By Prof. Femi Olufunmilade
GHANA, OUR BROTHER, BEWARE!
I can’t hold it anymore. Worst case, I would be declared unwanted in my beloved Ghana for baring my mind, frankly and honestly.
Some Nigerians consider Ghana a second home. I am one of them. The bond is rooted in our common colonial past. It’s anglophone like Nigeria. So, whether you want to do business or attend a university, or enjoy a vacation at relatively cheaper cost, Ghana is a ready option.
Against this background, thousands of Nigerians troop in and out of Ghana. In 2013 when I visited the country with students of Igbinedion University, Okada, on a Cultural Field Trip, we had a rude shock at the Kotoka International Airport.
We were all shooed to a makeshift vaccination point at the hinder part of the arrival hall to take yellow fever vaccination and we had to pay for it. You could be an exception if you have a yellow card and you’re lucky they certify it as authentic by merely looking at it!
My students, bright young boys and girls, began to raise queries. Why yellow fever vaccine when the ailment is not contagious? Meanwhile, there was no diagnosis that we suffered from it. Why not then add other vaccinations, if Ghana’s concern is fear of spreading contagious diseases? Chicken pox vaccination, for example.
Clearly, no rational basis for the unwelcoming airport reception. The youngsters just concluded Ghana officials were simply out for extortion and they laughed over it, while asking if they were so poor. Maybe their government knew nothing of our ordeal.
Our field trip took us to the University of Ghana where we were treated to a lecture on “Ghana’s Foreign Policy” by my colleague and friend, Prof. Essuman Johnson of the Department of Political Science, University of Ghana – an institution that is my favourite resort for research outside Nigeria because of my Ghanaian friends out there.
Next day we were at the Nigerian High Commission where the then Acting High Commissioner, Ambassador Kurmawa, hosted us to an in-house seminar on “Diplomatic Practice”. Importantly, the senior diplomat informed us that, at least, 150,000 Nigerian students were at various Ghanaian universities. He had the records.
My students did a bit of informal survey with their friends and relations schooling in the country on the average school fees charged them by the Ghanaian institutions and came to a 500,000 Naira average, culminating in a 75 billion Naira annual financial outflow to Ghana on school fees alone when Naira was Naira. Not including the students’ living expenses.
Before we embarked on extracurricular like shopping at Makola Market and an evening party at Tawala Beach, we embarked on a solemn and educative visit to the Nkrumah Mausoleum in Accra.
The Mausoleum houses the remains of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s independence icon and pan-Africanist par excellence. Beside his resting place lay his Egyptian wife, Lady Fathia. His memorabilia were there too, including his hostel table at Lincoln University, USA, as well as his telephone set while he was Prime Minister of Ghana.
Coincidentally, it was 27th April, the day the great man left planet earth, whereupon his first son, Dr. Onsy Nathan Kwame Nkrumah, was also visiting to pay his respects. He took photographs with us.
I was later surprised to learn there was controversy over his sonship to Nkrumah. You only need to look at his face, though he’s half caste, and his receding forehead and you would see a replica of his father. No Nkrumah’s child resembles him more.
My latest visit was last year during which I realised the cost of the yellow card vaccine had risen to 7,000 Naira. In 2013 it was 2,000 Naira. Till date, Nigeria hasn’t retaliated this unreasonable and obnoxious vaccination to the best of my knowledge, in line with the Principle of Reciprocity in International Relations.
The average Ghanaian has no problems with Nigerians doing business or schooling in his country. Similarly, most Ghanaian University students have a Nigerian friend, roommate or coursemate. Ghanaians worship with Nigerians in Nigerian churches and vice versa. There’s strong collaboration between Nollywood and Ghollywood.
In fact, on 25th April or so when we flew from Lagos to Accra, my students were excitedly taking selfies with Desmond Elliot, a Nollywood icon travelling to Ghana on a professional engagement. Same goes for the music industry. In Accra, Nigerian musical artistes like Davido, Wande Coal, Whizkid are very popular. And in Nigeria a couple of Ghanaian tracks are chart busters.
The problem between Ghana and Nigeria is at the official level. And I must be emphatic in pointing out the fact that the Ghanaian government is largely to blame for its hostile and rather careless acts, while Nigeria has absorbed them all like a husband who is a heavyweight boxer restraining himself from hitting back despite repeated slaps from his wife.
Should things fall apart between both countries, I’m afraid, it’s the common man in Ghana and Nigeria that will suffer. The officials fanning the embers of a soured relations with Nigeria remind one of the prayer of Christ on the cross for His assailants: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do”!
Those who crafted the law being used as an excuse to lock up Nigerian stores in Ghana certainly don’t know what they do. How on earth could you stipulate $1 million to fellow ECOWAS citizens as benchmark for investment in your country? Know you not that if your victims have half of that money to invest in the United States economy they would be qualified for permanent residency? Would ECOWAS not collapse if every member nation adopts similar hostile and grossly unrealistic, alienating policy?
That obnoxious policy literally means you don’t want the average Nigerians and other ECOWAS citizens to do business in your country. All you want are Nigerian banks, telecoms, multinationals, and fee-paying students. And, of course, Nigerian airlines paying humongous fees to your airport authorities on their daily circuits.
It’s fine. The message is being drummed home. The targeted Nigerians will return home. But be prepared to receive one million Ghanaians on a similar homeward drift. Most of them live in Nigeria without paying a farthing for residence permit. Such is the benevolence of the big brother who doesn’t harass ECOWAS citizens, including foreign herdsmen wrecking havoc on its farms and unleashing violence on its citizens with illegal weapons!
Hopefully, the Ghanaian returnees would takeover the vacated stores of Nigerians in Ghana and the Ghanaian establishment would heave a sigh of relief. At last!
As for those flocking to Ghana for education, it only requires a non-recognition of Ghanaian universities by Nigeria’s National Universities Commission (NUC) for them to halt the exodus. You can’t hate a hen and love eating its eggs. Let your hatred be total.
When elephants fight, it’s the grass that suffers. Let Ghana beware! That demolition of Nigeria’s high commission residential building about which you played ostrich fooled nobody. It was all recorded. It didn’t happen in a jiffy. It was a case of brazen arson for which SOS was sent out to your police formation nearby with no help forthcoming. The bulldozer took time to demolish the building while those who masterminded it stood by it and eventually left unscathed. For many Nigerians, their government goofed in not letting a similar building of your country in Abuja go up in flames by unknown arsonists.
I think we are better off as friends. Aren’t we, Ghana leaders?
Olufunmilade, formerly Head of Department of International Relations & Strategic Studies, is Director , Buratai Center for Contemporary Security Affairs, Igbinedion University, Okada, Edo State, Nigeria.
EMAIL : femiology@gmail.com
