To my Husna; on your first birthday

To my little and beloved Husna, your birth brought us so much joy, we became parents of a lovely child like you. We named you Husna because you're "the best", "the most beautiful".

On November 10, 2018 you were born as a first year anniversary gift for our wedding on November 11, the year before.

You actually developed full term just so you can come at the right time.

In the face of anxiety over your sex, you arrived, a baby girl. Our early scans told us to expect you but later ones let us down. Your coming brought big joy to us especially your paternal grandmother. Grandma didn't have a daughter and until your arrival wished for a granddaughter.

So you see, we were very excited to receive you. You're special, that's why we call you "Ubweisei (Princess)".

Mummy's pain in bringing you to the world is one that is hard to describe. From about 8pm on that blessed Friday when the active labour started to few minutes after Fajr prayers on Saturday when you were born, she journeyed on the death road. Alhamdulilah, she returned.

In pain, your mum could not hide her excitement, she screamed out of joy with your first cry.

You arrived just few minutes after Fajr. I hope that means you offered your dawn prayers before arrival. Remember this whilst you remain in this transient world.

From that Saturday when you arrived to this Sunday when you're a year old, we like the person you're becoming. A very observant young girl with a strong will.

I am also happy to see myself in you. That you have my big childhood forehead and do not like going to anybody else besides us, your parents. Like father, like daughter.

That you feel like a Princess is traced back to your maternal grandfather who called mummy Princess as well.

I hope you grow up to make us proud of your achievements.

On this day, I leave you with a slightly edited part of a poetry by The Game:

"I hope you grow up to become that everything you can be
That's all I want for you Husna, like Father, like Daughter

But in the end I hope you turn out better than me
I hope you know I love you Husna, like Father, like Daughter"

God bless your path. Happy birthday my Husna.

Mummy and Abba loves you.

I Will No More Regard Manasseh as a Reliable Truth Teller

Manasseh Azure Awuni, one time Best Journalist and a popular figure in the Ghanaian media landscape has many strengths as a journalist but unfortunately, he is losing it as a reliable truth teller in my eyes. I am not saying he has stopped telling the truth but rather that, whenever he tells some supposed truth, I (as Abdul) will not regard it as reliable until further validated.

Why is he no more reliable?

Well, in his recent articles, he made some revelations that have caught my attention.

For instance, in the article "Rebecca Akufo-Addo’s 'strategic mistakes'”, he wrote this:

" ... Someone told me you don’t want to be flown around with state aircraft or helicopters. I’m told when you went to Kumasi to cut the sod for this project, you went with Africa World Airlines and came back by road. That’s bad. See, this is your time o."

and this

"Your husband is also one year into office and I have put my ears on the ground, but I am yet to hear that you are running things, assigning roles and contracts. ..."

Again, in the article "Yesterday’s jog on the tarmac, today’s walk in London", he wrote the following:

"I had kept in touch with someone close to the second family and anytime I asked, the response was, “Oh he is doing very well.” On Friday night, however, I was alarmed. A journalist I trust so much said credible information from a top member of the NPP said Dr. Bawumia had been paralysed. I almost believed him until Dr. Bawumia’s video and photos came up. For me it was timely and helpful."

and

"... Not long after the swearing in of President Akufo-Addo, I became alarmed at the number of official events he was attending each week, from Monday to Sunday. I remember once telling Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko to tell the President’s handlers to slow down because it could be detrimental to his health, especially at his age. There is a lot of mental and emotional fatigue with such jobs and adding physical stress to it could be deadly."


The above statements betray Manasseh as:

1. A gossip/rumour lover and believer

If you read the statements again, you'll come to the realization that, one of our respected Journalists is someone who loves and believes in gossip. This is a bad trait to have as an ivestigative journalist as it has the power to affect how an investigation is carried out.

See how he nearly believed our Vice President was paralysed if not for the videos and pictures that got released?

See how he puts his ears to the ground to hear stuff?

