I continue with my narra­tion of personalities and their accomplishments as members of the Ghanaian Diaspora in Finland, with a focus on Mrs Adjoa Brewu.

Mrs Brewu won in the Municipal elections in Fin­land four years ago. She is the daughter of the late Sir Wilberforce Essandor, the versatile elder in the Gha­naian community in Finland, who died in Finland in 2021.

Accomplishments and honours

It is important to recount accomplishments as part of the success stories of the personalities of Ghanaian descent in Finland to high­light their exploits both within the Ghanaian migrant community and in the wider Finnish society.

Mrs Brewu was the first Ghanaian migrant to be elected as a Deputy Council­lor in the Finnish elections in 2021. Recently, another Ghanaian migrant, Lukuma­nu Iddrissu, has become the first Ghanaian to be elect­ed as a Councillor in this month’s (April 2025) elec­tions. This feat thus goes a step further. I hope to do a write-up on his story in due course.

Even so, in terms of the achievement of being elected in elections in Fin­land, Mrs Brewu is arguably a trailblaser within the Ghanaian migrant com­munity. She however did not stand in this April 2025 elections.

Education and employ­ment exploits

In Ghana, Mrs Brewu went to Fijai Senior High (then Secondary School) in Takoradi, and graduated from the Central University with a Bachelor of Sciences in Business Management and Administration, Human Resources Management (from 2000 to 2004). She then did national service in one of the banks in Ghana.

After that, Mrs Brewu came to Finland in 2007 and did a Master’s degree in Economics, obtaining an MSc Econs with Interna­tional Management as her major.

She learned the Finnish language and undertook an internship position at the HR Department of the Espoo City Central Administration.

Mrs Brewu later worked at the Education sector of Espoo City and also at the Finnish Elementary Educa­tion Unit as an Assistant in the Language and Culture department, which is in charge of the placement of foreign students arriving in Finland as well as native lan­guage training for those who speak Finnish as a second language.

From there, she became the Coordinator of multi­cultural affairs in the Youth and Sports unit at Espoo City as part of integrating immi­grants and helping them to actively participate in the Finnish society. In what can be seen as a two-way affair, she helped to introduce the Finnish culture to immi­grants (foreigners) while introducing immigrants’ orig­inal cultures to the Finnish audience.

Political interests and achievements

Mrs Brewu was long har­bouring the desire to enter into politics in Finland but did not give it any strong thoughts until around 2017. As she told me, in 2017 someone contacted her to stand in the Finnish Munic­ipal elections. She obliged and stood, but she lost in that elections.

She stood again in 2021, encouraged by her father, Mr Essandor. She won this time around and became a Dep­uty Councillor. The victory was unique and hard won on the ticket of the relative­ly small and conservative Christian Democrats Party (Suomen Kris­tillidemokraattinen Puolue, KD).

The victory was also a huge consolation not just to herself and family, but also to the entire Ghana­ian migrant commu­nity as her father, Mr Essandor, a Patron of the Ghana Union Finland as an asso­ciation representing Ghanaian immigrants in Finland, had died a few weeks earlier in May that year.

Religious life

Mrs Brewu is a prominent member of the Methodist Church in Finland. She plays an active role in the church as the Nation­al Head of the Youth Ministry.

Mrs Brewu also coordinates inter­national work in her local congregation and serves as an interpreter in church events as well as sings in the choir.

Her role in the Ghanaian community

As mentioned earlier, Mrs Brewu is very active in the Ghanaian community. She is almost always seen in events organised by the Ghana Union Finland, the non-gov­ernmental organisation for the Ghanaian migrant com­munity in Finland.

She is no doubt a role model for many within the Ghanaian migrant communi­ty in Finland, especially the young ones. She has pas­sion for empowering young people of immigrant descent and promoting the integra­tion of adult immigrants through work.

Mrs Brewu lives in Espoo, a part of the larger Helsinki Metropolitan area, with her husband and children.

In conclusion, I would say Mrs Brewu has succeeded in embossing her name among the firsts in Finnish politics and within the Ghanaian community.

Email: perpetual.crentsil@yahoo. com

By Perpetual Crentsil

It was nearly a whole day’s journey on the Intercity State Transport Corpo­ration (STC) Coaches Limited bus from Ac­cra-Paga via Navrongo in the Upper East Region. I boarded the 44-seater bus at the Accra terminal, and judging by my past experience, I gave myself 17 hours to arrive home in Navrongo for a funeral, but the journey ended up in 20 hours, having set off in Accra at 3:40 p.m. on May 29, arriving the next day May 30 at 11:31 a.m.

