Guinness World Record attempt turned fail-a-thon

The recent disqualification of Ghanaian participants could sadly be termed a fail-a-thon. Maybe the jinx was the stand-a-thon, which failed prematurely after Efo stood only for a few hours.

All the same, the GWR participants, though they failed, won the hearts of many Ghanaians, especially those at the upper echelons of politics, entertainment, public and private individuals and organizations, and the celebrity or famous persons' class. On top of all this, they had the backing of millions of Ghanaians.

The love extended to the spouses of the participants. Faila's husband brought a lot of respect and admiration for military husbands, despite the ill perceptions Ghanaians had about military men whom they rumoured to be womanizers and spousal bullies. (I said perception). Asantewaa's husband, for instance, who was perceived to be an overage spouse, a pensioner, or almost septuagenarian, had become a darling Level 100 boy for many. Citizens of the Facebook and Twitter communities saw the journalist husband as the best yardstick of what a supportive husband should be. If he is an alumnus of the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ), then that explains it because that tertiary institution is noted at the top of the list as the best place Ghanaian husbands emanate. Lol.

Days after completing the GWR attempt, the latest ill perceptions began when Faila afforded bloggers their daily bread by allowing herself to be projected as garrulous, overconfident, and ungrateful. This was when she was quoted or paraphrased, saying she'd wished Sarkodie, Stonebwoy, and Shatta Wale were also in Tamale to support her or show her a love greater than Ghanaians had given her. It seemed to many people that they had wasted their time and lives supporting her and extending a series of acts of trolling Nigerians and disrespecting the previous GWR holder, Hilda Baci.

In Asantewaa's case, Ghanaians had a problem when the grown married woman openly declared her crush on Kuami Eugene like a free SHS student. This was someone whose husband was allegedly jovially projected by rumour mongers to be a 65-year-old man. That was one hell of a joke we all believed, like Father Christmas tales in Ghana. And it gave us a good laugh. Would Ghanaians have been satiated if she mentioned Amakye Dede or Daddy Lumba as a crush? Sometimes we take things too personally. The damage control was to tell Ghanaians that Omotola is her husband's crush, and we convinced ourselves to buy that communication commodity even though we were not interested.

From there, the more the two GWR participants spoke, the more ill the perceptions about them became. The pill concerned Ghanaians had for the perceptive illness was silence. This was something Mrs. Singathon and Mrs. Cookathon were not interested in taking. Perhaps this was to make them more relevant on social media and achieve as much publicity as possible to get all the deals, connections, and cash. And it worked for Asantewaa. We cannot say much about Faila because of her line of work. As compared to the influencer aspiration, media, and pageantry background of Asantewaa, Faila is known for cooking with a loudly silent musical background. She could be a hot cake for those in the five-star hotel industry or something like that if she's interested. Both ladies had, within a short time, the support of almost every Ghanaian. That is something politicians and celebrities used years of lies and fake lives to build.

Even though they lost, it's axiomatic that Ghanaians rewarded them with something far worth more than what GWR would have given them if they were successful. An opportunity like this ought to be utilized efficiently to get all the monetary value that comes along with it.

For Chef Smith, the low levels of support could either be due to the fact that Ghanaians needed a respite after the Singathon and Cookathon or because he attempted to do something that had already been attempted by a Ghanaian, especially a woman.

The positive aspect of his GWR cooking attempt is that the gift that emanated from the lack of support means minimal to no interference by famous or infamous Ghanaians. This is something we can attribute the failure of previous GWR attempts to, even though GWR has not expatiated their reasons for disqualification comprehensively.

Should he be successful, his case could best explain the adage, "He who laughs last, laughs best."