bidemi12:

I took me a while to understand what Ghana is doing right that we aren't. on my first sojourn to the accra i could almost swear i was i Ilorin or some other outskirt city in Nigeria. It was not as if the place was overly developed and there were untared roads everywhere. But then it struck me. The main difference were the people. There was no hussle and bustle, there was smiles on everybody's faces and a sense of contentment. You felt at peace; safe and secure. You were not afraid that someone could at any moment obtain you for no reason . This is an import driven economy but you would never know it. So, we as Nigerians want to feel security. In our investments, in our lives, in our ambitions. That is why Ghana is held in higher regard that Nigeria. People make a NATION.

Thats relativity, 150million + compared to 20 million+= less people, less hussle and bussle as you claim

its the same if you compare lagos 15million plus to calabar 3million plus.

there's a mathematical formulae to everything,

morpheus24:

Thats relativity, 150million + compared to 20 million+= less people, less hussle and bussle as you claim

its the same if you compare lagos 15million plus to calabar 3million plus.

there's a mathematical formulae to everything,

A mathematical formulae to contentment? lol

Kobojunkie:

A mathematical formulae to contentment? lol

As a matter of fact there is!

morpheus24:

As a matter of fact there is!

Please fill us in. Where is the mathematical formulae to contentment? Do throw in the formulae for happiness while you are at it.

Kobojunkie:

Please fill us in. Where is the mathematical formulae to contentment? Do throw in the formulae for happiness while you are at it.

nah won't bother , you'll only bash that as well.

Don't wanna indulge you but here's soemthing to wet your lips

Happiness=Reality/Expectation. You can transpose those actuall mathematical formulaes

@ Morpheus24 Please compute 300 million Americans.

bidemi12:

@ Morpheus24 Please compute 300 million Americans.

The formuale won't work. its on a different continent.

morpheus24:

nah won't bother , you'll only bash that as well.

Are you sure I am the one that will be doing the bashing here? Cause you seem QUICK to bash and put me down here yourself.

morpheus24:
Don't wanna indulge you but here's soemthing to wet your lips

Happiness=Reality/Expectation. You can transpose those actuall mathematical formulaes

And that is the formulae for Happiness?? WOW!! Does the world know of this?

Kobojunkie:


And that is the formulae for Happiness?? WOW!! Does the world know of this?

some people are clueless about it.

morpheus24:


some people are clueless about it.

yeah, sure they are

@morpheus I will be sure to inform my economics and political science proffessors of your findings. I'm sure they will find it interesting. Keep your fingers crossed there might be a nobel prize in the offing.

I guess the whole ecowas free trade agreements was all talk.

protectionism doesn't work.

bidemi12:

@morpheus I will be sure to inform my economics and political science proffessors of your findings. I'm sure they will find it interesting. Keep your fingers crossed there might be a nobel prize in the offing.

What about relativity?

I think you should quiz your science profs about that one.

Ghana needs help, they are acting very bad these days.

Racism in Ghana and Africa; How I almost got killed
ShareThis

September 2nd, 2009; NewsRescue
by Abeeb Mobolaji


Firstly, let me thank the Almighty for being here, alive and able to tell my story after my near death experience yesterday on the streets of Accra, capital of Ghana. Had I died, this tale may very likely have been told very differently.

I am a Nigerian and also a Ghanaian citizen, I had lived almost 20 years of my life in the United States before deciding to move back to Ghana 3 years ago, and all had been going on relatively well, I had been enjoying the clime and integrating peacefully till yesterday when as I drove along Achimota road in Ghana, a commuter bus headed on collision course for my jeep. I swerved to avoid the absent mined driver, honking as I did so, but he came on and crashed into my vehicle.

I stopped and protested, telling them we must get the cops over to resolve the accident. The passengers and driver reigned insults on me and I must confess, I returned same to them. Now, though my accent is diluted, much American and a little Nigerian, they immediately associated me with Nigeria and cursed at me for this affiliation. The driver tried to drive off, but I blocked his car protesting that we must wait for the authorities. Had I known, I should have tucked my tail between my legs and driven off as a third class citizen in ‘their’ country.

