WHEN the monument in memory of the 126 spectators who lost their lives in the May 9 Accra Stadium disaster was unveiled last Friday, one person whose name featured the least was Gladys Adinyira Wuaku. No, Gladys was not one of the unfortunate spectators. Rather, she happens to be the one who designed and built the huge monument, the first Ghanaian woman ever to do a thing like that.

Immediately after the disaster two years ago, Gladys, an alumni of the College of Art, KNUST, says she did a miniature of the monument which she presented when a competition was open to determine what type of monument was to be built.Showbiz met Gladys at the Accra Sports Stadium last week just before the unveiling ceremony and she was bubbling with confidence and one could tell that she was satisfied with her work which, she said, took about eight months to complete. “By February this year it was done but we had to leave it to set before giving it the finishing which is made of Gold,” she said. The 8ft monument which weighs 2tons is in the form of a young man in pain, carrying another on his back. It is made of pure cement with gold finishing, with the names of the victims written on a tablet below it.