How Ibrahim Mahama changed my life – Ghana’s cook-a-thon heroine, Chef Faila

Chef Failatu Abdul-Razak through her unprecedented attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the longest cooking marathon by an individual – cook-a-thon – has won many hearts in Ghana and has become the toast of the nation.

Chef Faila, as she has become widely known, is now an icon and role model to many young Ghanaian youth but very little is known of her by the general public.

As the country continues to celebrate her feat, while awaiting the confirmation of the Guinness Book of Records that she is the world record holder for the longest cooking marathon, having cooked for 227 hours, more stories are emanating on the life of Chef Faila.

Aside from being a chef, Failatu Abdul-Razak is a well-known musician in the northern part of Ghana, with the stage name, Jah Bless Faila, with a handful of hit songs that call for peace and development in the region.

Chef Faila, an old interview that has now gone viral, portrayed her humble beginning and how one man, renowned Ghanaian businessman and brother of former President John Dramani Mahama; Ibrahim Mahama, changed her life.

According to her, she "was nothing, had nothing" when a friend encouraged her to go and meet Ibrahim Mahama, when he came to her home town, Tamale. Her encounter with the former president’s brother, she said, altered her life for good.

“This is the first time I’m saying this on air. And I'm telling you for a fact that the very day I met Ibrahim Mahama… John Mahama’s, Ibrahim Muhammad. Look, I was just an ordinary girl from Tamale, a local girl. I remember that very day, we were fasting. We were actually in the fasting season. I was fasting.

“I had fasted on that day and we were just about to break our fast when one of my male friends called me and told me that Faila, 'I heard that Ibrahim Mahama has come and he's at Garba Lodge. You are doing very well with your music. It's just that you don't have support. I want you to try and go to him by yourself. Go and tell that man to support you',” she narrated.

She added, “'And if you are lucky, the man is going to support you'. My house is just around Kamina. I took my hijab and wore it … and I took my veil and just kept it on my head, took my motorbike. I was in front of Garba Lodge. God being so graceful. When I got there, he was just coming out of his accommodation and the security was heavy there”.



The now-renowned Chef Faila then went on to narrate how she gathered confidence to approach Ibrahim Mahama despite the security around him.

“I confidently started walking straight towards the man. All of a sudden, the security pounced on me. Why are you going? Come back. Come back. But I kept moving, so they rushed to come and hold me back. Then the man did this (a sign) and said, leave her.

“When I got closer to the man after the security left me, he was going for dinner and they had called for prayers for us to break our fast. So, he said,'... let's go and have dinner together'. This is something if somebody told me that my whole life, I could get such an opportunity I wouldn’t believe,” she said.

The chef said that after speaking to Mahama about what she does and the help she needs, the businessman sent for a bag and the money she was given to support what she was doing nearly made her faint.

“So, believe me, I was more than shocked when Ibrahim Mahama asked somebody to go and bring him a particular bag. The bag came and I was given money. Believe me, when I saw the money, I nearly fainted. Because my whole life, not even from my family have I ever seen it,” she said.

He added that her actions after taking the money made Mahama and his family crack up.

“Look, I removed my scarf and used it to cover the money. And it's an achievement for me that I got him and his family laughing. Because my actions naturally proved to him that I needed this and I am not a slay queen. The man was so happy of my actions. And I loved the fact that he could laugh out of my actions.”

Watch the interview below:





BAI/NOQ

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