WHAT is the difference between living in Lagos and Accra, I asked two Nigerians during my visit to Ghana last Monday to Friday. Their answers were the same. Peace, Safety and Orderliness.
“It’s really peaceful living here and you don’t have fear of the kind of attacks you hear back home,” one of them told me. “The laws are enforced and many things are predictable,” she added.
I have been to Accra a few times before the recent visit and the little I have seen and experienced confirm the claim of those I spoke with. This is not to say the city does not have incidents like the kind back home but the authorities seem to be in firm control of the situation.
You arrive at the Kotoka International Airport and its serenity, cleanliness and efficient facilities do not leave you in doubt that you are in a country that is very concerned about its image and is committed to maintaining high standards.
In the hotel where we had the conference, there was no moment of power outage throughout the five days of our stay. There was no generator in sight. A Nigerian participant said he noted how brightly lighted Accra was on arrival in the night compared with the darkness in many parts of Lagos on take-off from the Murtala Mohammed Airport,
It’s no wonder that some Nigerians prefer to live in Ghana and many companies have relocated from Nigeria to Ghana. For some Nigerians involved in business in Ghana, they would rather cope with the unfavourable regulations than return home.
Indeed, the regulations could be sometimes hostile for Nigerians as those I spoke with confirmed. Shops of many Nigerian retailers were shut during the week for allegedly violating the law that prohibits foreigners from engaging in retail trade. The authorities are worried that Nigerians particularly were taking over businesses meant for their citizens.
Even despite being a more expensive city than Lagos, according to a top professional I spoke with, he prefers to hang on in Accra.
Despite our shortcomings, most Nigerians still respect us for our resilience, boldness and entrepreneur spirit. A speaker at the conference noted that Nigerians are very bold in the way they go about doing things and will not take the back seat no matter how late they are to be part of anything.
“I like Nigerians. They are very bold people unlike Ghanaians. If a Nigerian arrives late for a programme, he will not sit at the back. He will take a seat at the front and ask what has been said,” the top business executive said, with other participants from other countries nodding in agreement.
An incident during our flight back, however, did not do credit to the image of Ghana, as a Ghanaian solicited for money from a Nigerian man who appeared prosperous with his many electronic gadgets he had to pass through the screening machine.
“Today is my birthday Sir. Do you have anything for me?” she asked the man who was surprised by the request but obliged her with some cash when the lady won’t let go with her persistent request. I was also asked for “anything for us” by a policeman at the Lagos airport on my way to Ghana but I promised to give some other day.
In all, though Ghana’s population of 30.4million is a fraction of that of Nigeria’s projected to be over 200 million, what is apparent from the image Ghana has carved for itself is that the size of a country does not determine its level of development but commitment of its leadership to good governance.
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