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Opinions of Tuesday, 22 February 2022

Columnist: Anthony Afrane

E-levy akokofunu remix

The government has held town hall meetings over the E-levy The government has held town hall meetings over the E-levy

Life is very strange and could be extremely unfair. It can only be understood backward but it must be lived forwards. As I was pondering over this, a friend sent me something that I think is worth sharing.

Someone got married and had to wait for ten years before having a child, there is another who had a baby within one year after marriage.

Someone graduated at the age of 22, yet waited for 5 years before securing a job, and there is another who graduated at the age of 27 and secured employment just after national service.

Someone became a CEO at the age of 25 and died at the age of 50; while another became a CEO at the age of 50 and lived for 90 years.

The Ghanaian gospel musician, Isaiah Kwadwo Ampong captures this interesting mystery of life vividly in his song, "Akokofunu". The lyrics of the song tell a story of a hungry madman who went about looking for food to eat.

Luck smiled at him, he saw a discarded dead fowl on a rubbish dump, and he took it home with much excitement. It was time to find a disused saucepan to cook the meat, but he roamed the whole village where he lived without a saucepan. With sadness written on his face, he went back home to sleep on an empty stomach.

Sometime later, the madman was on his usual rounds and chanced upon a clean saucepan; delighted, he ran about to scout for a dead fowl that has been disposed of, but was not lucky, he never found one.

Out of frustration, he cried, "What kind of world is this?" When you have a dead fowl you don't get a saucepan to cook with, and just when you find a saucepan you don't get a dead fowl."

That is the story of some of us. Kikikikikiki, and one such example that forcibly comes to mind is that of the passing of the E-levy bill which is hanging on the scale of numbers. One party needs just one more vote to sail through, but interestingly, like the story of the mad man, when there is Adwoa, there is no Bagbin. And when there is Bagbin there is no Adwoa. Chai, the world no dey sweet koraa.