He gives himself this identity: "Marc Joel Elhui Essien", he made him known through a couple of Internet forums on African bodybuilding, he has posted some pictures and some articles about himself but, but, but... there's a problem about this... "Marc Joel Elhui Essien": he simply does not exist!

Souleymane Fofana in one of the pictures stolen by "Big S". The picture was taken 10 years ago.

It all started about one year ago when "Marc Joel Elhui Essien" aka "Big S" started to join a couple of Internet forums on African bodybuilding. People were amazed about the pictures of the bodybuilder he pretended to be: a tall massive Ivorian bodybuilder with huge muscles and perfect proportions. In fact those pictures were actually of an Ivorian bodybuilder: Souleymane Fofana, former Cote d'Ivoire Champion in 1994 and 1995 and now living in the USA, Atlanta, where he owns his own gym and has retired from bodybuilding competitions. The pictures were taken about 10 years ago in Ivory Coast, when Souleymane was still very young and on top of his shape. Attempting to bring more attention on him "Big S" also started to post articles on African bodybuilding depicting African bodybuilders as having a hard life, suffering every day from all sorts of deprivations and describing a gym session as a most horrible experience. At the moment we were launching our first African Local Gyms Online Contest and we were shocked by such deceptive and wrong statements. We tried to step in but were accused of wanting to destroy the forums. Those who supported our point of view were simply censored by the forums moderators.

One of our posts in a Bodybuilding forum:

NTPowerHouse team greets the interest of this forum and the opportunity that is given by any initiative aiming to promote, encourage and make known the sports in Africa. We hold to point out however that the majority of our bodybuilders in Africa are not as they are presented by a negligible minority of members of this group, which speaks in the name of all the African bodybuilders. These members should speak in their own name and we respect their opinions. As for us, we met recently more than one hundred bodybuilders at the time of our "Online Contest among African Local Gyms". We took photographs, discussed with them, interviewed them and have heard their points of view. No, the life of the African bodybuilder does not have anything "hard", on the contrary in a life of misery and deprivations that many people know in Africa, those who understood the interest of the sport are happy people who know that the sport is there to help them to have better lives, to forget concerns and fight against diseases. To train in the gym is not drudgery, it is a daily pleasure. No, they do not spend their time in front of a mirror and are not considered like people out of the common run. They have a completely normal sexual life and the majority of them are married and have children, some are also gainfully employed.

Mohamed Fofana, one of the most promising bodybuilders among the young generation, is Souleymane Fofana's youngest brother. Lazgo of NTPowerHouse met him and discussed with him about his brother's pics used by a ghost bodybuilder.

Tresor, our friend and a brilliant bodybuilder, was straightforward: "No bodybuilder named Marc Essien exists or has ever existed in this country!"

"Big S" kept on gaining popularity at such a level that our Internet Team started receiving inquiries from different visitors of our website, some of them being potential sponsors asking us why didn't we mention "Marc Joel Elhui Essien" in any of our articles. Our boss Lazgo, Executive Director of NTPowerHouse Ltd. happens to be an Ivorian bodybuilder himself and frequently travels from Ghana to his nearby home country Cote d'Ivoire. When asked if he knew about him he said he has never heard of anybody named "Marc Joel Elhui Essien" in Cote d'Ivoire. "But I know the guy in the pictures!" he said "He's Souley, a bodybuilder of my generation who has now left Cote d'Ivoire!". How could a single person deceive so many people for such a long time? The answer is simple: "Marc Joel Elhui Essien" was not the invention of a single particular person. He was created by a few educated people who are used to the internet and are aware that they could work undisturbed since most bodybuilders in Africa don't even have an email address. We met in Abidjan Souleymane Fofana's young brother - Mohamed Fofana - one of the most promising bodybuilders among the young generation. "Hey Mohamed, did you know that someone is using your brother's pics on the internet?" we asked him. "Not at all" he said "I don't use the internet and I've never heard about any bodybuilder called Marc Essien, who is he??".

We visited the gym "Training Center" where Souleymane Fofana worked as a trainer when he lived in Abidjan. His pictures are still proudly exposed on the pictures board at the entrance of the gym.

Why invent such a story? "We want to bring some worldwide attention to bodybuilding in Cote d'Ivoire," told us a bodybuilder in Abidjan "we are suffering too much in our country, we want to be known oversea...". Others were less cooperative with us: "NTPowerHouse go home, why do you bother about us, go back to Ghana and mind your business". Well... African bodybuilding is actually our business! and that's why we decided to write this report.

We know very well the situation of bodybuilding in our homeland, especially West Africa. We understand the reasons of dissatisfaction of our brothers in Cote d'Ivoire. But in no way can we endorse such deceiving behaviour. We strongly disapprove and reject what has been done in Cote d'Ivoire. On behalf of all African bodybuilders, we are ashamed and embarrassed of this bad joke that only brings discredit to our athletes. The bodybuilding community in Abidjan is like a small village, anyone knows who's who. We know who is behind "Marc Essien" and who has joined him. (Jean-Philippe pardon tu peux arrêter tes conneries maintenant, la plaisanterie a trop duré!). Should we sponsor any international event, we will ask those bodybuilders who took part in the trickery to be denied participation as a form of sanction. All links to the official Bodybuilding website of Cote d'Ivoire, which has also contributed to the trickery, have been removed from our site until public apologies will be made.