The 20hr long journey could pass for entry into the Guinness Book of Records, perhaps as the longest intra-country journey.

Ordinarily, a journey from Accra to Navrongo covering a distance of about 802 kilometres can be done in 12 hours, all things being equal.

The detour to Achimota Main Station, stop overs, traffic, drops on the way and the deteriorating aspect of the Accra-Navrongo-Pa­ga road, conspired to make the journey longer, tiring, uncomfort­able and drudgery.

The Intercity STC, formerly Government Transport Depart­ment had carved a niche for itself, as the most reliable, comfort and safe means of transport in the country, in line with its brand and mission, since its birth in 1909 till sometime in the early 90s, when other companies ventured into the market to dislodge it of its monopoly.

Those days of the STC Kass­bohrer fleet of buses served trav­ellers with speed, safe and comfort and it was the most preferred means of transport.

Despite its challenges, the STC still remains the safest, but its reliability and comfort is arguably doubtful.

The bus I boarded to Navron­go is year 2000 registered, quite strong and “healthy” steered by competent drivers, well-dressed and well-behaved, who delivered us safely to our destination scoring high marks on their slogan “STC, We take you there safely” but not without challenges, some of which are not within their remit.

The detour to the STC terminal at Achimota Bus Terminal, delay and waiting for non-conforming passengers and other stops on the way makes the STC bus looks like a kind of “Tro-tro” vehicle.

The “television” that serves as means of entertainment on the bus was not functioning so as the radio. The only means of “enter­tainment” was the healthy sound of the engine of the bus, as it cruises on the uneven road.

A heavy sneezing and excru­ciating cough by a passenger right behind me towards my left earlobe, who was reeling under the air conditioner, gave me some discomfort, as my right earlobe also was busily picking up vibra­tions from a long conversation from two passengers across the other row on the bus that sounded to me like “Radio Nzema.”

Certainly, STC won’t waive on its accolade of the safest means of transport. More needs to be done to complement the efforts of long-distance transport compa­nies to deliver passengers to their destinations safely, timely and comfortably.

Generally, the Accra-Paga via Navrongo road, a major road net­work connecting the south to the north and the Sahelien region, is largely not in good shape, though can still boasts of some very good asphalt portions.

The most difficult aspect of this journey is the Accra to Nsawam by pass, due to traffic occasioned by the slow-paced rehabilitation of the Pokuase-Nsawam stretch.

That stretch overstretches the journey and stresses passengers; it takes about three hours to journey from Accra through Pokuase- Nsawam by pass to “Linda Dor” for a brief stopover.

The Kintampo-Paga stretch of the road, rehabilitated over 30 years ago, has reached its expiry date and needs complete bitumen redressing.

The once a very good road, has become a death trap; the patch­es on the roads make driving uncomfortable, and bumps on the single-track road can easily veer off a vehicle to a head-on colli­sion.

The ideal situation or the reality now is the dualisation of the Ac­cra-Navrongo-Paga road to serve the purposes of regional integra­tion for prosperity and growth of the ECOWAS sub-region.

What is my problem with all this long grammar? After all the STC bus delivered me to my destination safely in line with its slogan of “STC, We take you there safely”.

Yes, I still have a problem, while respecting STC’s rules of engage­ment with the travelling public anchored on safety, I still have my right to arrive earlier than the 20 hours!

Ye make my dream of dual­isation of the Accra-Paga via Navrongo road, efficient railway transport to the north and, restor­ing the Paga airstrip, a reality!!

• The STC bus arrives in Navrongo after 20-hr drive

BY ALHAJI SALIFU ABDUL-RAHAMAN

In previous articles, the attention of our noble readers was drawn to the existence of the big-bang theory in the Holy Qur’an. Critical examina­tion of words used in describing it in the Holy Book is made under this article to find out how they corroborate the phenomenon.

The big-bang theory is a cosmological model of how the universe began as an initial “single matter”. By “single matter” is meant the fact that all matters or materials in the entire universe had been compressed into unified matter of infinite density and extremely high temperature.

