Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.Psalm 116:15 NIV
Be with us in repeating the words of stanzas 1 and 2 of MHB 647:
Lord, it belongs not to my care
Whether I die or live:
To love and serve thee is my share, and this thy grace must give.
Christ leads me through no darker rooms than he went through before;
He that into God’s kingdom comes must enter by this door.
It is an honour to write this tribute to Ebenezer Affaidu —a friend, colleague, player, teacher, coach, educational administrator, husband, father, and son to the national governing body of the sport of Badminton in Ghana. In our opulence role we knew him, from whatever vantage point, he stood apart as someone special!
The national body of the sport of Badminton first encountered him, at the mid-stage of his career in education and sports administration some thirty years ago, at the University of Cape Coast with our foremost Rev Graham of Agona Abodom Methodist Church. His special leadership abilities and charismatic personality were readily apparent! Our first encounter with him marked the beginning of our longstanding professional friendship and badminton collaboration and enabled coaching for his players at Swedru School of Business to nurture an intent of establishing a Badminton Court at Ajumako Mando, in the Central Region of Ghana. He was passionate about enabling schools to become better places for students to learn and for players to technically believe and practice the sport of Badminton at the world level. This passion for nostalgia was even led by one of his badminton players that he coached to reach the enviable stage of the 2022 Commonwealth Games just this summer in Birmingham, United Kingdom.
The unifying force that brought Ebenezer Affaidu to the sport is also critical for his vision of being human as a place where people, cultures and ideas meet and flourish. It is this unifying potential and excellence that he has taught us to harness sports’ ability to be an agent of social change and to shape our societies and world for good. As the national governing body of the sport, we already know, of course, how much individual sports – and athletes – were doing in this area.
Mr Affaidu was a veteran of the sport of Badminton, having led its promotion and development of the sport the last three decades in the central region of Ghana, teaching the sport in schools, craving and budding young lads was his passion-some of whom playing in the national Badminton Team. He also led our Badminton in Schools Shuttle Time Project in the Central Region have taken part in our maiden 2018 Shuttle Time Coaching Education initiatives.
We have lost a huge person to our sport – and all of you here – that you have long recognized sport’s wider responsibility to society and its ability to drive social change, which Affaidu teaches us at all times-even to the extent of dying on the sport. Although much too short, his, was a life well lived! He was a determined, visionary, collaborative, goal-oriented, caring person who loved life and all that it offered and a transformational leader and change agent who had great dreams of what sport could be for his society. He had a gift of innovative thinking, a visionary spirit, and the tenacious patience required to successfully lead meaningful sports reforms.
His many awards and public recognitions even during his university days reveal that this was a distinguished sports career of considerable import! His enthusiasm for that next school project was infectious, and a huge component of his success at Ghana Badminton.
Affaidu’s biggest legacy that will preserve his memory with us is to keep a united front and work in our respective badminton communities to transform the leadership landscape in our sporting institutions towards excellent performance.
Lastly, our confidant, counsellor, and hero is no more with us. Nonetheless, we are in tandem with Martha that “he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day” (John 11:24). You danced in the midst of the storm with grace. Well done for a good job for all of us. Today, we admire and celebrate a life well lived, a desire for God worth cherishing, a generous spirit worth emulating, and a love for the family without boundaries.
Ebenezer Affaidu was Badminton. He will always be Badminton. What a man! What a spirit! What a joyous, mighty champion! We jointly say, “Da Yie. Onyankopɔn mfa wo kra nsie yie” you have done your part and – will be missed by many, but never will you be forgotten by those who were fortunate enough to have known him!
Ghana Badminton
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