Ghanaian stand-up comedian OB Amponsah has revealed
that he was traumatized by the insults and criticisms heaped on him by some
members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) following a joke he said
about the party’s flag-bearer.
The popular comedian during a performance at this year’s
edition of Decemba2Rememba mentioned that the name ‘Mahama’ is synonymous with
corruption in Hausa.
Deemed an expensive joke, a hail of attacks hit OB
Amponsah on Thursday, December 26 – few hours to his performance at the ‘Night
of 1026 Laughs & ’.
Recounting his torment in an interview with GhanaWeb, OB
Amponsah said he contemplated calling it quits after the unwarranted attacks on
his person after that harmless joke.
“It was tough,” he admitted. “There was a point I cried.
The threats were crazy. I don’t know how they got my number. When they call you
and they don’t get you, they text you the insults. A lot of concerns… At a
point, I was scared for my [life]. But I had some NDC folks calling me that
they’re trying to calm nerves. It really got to me. There’re ideas that came in
my mind. I almost quit comedy,” OB Amponsah recounted.
There were concerns he would not be able to deliver considering how he had been verbally abused but the comedian did not disappoint as he blew the audience away with his witty jokes. On how he nailed it during the brouhaha, the comedian and optometrist divulged it was not as easy as it seemed. “It took a lot psychologically. I think Ghanaian acts need psychologists to fine-tune [they’re] minds before [they] go on stage because I really needed that yesterday. I was down. I was broken.
