying the bus station would be cleaned anyway; why not dump things there? I knew he did the same everywhere. This made me even angrier, and my palm was ready to beat him up. In the end, I walked back to my seat on the bus, swearing to myself, Ghanaians do not need financial support from Germany, but sense, a correct mindset, and that anything in my power I would do to honour Debs Bediako by fighting the stupidity in many Ghanaians.