A Trickster - Ex-convict Preacher Caught In A Bus (True story).

It was a cool sunny day around 4: 30pm, where I got onto a bus. As I got on the bus, there were few people onboard which made me question myself that, when will this bus be full? I spotted a pawpaw seller down the pavement, I observed as she peeled the pawpaw appealing and ordered her to bring me some to buy. As I was enjoying the slices of pawpaw, I looked through the opened window and right beside the pawpaw seller, a young man in an ash short sleeve graph shirt with a bag at his back and who was also enjoying an orange stood at the entrance of the bus. He threw the finished orange onto the pavement and entered the bus.

I immediately paused the music on my ipod as this young man begun to speak to us. He started that, he was an orphan and that, sometime ago, he was working at the harbor, some items got lost and some other colleagues and himself were wrongly accused and they were sentenced into prison. He was released not long ago and even a police officer around the area taught he was lying as he shared his story of the experience in the prison cells. This made the policeman to enquire from other police officers to certify that he was actually not a fugitive.

Moreover, he needed to get to kpando (a village in the Volta region) where his relatives were and he could start something on his own (All this while he had a small blue Bible in his hand covering his mouth). He continued that, he was left with nothing to travel with and he was so hungry. He even drew people’s attention to the fact that, if they had diaries, they should note today’s date and write that they made a donation to an orphan prisoner and that, it’s a seed they have sown into the lives and they will reap it in thousand fold in the future. He said a lot about the sad life of prisoners concerning; the way they eat malnutrition diets, how they sleep on their sides, forty people are clustered in a small room and men selling themselves for food (gay). He also talked about how he was transformed by a visited preacher’s book and how he also helped others by not letting them involve in gay but taught them the word of God. He also quoted the Holy Bible in some instances and counseled passengers to be prayerful at all times.

Passengers on the bus felt sympathetic and started giving this man some monies. When this man collects the money, he says a very big thank you amidst expressing God’s blessings onto your life and even started prophesying to an old man who donated that, “if he had a daughter, he should make his daughter do a day fasting on the day she was born and she will become a great lawyer for the family” (Holding this old man’s hand as he says all these).

Other passengers who wanted God’s blessings gave to him and he also said a lot unto their lives. Gradually, the bus was getting full and he needed to get off the bus.

Before he left, I felt to also give this orphan and a wrongfully prosecuted ex-convict something to feed with, I called him closer to my seat, he made a step forward and stretched his hand as I give him the money. I made a suggestion to him that, he could write a book from the experience he had from the prison and that people are going to buy and it will also earn him some income to carter for some of his necessities.

He replied that, “he had a jotter in his bag and he had started already with that”. I then said, “fine! And I will not expect to see him begging for arms again” and he joyfully replied that, never, he will be going to his hometown to start a farm.

As he was about to get down, I ask of his name and he replied that, he was called ‘Mark Apoh’ (even spelling the ‘Apoh’ for me to note it well). He got down and the bus moved us safety to our destinations.

On the next day, which was on the 21^st September, 2012 around 12 – 1 am midnight, after I had completed with an event I was participating in and was been escorted by my cousin and her husband who came to support me. I got to the bus station and gladly there was a bus ready and waiting to send us to our destinations.

I was the first person to get onto the bus, feeling very hungry, I called an ice cream seller to bring me one ice cream and one pastry. He hurriedly brought it and he also got me some credit for my phone. All this while, other passengers were on boarding the bus and soon the bus was ready to move.

As we moved, I heard a voice from two rows back near the window, this man was holding a New Testament Bible (the small blue Bible in hand covering his mouth with it). He told us to bow down our heads for him to pray with us. He offered a touching prayer (fluently in English) to the Most High God and started with his plea for passengers to help him with some money and that, he was an orphan and he was then a prisoner and he needed money to transport him to his home in Tarkoradi.

I realized this was Mark Apoh again! I waited for him to say all that he had to say. This time he was no more going to Kpando but to Tarkoradi, that was where his family was. Once a man gave him money, he said, if the man had a daughter, her daughter should do fasting on the day she was born. He uttered the same words as he said in the other bus to the old man.

I asked myself, how could this happen? I called out his name ‘Mark Apoh’ for the first time, maybe he didn’t hear so I called him again and this time he responded, all the passengers turned to watch me as I started that, 

I had met him the day before in another bus and the passengers in that bus had contributed some amount for him to use as transportation home and not to be begging for arms again in Accra. Mark was trying to defend himself but the destination of going to Tarkoradi and not to Kpando this time exposed him that he was a trickster. I turned and could see Mark bowed down his head his in shame.