By releasing the crunch on the single matter, it began to expand with a big explosion to account for the name big-bang; meaning that it made a big noise of bang. That was more than ten billion years ago when the process began. Others describe the single matter as a fire-ball of intense radiation that emitted highly energetic gamma radiations and X-rays. Within the first second of the bang the energetic gammas/inter­acted with each other through pair production to produce matter and anti-matter. The next second was followed by the process of anni­hilation in which matter reacted with anti-matter to give back the gamma rays. Thus the first couple of seconds constituted the radia­tion-dominated era in which space was filled with intense radiations that made space opaque or foggy thereby obstructing visibility. Alongside the expansion of single matter or fireball was the expan­sion of space that subsequently cooled. The result was that the highly energetic matter produced decreased in energy to enable them combine and form the ele­ments (Hydrogen, Helium). This stage is called the recombination or the recoupling stage or era.

Following the successful forma­tion of the elements the radiations formed that was “trapped” in the opaqueness were able to escape to the rest of the universe to give light. This element-dominated stage is called the transparent era. Then was postulated the possible existence, in the universe, of the remnant radiation energy of the fire-ball that was burning at the beginning of the big-bang. This remaining radiation is called Cos­mological Background Radiation (CBR) and was discovered in 1978 by two American scientists (Arno Penzias and Robert Wil­son). Coming to what the Quran revealed about the big-bang we read: “Do not the disbelievers see that the heavens (Samaa- waat) and the earth were single (unified) matter (Ratqan) then we rent them apart (Fataqnaahumaa)” Qu­ran 21:31). The word Samaawaat (singular Samaa) is used in the Quran for space and the heavenly bodies including the galaxies. If therefore the “Samaawaat” and the earth, combined into single matter, were rent asunder/apart then it means that single matter and space began to expand simul­taneously after being ripped apart by the Omnipotent God.

The next key word in 21:31 is Ratqan which derives from Rataqa, meaning to sew into a single material. Thus Ratqun is material united or joined togeth­er (Wortabet’s Arabic – English Dictionary), which becomes the single or unified matter. Finally comes the word Fataqa meaning to rent apart, implying the use of strong force in separating the con­stituents of the single matter. It is very surprising to note here that the word Fataha, which is closely similar to Fataqa, was not used.

Fataha is used when ordinary force is applied in separation like when you open a door. Thus the use of the most appropriate word goes to reinforce the fact that the Revealer of the Quran is perfect in knowledge into their minutest details such that He used the most appropriate word Fataqa in describing the early stages in the formation of the universe and not the slightly different Fataha. It does not need any hard thinking to conclude therefore that the above Quranic verse, revealed more than 1,400 years ago, is about the big-bang of modern science.

In short modern science could find no better words to use but the same words used by Allah in the Quran to describe the big-bang – Samaawaat (space and the heavenly bodies), Fataqa (To rip or rent asunder), Ratqun (single matter).

In reference to the radiation and recombination eras these have been subtly captured in the following Quranic verse; “Then He (Allah) turned to the heaven, while it was in a state of smoke (Dukhan), and said to it and to the earth; come ye both of you willingly or unwillingly, they said, We come willingly. So He com­pleted them in two days” (Quran 4:12 – 13). Smoke is dukhan in Arabic which is the suspension of particles or matters in gas. This is what is termed as the radiation dominated stage in the big-bang in which the universe was very opaque. In much as smoke im­parts opaqueness, so was space opaque during the radiation era. Once more the Quran uses the right word (dukhan) that corre­sponds to the state of opaqueness in the big-bang theory by scien­tists.

In the same vein Allah telling heaven and the earth in 4:12 – 13; to come forth willingly or unwill­ingly is only a means of increasing the eloquence of delivering the statement by putting words in the mouth of these unintelligible heavenly bodies. Thus by telling them to come forth is understood to mean that they should form out from the nebulous state of the universe, marked by the preced­ing era of radiations. Unwillingly means either through the unstable state of the radiation dominated era when matter formed in a sec­ond was destroyed in the next sec­ond by annihilation. Or willingly which refers to the recombination stage when matter was formed by recombination without any hindrance from high energy. The fact that heaven and earth decided to come forth willingly, meaning to form into the planets, shows that the planet and the earth were formed after the recombination stage when there was enough matter in the universe from which they evolved.

Conclusion

Diction, precision and accuracy in the use of scientific words in the Quran are hall-marks of the Holy Book. They are all pointers to the fact that the Book certainly originated from the All-Knowing Allah, Creator of the universe.

• BY KHALID KOFI AHMAD