He swatted from his right arm what appeared to be a ‘mysterious’ mosquito. The sun was harshly smiling and John Atise was busily working.
His right foot stepping on a small black pad that laid on the ground, John’s Masco Sewing Machine sounded ‘grrrrrrrrrrr’ and he gently pushed the edges of a folded material under the machine’s needle-point.
I had gone to Kweku Panfo to report on the December 1 special voting and I would engage him to know more about him.
“I learnt this trade, as an apprentice, in Takoradi, in the Western region, and graduated in 2004,” he tells me.
Here at Kweku Panfo, a community under the Domeabra-Obom Constituency of the Ga South Municipality, John Atise is both their Ralph Lauren and Giorgio Armani. He is anything fashion.
“There used to be three tailors here but two of them have abandoned their shops to ply a new trade as tricycle riders. We are only left with Atise here at [Kweku] Panfo and if you are a man and wants to look classy, then, you cannot bypass Atise,” says Kwame, a resident.
“Whether it is wedding or funeral, our tailor remains Atise,” says another man.
John Atise plies his trade in his family house under an erected post of four bamboo sticks with a corrugated iron sheet roofing it.
The Kweku Panfo acclaimed tailor tells me that he is forced to close from work whenever it rains. “You see this roofing, my brother! You tell me if it is possible staying under this shed for just a second when it rains.”
The iron sheet, when one raises the head could see the heavens through its holes. Electric cables hang top-down from his shop’s roofing to connect to his sewing machine.
John says after he completed learning how to sew in Takoradi, he made efforts to get his own shop in the city. However, after waiting for that miracle that never came he decided to go back to his roots.
“It is here [Kweku Panfo] I come from and I told myself that to starve in Takoradi, it will be better I join my wife and children back home. At least, by the close of each day, in my hometown, there would be food on my table,” says John as he fixedly stared at his sewing material.
His coming back to Kweku Panfo was a little after his graduation in 2004. He learnt all he could in Takoradi as he tells me is able to even sew choir robes among others.
John’s major challenge now is that although he has customers that keep bringing him materials to be sewn, these customers refuse to come back for their shirts. It sounds interesting, right? But what could be the reason?
He says “the customers are unable to pay the 20Gh₵ per a shirt sewn.” At times, he is so sympathetic that he reduces his price to 15Gh₵ but these customers would still not come for their shirts.
John says what keeps him ‘opening’ his shop on daily basis is the word “hope.” He has that hope that as the cock awaits to announce the birth of a new day, someone among his numerous customers would come for their shirts so he gets his profit.
Kweku Panfo seems to be habouring an army of youth who are poised to achieve in life. John Atise is not the only one dying to succeed here. Opposite to John’s tailoring shop is another shed.
This shed, far better than that of John, serves as the parking lot of the Kweku Panfo Okada Riders Association (KPORA). The road from Domeabra to Kweku Panfo is pot-holed as the front teeth of an old lady in an Ananse story. And this road is basically inaccessible by cars.
So, these Okada riders serve as that ‘bridge’ connecting Domeabra to Kweku Panfo. When I got to their station I could count as many as nine motorbikes that were parked awaiting passengers.
Uhmali Francis is the head of the Kweku Panfo Okada Riders Association. He tells me they charge 10Gh₵ from Kweku Panfo to Domeabra.
Like the case of John Atise, the Okada riders also have concerns. They have not been able to register their motorbikes. This, they find it hard going near Kasoa as they fear they would be apprehended by the police when caught.
“So, why are you not registering these bikes to get out of this hide and seek with the police,” I asked.
“The truth is that these are not our bikes. We work for our masters [owners of the bikes] and they are not listening to us despite our complaints,” says Uhmali Francis.
Francis, as well, tells me they are not paid at the end of the day/month. What their masters demand is a fixed amount of say 100Gh₵ a week. Here, if the riders are able to work to accrue enough money exceeding the targeted amount, then, they [riders] pocket the surplus.
“It’s like we are working in vain. I just hope any government that will come into power after the December 7 polls will come to our rescue.
“We just need such a government to support us by buying us the motorbikes so we work to defray its cost, by so doing it becomes ours after defraying the cost of the bike.”
The riders tell me they do not engage themselves in partisan politics. They all will obviously not vote the same presidential candidate. However, they will eagerly work with any government that comes to power.
The plight of the youth of Kweku Panfo is a microcosm of the bigger picture across the country. If our youth get actively involved in a productive venture, no politician stands the chance of inciting them to violence.
I believe government creating an enabling environment for the youth like John Atise and his cohorts to start up their own businesses would go a long way to put our country on the right path.
The writer is a broadcast journalist with 3FM 92.7. Views expressed here solely remains his opinion and not that of his organisation.
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