Like it happened to the people in the Biblical days, who used 4,000 years instead of 40 days, one of Ghana’s representatives in the just-ended Africa Hockey Club Championships, Reformers traveled by road for over 36 hours to the tournament venue.
And as Lucky Dube of blessed memory sang in his ‘Remember me’ track, we wandered up and down the thick forests of ‘SOWETO’ in search of the main route linking to the Abuja road.
Indeed, it was a tiring journey but thanks to the Prisons’ brave drivers -Samuel ‘Keteku’… and Wiafe, who drove for several unending hours.
The team left Accra at 5pm on Monday and arrived in Nigeria on Wednesday, a day before the start of the tournament, tired and with swollen feet.
The road map to Abuja is poorly designed, as we struggled in vain on many occasions to locate sign posts to guide us, so we eventually fell on the inhabitants of the villages liking the main road.
One of such attempts threw us overboard and we found ourselves in a bush we nicknamed ‘the Evil forest’, where we encountered no vehicle after traveling for many kilometers at midnight.
However, after going through the hustle and bustle of a long travel, we eventually reached our destination.
The Reformers team gave a good account of themselves by finishing fourth in the competition, losing 0-1 to fellow Ghanaian opponents CEPS, in the third-placed game.
It was the defending champions, Heartland of Nigeria, who retained the trophy by beating Kenya’s Telkom 5-2 in the final of the women category.
Ghana’s Golden Sticks beat Nigeria’s Yobe Desert 4-2 to finish as bronze medalists, while African hockey giants, Sharkiah of Egypt beat fellow Egyptian side Police by 5-2 in the final of the male category.
But it was all good, there was a clear demonstration of stick work, and players like Exchequers’ Alfred Armah, Golden Sticks’ Joseph Appiah and Kenya’s Edna Simbi were some of the finest in the ten-day hockey fiesta.
Life in Abuja, a state designed for the affluent is extremely expensive, unlike Lagos where we passed the night on our return to Accra.
We even located a place where they sell kenkey, and it was like manner from Heaven after days of taking nothing apart from their local delicacy of ‘Eba’ with ‘Egusi’ stew or pounded Yam with okro soup, popularly known as ‘draw back’.
Next year’s competition will be hosted by Uganda on a date to be announced later.
All the four reps, Reformers, CEPS, Golden Sticks and Exchequers have safely arrived in the country.