The assault

The raging passengers of the bus started punching at my car and damaging it, then they came toward the front and shattered my wind-screen, and injured my Ghanaian passenger.

Next, someone shouted- ‘Armed robber’. A bell rang in my head. The shouts increased- ‘he is a Nigerian, a Nigerian armed robber’. Blood rushed in my ears as I saw my life flash before me. The mob had started advancing toward me, the ‘armed robber’. I stepped on the gas, and thank goodness, there was no traffic ahead, I sped away for dear life.

The series of events that would have occurred was clear- had I waited a minute longer or had my car stalled, I would have been lynched possibly to death, as a ‘Nigerian armed robber’. Just a few days back I saw a suspected robber lynched to a coma on the streets in no different than would have been my fate that lovely day.

In Africa, lynching on the spot is common once the tag- ‘robber’ is assigned, and being a Nigerian in Ghana quadruples the response and reaction. I learned a valuable lesson. Never protest for your rights in Ghana as a Nigerian, simply bow and run for your life meekly or you may not live to tell the tale.

Increased hostility

There has been an increase of hostility and bigotry against Nigerians and to a lesser extent repatriate African Americans in Ghana. The reasons for this are multi-faceted- Poverty, frustration, lack of opportunities, relative success of foreigners to the common masses in the country, criminal behavior of some Nigerians and foreigners in Ghana and the like. To be frank, a good amount of armed robbers caught or killed in Ghana are foreigners and Nigerians. This is unfortunate but not a reason or justification for the increased hostility toward foreigners and hate crimes. Hate crimes are never justifiable, be they against Mexicans in America or Christians in Northern Nigeria.

Indeed the careful way we all know that Christians must tread in Northern Nigeria is now precisely how Nigerians must tread in Ghana. Be careful, be respectful, always accept fault, beg and run once temperatures flare or you are dead!


Foreign Black Africans are also victims of this very wicked reaction that I call ‘racism’, even though we are of the same race in South Africa, where we have seen increasing hostility and violence against foreign Blacks by the indigenous Blacks due to similar discontent at what they believe is a take over of opportunities from them by the foreigners.

Back to Ghana, my Nigerian friend, also a repatriate from the United states said that last month, because of the expensive car he drives, his neighbors called the cops on him for suspicion of being a fraudster, aka 419. He was arrested at home and his house ransacked and his computer confiscated and thoroughly searched for any evidence of such activity. When nothing was found he was released.

Another friend, actually a Ghanaian, but one who had lived almost all his life in the UK was erroneously called a Nigerian and lynched on the streets till a Ghanaian lady who had lived in Nigeria for over 30 years came out of her car and risked her life to defend and free him from likely death.

These events are getting more rampant and are very unfortunate. Africa is for us all, and our various Nations support each other and should continue doing so. Ghana borrows, oil from Nigeria to support its economy and both Nations engage in activity that help each others interests. There is free travel between west African nations all part of ‘Ecowas’ because we have decided to remove barriers and recognize that we are one family. Africa has suffered enough from colonialism and European racism, we should not punish ourselves further by intra-racism.

Mob actions are very dangerous and the human being must be conscious of the results that are likely from a false accusation, even a whisper- ‘armed robber’ which has a potential magnitude to lead to the loss of innocent life. How will a youth, probably hungry and frustrated who makes such a call feel, knowing for the rest of his life that the wicked, false accusation he presented, or the first punch he threw led to the death of a human being, that loves him and was also facing similar frustrations.

I have gotten through the eras of severe racism in the United States, eras of the very infamous New york Mayor, Giuliani, who made Blacks secondary citizens. Now, to come to Ghana, a country I call home, and go through much more deadly discrimination is disheartening at the least and deathly frustrating.