See how he is quick to spread whatever he picks on the ground without verifying if true?

The current Pope once said journalism based on gossip or rumors is a form of terrorism.

2. Someone who can be used or manipulated

I have pointed out how Manasseh loves and spreads gossip, let me add that this trait of his can be used for political mischief.

In the above statements, we know Manasseh is close to such people as Gabby Asare Otchere Darko, someone a section of the political divide describe as the 'real man in charge'. With his weakness for gossip, if Gabby should deliberately pass on some information as the truth, Manasseh is likely to believe it and run to town with it.

If Manasseh had the habit of separating rumours from truth, he wouldn't have written this "Someone told me you don’t want to be flown around with state aircraft or helicopters".

In a political society like ours where politicians are looking to appear better than their opponents, many things will be said but those things need to pass through some verification or checks to ascertain their truth.

If Manasseh had done his checks, he would have said this rather "Someone told me (and I have confirmed that) you don’t want to be flown around with state aircraft or helicopters."

3. Someone who is looking to appear friendly with the current administration

I might be wrong with this but my small psychology borrowed from my wife tells me, one of our top Journalists is looking to be friends with the current administration.

There are so many reasons why he may want this; he feels responsible for getting the former administration out so he doesn't want this administration to fail because indirectly he is also responsible for bringing it in power, the people he socializes with are top members in the current government so he doesn't want the awkwardness that comes with being true to his journalism and being true to his friends and so on.

If this is true, it's not necessarily a bad thing but it has the potential to water down his professionalism. And one of the evidences of a watered down professional writing is to portray gossip as fact.

How can Manasseh say "... I have put my ears on the ground, but I am yet to hear that you are running things, assigning roles and contracts." or say "... Someone told me you don’t want to be flown around with state aircraft or helicopters." and smartly imply a better difference.

What if he was yet to hear anything because he was putting his ears to the wrong ground or that whatever he was willing to hear has been well concealed?


I have stated my reasons why I will no more consider Manasseh Azure Awuni as a reliable truth teller. I expect an investigative journalist to do more with gossip than quickly pass it on.

Whenever I read something from him, I am not going to disregard it and at the same time, I am not going to regard it, I'll keep it in a 'yet-to-be-true' state until further verified.

My Experience with Lite Learn Version 1

We live in an information age. Proof is that, you're bombarded daily, oh no, every second with all kinds of information, useful or not. This leads to what is termed as information overload.

Well, information is good but information overload may just be unhealthy to the human mind. Exposure to too much information, will leave your mind always processing for the most useful. We all know what happens to any system that continuously processes, it'll eventually break down. The mind is complex so it may take longer to 'break down', but it will at some point.

You don't want a broken down mind trust me.

That's why I was happy to hear of this new app called Lite Learn. Lite Learn believes that you can learn practical and useful things in 5 minutes or less to help you to improve your career everyday.

I'm a career person, I work in the positions of marketing and product management at a thriving startup. What's more cool to have than an app that can teach me something I can use to be a better worker in 5 mins.

So I have been using the app for about 4 days now and so far, I have learnt tips on sending cold emails, managing anger at work and negotiating my salary. There are a few more courses I have found relevant that I plan to consume soon.

In all this, one other thing I like about the app is its user experience. The information they provide comes as if you were having a chat with an expert. It uses the experience of the Whatsapps and Messengers, as if the expert was on the otherside helping you out.

Let me not spoil the fun of exploring the app for yourself. But if you're serious about getting career information, that's already processed, you should check out Lite Learn.

Get the Lite Learn app on the Play Store here.

The World of Work is going Remote, Are you Prepared?

I’d like to make a bold claim. Ten years from now, the world of work as we know it will drastically change. More than half of the jobs that will be advertised will give you the opportunity to work remotely.

Yes, more than half of the jobs.

What do I mean by work remotely? To work remotely is to work from whatever place you think will make you more productive, most of the time outside your employer’s offices.

