FROM INSIDE MY GRAVE, I WRITE TO YOU

Nurses from the Narh Bita hospital (including a female nurse) refilling my grave

From an unmarked grave in a certain cemetery in Ghana, I write to inform you of my safe arrival in the ancestral village. I had a modest send off last Friday (January 22, 2016) at the forecourt of the mortuary where my cadaver was deposited from the day my mortality was proven at the Narh Bita hospital. 

There I was in my narrow bed

I am not sure you will be surprised to hear that I didn’t even have the privilege to be sent home and displayed (mourned) as is the honour usually accorded mortals. All the same, I had what I considered a solemn send-off, and later, a rousing welcome at the gate of the ancestral village.

Before I got drained of life on Sunday January 10, 2016, I had a good feel of the Ghanaian hospitality (the kind of embrace even my own people could not give me) and that, to a very large extent, lessened the sad feeling of worthlessness in the face of the rejection I suffered from my employer and the Liberian embassy.

My nephew, Johny Johnson

I noted a few things that were comforting. My nephew, Johnny Johnson kept faith with me. He offered to leave his comfort zone in Liberia and came to turn me in my sick bed. The doctors and young nurses at the Narh Bita Hospital joined and tried their best to tie my poor soul and body together and so did the lay preachers from the Trinity congregation of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, Tema Community 4, also visit me regularly to feed my hungry soul with the living word. The presence of these people in my last days and during my burial helped to largely restore my dignity as a human being.

I left this world with missed feeling and that was because my life was cut short- I feel my exit was rushed and yet now I am happy to have found a peaceful rest from my pains and worries. Soon after my accident in that Liberian Port which got me bed-ridden, my wishes to raise my children into responsible adults started fading and now those wishes have completely evaporated but I know God will provide for my children and family.

As I write you this letter, I have taken my supine position in the confines of my narrow bed in the bellies of the earth, soon to be attended to by the termites. But before I am shredded into pieces, I wish to thank Ghanaians for your warm embrace, particularly Dr. Edward Atter Narh, CEO of the Narh Bita Hospital and all who were constantly by my sick bed. I also feel indebted to the management of Kenya Airways for accepting to flying back my nephew and which they did last Saturday; he has since arrived.

As for the Liberian Ambassador and his staff, I was hungry, they gave me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, they gave me nothing to drink; I became a stranger, and they did not invite me in, I was naked and they didn't cloth me. I was sick and they didn't visit me. For now I am resting and doing what they will each do one day. I leave you with William G. Tomer’s song:

God be with you till we meet again;

By his counsels guide, uphold you;

With his sheep securely fold you.

God be with you till we meet again.

(Chorus)

Till we meet, till we meet,

Till we meet at Jesus' feet,

Till we meet, till we meet,

God be with you till we meet again..

Signed

Moses Negbe

(The abandoned Liberian)

Pain and grief boldly written on my nephew's (middle) face

Rev Nii Naa Doku committing me to the Lord

And the nurses took me to my last resting place, while comforting my nephew

CORPORATE NEGLIGENCE: LIBERIA COMPANY DUMPS EMPLOYEE AT HOSPITAL

• Employer absconds after flying him to Ghana for spine surgery

Moses Negbe, in his hospital bed with hopelessness written on his face

Three months after Global Marine Investment Limited (GMI), a Liberia stevedoring company flew 54-year-old Moses Negbe from Liberia to Ghana for a specialized spine surgery, the company has left its employee to his fate at the Narh-Bita Hospital in Tema.

Moses in his confinement in his narrow bed at the Narh Bita Hospital, Tema

Confined to his sick bed, dejection, ill-health, pain and hunger have since connived and pushed him into a life of near hopelessness. Though Negbe has had a successful surgery on Thursday October 29, 2015 and has since been discharged, he is still helplessly in his bed at the hospital with his eyes fixed at the entrance of the ward in the hope of welcoming a good Samaritan or his employer to work out his return to his family in Liberia. 

Presently, his post-surgical care and daily upkeep has turned a burden not only on the facility but the nurses on the ward whose contributions put food on the table for both patient and his nephew, Johnny Johnson, who accompanied him to Ghana for the treatment.

Negbe was brought to the facility by his employer, GMI after an accident on August 31, 2015 at a port in Liberia which left him with complicated multiple spine injury.  

According to sources, Negbe who could hardly talk or move any part of his body, was working in the port when a log fell from a crane and crushed his colleague to death, leaving him (Negbe) in a critical condition.

The source indicated that he was first rushed to the JFK Medical Centre in Monrovia where he spent forty days but had to be flown out of the country due to the complexity of the injury and the need for a specialist attention which was not readily available in the country.

In a separate interview with his nephew, Johnson indicated that GMI arranged for Negbe’s transfer from the hospital in Liberia and made an initial payment for the surgery with a promise to provide for their upkeep while on admission here in Ghana as well as their return back to Liberia after treatment.  

Two weeks after their arrival, the company cut communication with them and all efforts to reach them including calls to the Field Agent, one Joe Sayahway who is the lead contact to the company, has yielded no result.

Realising the difficulty in which his patient finds himself, one Dr. Andrew, who is said to have performed the surgery, drew the attention of the Liberian Embassy to the plight of their national (in the hope that an intervention would be made to call Negbe’s employer to order). According to Johnson, the embassy, made a quick follow up to ascertain the veracity of the complaint but no further steps were taken thereafter.  

Johnson indicated that he personally visited the embassy twice but he would not be embraced by the latter. “This is a private affair which the Embassy cannot address”, he quoted an official of the Embassy as saying.

Will fortune ever smile at me? That seems to be the question on Moses' mind

Johnson said he was advised by someone to go to the Buduburam Camp, a community of Liberian nationals in Ghana, for assistance by the leadership but he was met with disappointment, compelling him to resign to fate.   

Dr. Catherine Larko Narh-Menkah, Deputy Medical Director of the hospital described the situation as appalling and wondered why the embassy was proving reluctant in stepping into an important issue of this nature. “We are writing to them as a final measure to get them to assist at least in repatriating their national. We may have to advise ourselves if nothing positive comes up from that point”.

The Mirror, Friday December 18, 2015

                                                                     

                                                               

The editorial of the newspaper on the day

                                                                       -Ends- 

The writer is a journalist (an activist writer) and a blogger and can be reached via klonobi2007@gmail.com. You can follow him on twitter with the handle @henkingklonobi. Don't hesitate to leave the writer a comment on the story read.