Two Days In The Life Of Christian Atsu Brought The Extremes Of Life To One Junction.

Christian Atsu, the 31 year-old distinguished Ghanaian footballer who had no chance of escape when the February earthquake struck Turkiye and Syria, have had his mortal remains interred after a solemn but colourful funeral held on the premises of the State House in Accra.

In attendance were President Nana Akufo Addo, the Vice Président, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia and a former President, John Dramani Mahama. It was a day to behold albeit in anguish, as the wife of the deceased footballer, officials of Hatayspor football club in Turkiye, others from his past clubs overseas, the Turkish Ambassador in Ghana, his colleague former Black Stars players and people from all walks of life thronged Atsu’s funeral grounds.

People die in situations in which fate might have granted the victims a little window of opportunity to either dabble in the lottery of life or death, or to even prolong their lives a bit in the event death became the predictable end to all rescue efforts.

In the case of the ill-fated Christian Atsu, the circumstances which claimed his life had the effect of the total eclipse of the sun which comes with sudden darkness. This particular knell was not an uncommon acoustic in global ears but naturally outlandish to his fellow Ghanaians who have not buried one of their own in any recent time from the tragedy of earthquakes and might have thought this was a first of its kind in their genre and generation. A 7.8 magnitude quake with catastrophic consequence engulfed the place which the footballer was at the wrong time.

Yes, he was at home at the wrong time. Within 45 seconds, everything in affected areas had crumbled into smithereens. Atsu had no chance of escape as everything everywhere in the quake zone were awkwardly tumbling down.

From any stretch of imagination, Christian Atsu, the strong footballer as he was, might have tried to do something to save his skin, in that emergency. In all the references about the bravery of mankind which came to a safe climax, it had been rare to find anyone who emerged from the scenario like the one Christian Atsu found himself. instant hero would have been the accolade of any such survivor. The ignominious occasion which precipitated his death provided no choices. It was like a whirlwind. The few exceptions to this have been infants who were too young to discern such calamitous happenings and therefore not frightened to death. Adults have always been unlucky in situations like these.

For sometime now, and indeed that was a long period of nearly two decades, Ghana football had lacked fluid attacking play that characterized its glorious past. The emergence of Christian Atsu through the call up by former Black Stars coach Kwasi Appiah, switched on a spotlight in the team. It rekindled the remote past when Ghana displayed momentum with the ball, whizzed past opponents to score and cheekily went upfront the continental trophy haul, the absence of which truncated the streak. Is it any wonder that when Christian Atsu was introduced in the team, his speed and skills provided the catalytic influence (or the tonic) on the Ghana team in 2015, becoming the team’s third appearance in grand finales since 1992. Deservedly, he won the player of the afcon tournament staged in Equatorial Guinea in 2015. The player is to be praised on his sterling contribution in that year’s campaign which nearly brought to an end, the trophy drought that hit the Black Stars from 1982.

The end of Atsu’s life has once again thrust into sharper focus the uncertainties of life whose interpretations or meanings go beyond technology into the realms of the supernatural. Having scored the winning goal for his Hatayspor club just hours before the earthquake, the player could only be mirrored in a celebratory mood. Shockingly, on the heels of the joy was another set of circumstances which was to sweep everything away. His very life bundled away in the mystery. What a twist of fate !!!

This then becomes a pointer and reminder to the unquestionable certainty about the limitations on man, and the need to use every material moment of our lives profitability and meaningfully. All duty-bearers who are nudged to a certain awakening by this monstrous tragedy that claimed more than 45,000 lives, must work for the good of humanity in the short while life is in force but whose expectancy cannot be guaranteed.

The Christian Atsu earthquake hysteria drums up the 22 June 1939 earthquake in Ghana (then the Gold Coast). The destructive earthquake which was 6.5 on the Richter’s scale, killed 17, and injured 133 people. Just after the one that killed Atsu recently, Ghana had a scary moment of magnitude 2.8 earth tremor in a small part of Accra.
These show that Ghana, like all other places, is not immune to any natural phenomena that could prove catastrophic.