Many people who work remotely usually work from different countries other than their employer’s country. This remote working practise is very common in the software technology industry.

Let’s bring this home. If I have the chance of working out of my bedroom or community center in Tamale for a company based in Accra, I would be said to be working remotely.

The shift from the way we work (having to be physically present in the offices of your employer) is as a result of the expansion of access to the internet, rise in software technologies that aid remote work and the ability to monitor an employee’s output no matter where he/she is working from.

Today more than ever, an employer can assign tasks to an employee, communicate with the employee throughout the course of the work and track the performance of the employee all without meeting the employee.

Interestingly, many employees favor working remotely because it presents them the opportunity to work when they really want to and to rest when they feel like it.

Starting businesses also favor this because they do not need physical offices before they can run a team to achieve an objective.

But if companies and employers are going to allow you to work remotely, they expect to be able to monitor your performance, this means, they expect you to know how to use certain tools. How many of those tools do you know?

Let’s take a look at some of them. If you want to remain employable going into the future, you’ll need to spend some time learning the tools that are mentioned below.

Though these tools are loved by remote workers, it’s important employees at physical offices know how to use them as well.

— Task assignment tools

Asana, Trello

Task assignment tools enable your employer to specify tasks of the week/month for you and monitor which ones are being worked on or have been completed.

— Communication/Messaging Tools

Slack, Hipchat

Communication tools give you a medium through which you can communicate and exchange ideas with your employer or fellow employees as you carry out a task.

These are not all the tools you need to be fully productive whilst working remotely, but they are essential and knowing them will help you a great deal.


This post was first published on naaninche.wordpress.com.

The Role of Fatherhood, Stories of a New Uncle

Did I tell you I became an Uncle effective yesterday afternoon, 20th December, 2014?

Well, my elder brother decided to be a father yesterday (by God's grace) and so around 3-something (my timing is very Ghanaian), he had a boy who according to our mum and himself looks like ME. That makes me happy. Clap for me.

Charley, but the waiting period isn't easy at all. Even me who is just an in-law to the innocent woman was feeling the pressure. To make matters worse, a young lady lost her baby around the same time (may Allah make her strong). Now, at that time, all the marriage plans I have being doing in my HEAD was put on HOLD. All I was thinking was ooossshhhh, this would be difficult for me ooo. I could see from my brother's face he was in 'hell'.

So I begun to recite some prayers. I'm a lil prayerful especially when I need a favour from God. At sometime around 3pm my mum came out to tell us, the soon-to-be mum had reached her crucial stage.

It didn't take long for me to hear the mid-wives shouting at her. This was the time my brother decided to be a caring husband. He didn't understand why the mid-wives will shout at his suffering wife. He didn't finish complaining when my mum and I pounced on him. I was telling him, man, better the shouting at her than for us to lose any of them; child or mum. In fact, had she continued the delay of child birth, I would have gone inside and given her a big slap at her back (don't mind me, the way I was shaking I couldn't have found the entrance mpo).

My brother who could not hide his anxiety, had gone to peep through the windows (for some reason, the mid-wives didn't allow us entry). He came back to inform us, his wife had delivered. Then we heard a tapping. The baby who had enjoyed much comfort in the womb decided not to cry, so the mid-wives wanted to tell him he is in a new world. Then the joyful cry. Awwww, right there I felt proud and then I resumed my marriage preparation thoughts (hehehe, I didn't delay koraa). Me too, I want to be a father some. By the way if a child is born and does not cry, it means a lot ooo. It doesn't always mean comfort for the child.

So it happened, all praise to the almighty Allah, I have a nephew now. I wish this young boy (his name would be something something Abdul-Rahman) a long healthy successful life. If he grows up to read this: If I'm still alive, he should know his uncle loves him so much, if I'm no more, he should say a word of prayer for me (at this point, right now) and know that I loved him.

God guide us all and give us good children who would make us proud. Ameen.