“Stop putting yourselves down. We are a great country. We have challenges. Let us go and deal with them together,” the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola, had impassionedly upbraided us a couple of weeks ago while trying to describe (or rather, justify) the continuing epileptic supply of electricity in most parts of the country, three years into the administration. Nigerians, he reasoned, were too fond of denigrating their own country.
I am very familiar with the African countries he mentioned in his condescending rationalisation of grand ineptitude – Niger, Rwanda, Benin, Togo and Ghana. In fact, I have been an expatriate in Ghana for almost four years now, with official responsibilities covering a good portion of the continent. I have heard all kinds of things about Ghana; some very true, some true, some partially true, some patently false, and some pure fable. Consider these examples:
Ghanaian women prefer Nigerian men – Very True. Nigerian men are bigger spenders.
Ghanaians are laid back – True; compared to Nigerians.
Ghanaians are not as corrupt as Nigerians – Partially True; they just don’t have as much to steal as Nigerians do. Steal $10m out of Ghana’s budget and the country may collapse.
Ghana’s Jollof is better than Nigeria’s – Patently False. No one can touch Nigeria’s Jollof.
Ghanaians hate Nigerians – Pure Fable; they may be jealous, not hate.
But I thought Fashola might have a point. And I needed to find it. Living in Accra, it was easy for me to set out and try to validate or invalidate Fashola’s postulations: Should Nigerians cherish more what they have? Should we get together and deal with the challenges we have like he suggested?
So, a couple of weeks ago, I set out for a week-long road tour of Ghana. I had to see the entire country in order to have a complete picture. I had seen enough of Takoradi and Cape Coast – to the west…almost to the border with Cote D’Ivoire. I had seen everything from Accra to Tema and to Afflao…the border with Togo to the East. I had also seen Kumasi, the city four hours northwest of Accra in the Ashanti Region. But I hadn’t gone farther than that by road. I wanted to see all of Ghana. I wanted to go north…all the way north…in fact, punch through into Burkina Faso and come back. I wanted to be able to come back and tell Minister Fashola that he was wrong; that Ghana was not worse than Nigeria; that Nigerians complaining about conditions in the country were not spoilt brats. And boy! What did I find
out!
I took off from Accra at 7 am on a Monday and headed northwesterly on the N6 in the direction of Kumasi. Once out of the Accra environs, the road became a two-lane (face-me-I-face-you) road for pretty much the rest of the drive to Kumasi. In fact, let me just state here, right now, that other than when I was in cities and towns, none of the highways was four-lane or more. Even the east-west (Takoradi-Cape Coast-Accra-Tema-Aflao) N1 is a two-lane road. Ghanaians have not “invested” in four-lane roads such as the Lagos-Ibadan, Ibadan-Oyo, Ogbomosho-Ilorin and others. I used to think they just didn’t have the financial wherewithal to construct them. It turned out that they don’t need
them!
Between Accra and Kumasi, I did not encounter a single, private, non-commercial vehicle. I did not pass one; none passed me. I did not encounter any on-coming one either. And why didn’t I see private vehicles on that highway? Could it be because there aren’t that many private vehicles in Ghana to start with? Remember, Ghana has a 10-year age restriction on private car importation! And it charges relatively high tariffs on those that are qualified for importation. So, you’d really be doing well if you own a private vehicle in Ghana.
Between Accra and Kumasi, I did not encounter a single, private, non-commercial vehicle. I did not pass one; none passed me. I did not encounter any on-coming one either
All I saw were commercial buses…you know…the luxurious ones…your typical Ekene Dili Chukwu bus; except that these bore names such as V.I.P or BOSS. I saw some regular taxis and Tro-tro (mini bus). And I saw some trailers too. I passed six of them, four of which bore the Burkina Faso licence plates. (Why would Burkina Faso send trailers down to Accra? Hmmmm…Burkina Faso is a landlocked country. It must be using the ports at Tema and Takoradi for its maritime shipments!)
Without being directed, Ghanaians are investing in mass transportation, which reduces road accidents and the kind of stress you experience when those churches on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway decide to do their thing. Two of the V.I.P. buses that followed me right out of Accra were driving so fast that I struggled to lose them. I was doing about 130 k/h and they were right behind me. What does that tell you? Four and a half-hours doing an average of 130 k/h on a face-me-I-face-you road should tell you that the road was good. With fewer vehicles on the highway, the roads don’t degrade that
fast.
It appeared more Ghanaians opt for travel by the mass transit system (the bus) because the cost of fuel in Ghana is prohibitive. I fill up my SUV in Ghana with roughly the same amount of money I used to fill it up in Los Angeles! A litre of petrol is GHC 4.67 (approximately $1), which is equivalent to N360! A gallon (approximately 4 litres) of petrol in Los Angeles as of this month is about $4.19. Do the math and see if it is not cheaper for you to ride the luxurious bus than put your ‘kelu-kelu’ on the highway.
On getting to Kumasi, I spent two hours driving around and taking in everything. Kumasi seemed bigger and busier than Accra. If you removed the government offices in Accra, and you discounted the Greater Accra area, Kumasi is actually bigger. With more factories and a population of 2 million, it certainly bests Accra’s 1.7 million.
And that was where things started to get serious for me. I left Kumasi and headed north to Techiman where I had planned to spend the night. Again, the road was good. It was better than the Accra-Kumasi leg, of course, because traffic was lighter on it. I didn’t encounter any trailer or luxury bus in the two hours it took to get to Techiman. I started to wonder if there was any commerce going on between Techiman and Kumasi. All those trailers I had seen the day before…did they all stop at Kumasi? In the town, supposedly a major town, I didn’t see anything spectacular. I didn’t see any sign of ostentation; no flashy cars, no mansions…nothing. I just saw petty traders. I saw a lot of people doing nothing…just loafing
around.
*Ladepo is a Nigerian-born veteran journalist and security expert who currently lives in Ghana