All passengers in the bus were astonished, they started murmuring and groaning. One man told the driver to alight ‘Mark Apoh’.

The long and short of this true experience was that, we should be careful with the people who in the name of God come and ask for our help. Mark Apoh, that night smelled massively of drugs which the people seated beside him complained after he had gotten down, however, due to his confidence and public speaking ability, he was able to outwit me and other passengers to give him monies.

We are in the end time and there is no doubt about that, people and devising strange and bad ways to make money for themselves but I will say ‘caution’ so that you don’t fall a prey to someone. Let’s be sober but vigilant in all our ways. There are some false ministers of God also going round in the name of the Almighty God and dubiously making money for themselves. Not left out are also some politicians who will come to fill your bellies with words and if you vote them into power, you already know the results.

 Lets be cautious and not to be taken for granted or deceived. Thank you for your time spent with me, let’s keep a positive attitude, expect the best and believe everything is working together for our good. Cheers and have a good one!

The Love For Our Nation Must Come First.

“Let our pupil be taught that he does not belong to himself but that he is a public property. Let him be taught to love his family, but let him be taught at the same time that he must forsake and even forget them when the welfare of his country requires it” – Benjamin Rush

There was an incident I encountered at the Taxis and buses station one evening. It was around 5pm, where normally most workers after work come and board cars to their various destinations.

This place is commonly characterized with long passenger queues waiting for their turn to onboard a vehicle which is heading to their destinations, hawkers selling, buses trooping in and out of the station. At this point, as some passengers acquire their need from the hawkers, they also take advantage and sell their wares to them.

I was in one of these long queues waiting patiently for a bus, when a young man infront of me just dropped an empty water sachet on the floor, immediately my conscience triggered me that it was not the right thing the man had done. I quickly suggested to the young man that, he should pick it because it was not right. He agreed and willing picked the sachet and added it to the things he was carrying. I thanked him for that gesture.

In some few minutes, a gentleman who was actually even well dressed than the guy infront of the man who picked the rubber just called a hawker who was selling water, bought one, drunk it and after threw the rubber on the floor. I questioned myself, ‘is this intentional?’ because, if he might not have seen what happened, he might have heard it.

I moved two steps forward and suggested this gentleman to pick the waste, he boldly turned and told me confidently that, “some people will come and sweep the premises so he was not picking the trash”. This was because a waste management company has been contracted by the government to clean various parts of the country.

I then picked the empty water sachet and held on to it. This situation let me understood that, this gentleman did not care about the multiple effect his action will have on other citizens and the nation as a whole - if the rubber was going to end up in a gutter by either wind or rain, it will cause stagnation of water, breed mosquitoes which cause malaria and also can even cause flooding, which can take other people’s lives and displace others, if there be many rubbers choking the gutters to prevent free drainage.

He didn’t think about it this way too: that it does not speak well of his country, if tourists visit this country and find out how filthy the country is, and what will be the effect of that on the country and many more.

If you have the sense of nationalism as a citizen you will behave otherwise.

I have also observed that, most of the politicians have lost their sense of nationalism. They first speak from their parochial interest, then their political stand and later the country. This shouldn’t have been so, for a politician, the interest of the welfare, wellbeing of the citizenry and the utmost development and progress of your country must be your prime aim and objective. But some of our politicians nowadays are blinded by greed, cheap propaganda to win cheap political scores and this makes them forget about their sole duty for which they were elected into office – to bring about development and better living conditions for the people.

I have also observed that, some party supporters and sympathizers most often cloud at party offices and demand money from these politicians instead of them edging the politicians to implement developmental projects in their communities. These politicians see this as a way of luring these people to vote them again into power. I ask the question that, “where do the politicians get the money all the time to satisfy these money-minded party supporters”?

It’s my prayer that the spirit of nationalism will rain in the hearts of the youth and especially the budding young leaders of this nation. Let the love of our country outweigh and surpass any other motive in your cause and doings, if we cultivate this, I believe strongly that, there will be a paradigm shift in the state of our country and its inhabitants.

“Every good citizen makes his country’s honor his own, and cherishes it not only as precious but as sacred. He is willing to risk his life in its defence and is conscious that he gains protection while he gives it”. ~ Andrew Jackson

“A man’s country is not a certain area of land, of mountains, rivers, and woods, but it is a principle: and partrotism is loyalty to that principle”. ~ George William Curtis