Each time I go to Ghana, I get angry
By Ghanaian Chronicle - Ghanaian Chronicle
News Blog | 1 day ago
Text Only | Print | Email | Save | Alerts
ReadMore
More Quotes | Submit a Quote
Advertize Here for $8 a day to reach over 30,000 people
Ghana Tourist Villas Offers an unforgettable holiday and business experience in Accra.
By Christmas, I was completely fed up. Peeved, completely riled and exasperated by a fuel-less, power-less and president-less country. So I packed my bags and baggage, and off to Ghana I went.
Two years ago, at about the same period, I had taken a holiday in Ghana, and when I returned, I did a piece with the headline 'Notes from Accra.' I romanticized the peace, security and sanity in that country so much that one Nigerian, gripped in the paroxysm of jingoism, sent me an angry text that I should return to Ghana if I loved the place more than my country. So, two days after Christmas, I heeded the advice.
I went back to Ghana, along with my family. After six nights in the former Gold Coast, and having traveled extensively through Accra, Aburi, Kumasi and Cape Coast, I came back angrier than I was in 2007. Why should Ghana work and Nigeria will not? Why should Ghana, which for now has not started exploiting its newly-found crude oil, not have fuel crisis, unlike Nigeria which has exported crude for about 50 years? Why should you travel hundreds of kilometers on smooth, almost silky roads in Ghana, and your own roads back home are filled with craters and gullies?
police check points
You passed through many police check points, but not at a single one were you questioned, harassed or money extorted from you or the driver. Like a troubadour, you traversed villages, towns and cities, but not once were you in danger of being waylaid and robbed silly. Dare you try that in Nigeria? Why, why, why? Why is our country so blest? I went to Ghana for recreation, I got it. But I also came back with deep-seated anger in the pit of my stomach.
Six nights in Ghana, no power failure, not even for one second. In Nigeria, they promised us 6000 megawatts of electricity by December 2009, they delivered pitch darkness. Why won't one be angry, to the point of entertaining thoughts that are potentially treasonous, mutinous?
Since you can't really hold a man for the thoughts in his heart (at least, you're not God), let me share with you some of the things that infiltrated my heart during those days in Ghana. Just consider that I'm thinking aloud.
The visionary Kwame Nkrumah government was overthrown by the military in 1966. The generals began to toss the country from one side to the other, from Ankrah to Afrifa, to Acheampong, to Akuffo. They covered the landscape with greed, avarice, larceny.
They bled Ghana to the bones, and the country virtually collapsed. Then came pay day. A hot-headed young military officer struck in 1979. Flight Lieutenant John Jerry Rawlings, scion of a Scottish father and Ghanaian mother.
It is a matrilineal society, so Rawlings is considered a full-blooded Ghanaian. What did he do? Gen Afrifa had seized power in 1968, Acheampomg in 1972, Akuffo in 1978. He hauled all of them before military tribunals, which found them guilty of corruption. And they were shot. Shocking! Yes, but shock treatments do work, they have their positive sides.
Because Rawlings gave Ghana a shock treatment, the country is almost an Eldorado today. In the late 1970s, as a result of years of plunder by the military, Ghanaians flocked into other African countries, seeking refuge and succour. Many of them taught me in secondary school.
Bernard Ohene Addai, Adu Sarkodee, Sarkodee Mensah, Ben Omane, Nana Offori, Ado Danquah, and many others. And their women? Let's not remember the days of two lala. That was what they charged then in the brothels (don't ask me how I knew).
They could not pronounce Naira properly, so they called it lala. But those days are now gone. The Ghanaian woman has regained her pride because good leadership retrieved the country from the hawks, from the plunderers. When will our own come?
By the hands of the military, Ghana was destroyed. And by the hands of a military man, the land was restored.
Eight solid years of democratic rule by the same man laid a new foundation for the country. A former military leader has also ruled us here for eight years as a supposed democrat. He left the country in further ruins.
Our own military left Nigeria in tatters. The only Buhari /Idiagbon regime that wanted to knock sense into our heads (and land) was toppled in a palace conspiracy. Oh, what an unfortunate land. Today, Ghana has got her democracy right, the votes of the people count, elections are largely free and fair, while for us, we can only dream of such things.
Pity, pity. Shouldn't we also have shot some people to ribbons? But enough of thinking aloud, lest I be accused of accommodating seditious thoughts. Keep your heart with all diligence, for from it are the issues of life.
Each time I stand by the Atlantic Ocean in Ghana, I remember my father. And two of the hotels where we stayed, La Palm Royal Beach Hotel, Accra, and Elmina Beach Hotel, Cape Coast, are right at the bank of the great sea.
It was the same waters on which my father sailed almost 55 years ago, in search of the Golden Fleece. He never stopped telling us of the voyage to Fourah Bay College, Sierra-Leone, where he took a degree in Economics. He had stopped over in Ghana. Maybe he even stood on the very spot on which I had my feet planted. Memories are forever.
At a point in Accra, my wife and daughter needed to buy sunglasses. Our tour guide, Steve, was driving a fairly new Toyota. He simply found a place to park, left the engine running, and went to help them bargain. Good old Lagos! Leave your car door open with the engine running? The car will be at Cotonou in the next hour!
Hey! There is even Olusegun Obasanjo Way in Accra. Who dashed him? A long, well constructed dual carriageway. Continued
Single Page Prev Page 1|2 Next Page
Source: Ghanaian Chronicle - Ghanaian Chronicle
More News Headlines
Previous Article in News Blog | Next Article in News Blog
Bookmark with:
Comments To This Article
No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts?Add your comment
View All | Add Your View
More From Author
NPP: leadership dramatics and cascades
Each time I go to Ghana, I get angry
Islam without the Arabs
Quashigah`s Health Legacy.
I`m Dreaming of a Dry Christmas…
Is President Atta-Mills surrounded by ``Yes Men``?
Is the Church losing its Impact and Influence on Modern Socie
Be extra vigilant as Christmas draws near
Race for npp flagbearership slot Yes, age is an issue
Herbal medicine and HIV/AIDS related skin diseases
Author's Achieve
Most Read
Discussed
Most E-mailed
Each time I go to Ghana, I get angry
NPP: leadership dramatics and cascades
GHANA, COTE D'IVOIRE:INEXPERIENCE VRS EXPERIENCE
Fat Loss 4 Idiots review for sensible people
DIGITAL PICTURES OF LIFE
Search
News | Sports | Columns | Entertainment | LifeStyle | Blogs | Opinions | References | Real Estates | Classifieds | Directory | Mutimedia | Members | Forum | Phone Cards
Columnists | Feature Article | Music News | Movie News | Video Reports | Documents | News Archive | Debates | Quotes | Poems | Jokes | League Table
Home | About Us | Contact Us | Services | Mobiles | Widgets | Advertising | Donations | Links | Site Map | Terms | Privacy | RSS Feeds | Currency Convertor
All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective owners. 2001-2010, © Copyright ModernGhana.com
| Posted: at | |
omatu
attamem
TRENDING GISTS 
GWR Holder, Tunde Onakoya's Parents Gifted A House
PICS; Police Arrest 8 Suspected Kidnappers, Rescue Four Kidnapped Victims In Delta
"I Can't Breath" -Disturbing Video Shows Handcuffed Black Man's Last Words As Police Knelt On Him Before He Died