The whole world is looking up to Ghana and proud of the Nation as one of the most stable, peaceful and progressive Nations in the world, but the rapid transformation occurring to Ghana is very discouraging, and a Nation we all hope could be a beacon and big brother to African Nations is slowly but steadily leading itself down the same path that it was before and that has destroyed many other African Nations. The path of wickedness, intolerance, corruption, material greed and desperation for power and wealth.

I pray the people who nearly lynched me and accused me of armed robbery will read this article that I hope Newsrescue and other media publishes and possibly realize how dangerous their activity was and the implications. Hopefully a discussion can arise and we all as Africans can learn to improve our behavior and accept ourselves as Humans, Africans and brothers.

After all it was the wicked colonialist who used rulers to cut our Nations into the pieces they are today, set up tribes to capture other tribes as slaves or risk having their towns burned down, and gave certain regions comparative advantages or disadvantages over others, hence instilling deep tribal hate lines in our society, prior to that we were bunches of integrating communities with no such boundaries and more love than distrust.

See: The Jewish Holocaust was precedented and superseded by Leopold’s 30M Holocaust of Africa’s Congo

Ghana is very unique in that there is only one population in Ghana that claims the longest local origin, these are the ‘Asante’, the ‘Asante warriors’. The Ga’s of Ghana are actually Nigerian immigrants said to be from Benin in Nigeria that migrated to Ghana. And the Northerners in Ghana are Hausa’s who emigrated to Ghana from all over North Africa.
Ga tribe of Ghana

Ga tribe of Ghana, said to have immigrated from Nigeria

This is the story of most of Africa where people all migrated and intermixed to form the communities that exist today. Unfortunately even among Ghanaian’s there is ‘racism’, as the various groups do not get along with each other. Ghana being a very small nation makes the impacts of such more grave as compared to a vast Nation like Nigeria with over 500 tribes and the fault lines in Nigeria are usually more religion related than tribal. The last Presidential election in Ghana experienced an unprecedented in recent years high level of tribal-political violence, with harm to life and destruction of property especially up north as is described here:

Election violence excerpt:

Charred remains of houses, walls riddled with bullets, and burnt cars and are talismans of last week’s violence in the Northern Region’s capital of Tamale. Violence erupted following a shooting incident on 31 August that abruptly ended a political rally organized by the ruling New Patriotic Party.

A 12-hour curfew is currently in force… …Affected by the violence was Alhaji Mahama Jeboni, an opposition party chairman for the National Democratic Congress (NDC), who is based in Tamale.

His 30-year-old daughter, Sayakulu Mahama Jeboni told IRIN, “The attackers asked my father to choose between his life and his properties. There were about a hundred people all armed. They were arguing whether to burn the houses first or my father’s commercial vehicles. They set fire to all of his eight cars.” She said the flames razed their three homes to the ground. “Everything was burnt, all our possessions, possessions dating back to one hundred years. We have nothing left,” Jeboni told IRIN.

A Ghanaian advised in relation to the strong and oft. violent emotions of tribalism in Ghana:

Things a non-Ghanaian should never say or ask a Ghanaian:
(1) What do you think of JJ Rawlings- Depending on the ethnic group you’ll get a dirty slap or mind your business
(2) What ethnic group are you from- usually met with a silence unless you are very close with the person- Ghanaians have a paranoia of division.
(3)If you dare say- ‘Kwame Nkrumah was nothing’-lol- prepare for an early grave.
(5) ‘Hi Life music sucks’- again prepare for an early grave.

See: Gaddafi visits Ghana; ‘Rawlings Revolution’, not democracy saved Ghana

The world is moving ahead past an era of race, clan, tribe or religious discrimination, as classicism remains the main divider that unfortunately is gaining rounds. We all must come together as did Nigerians, Ghanaian’s, African Americans, ‘Whites’ and the like in the United States to delineate Black power and prowess and elect Barrack Obama as the president of the United States and in effect, the world.

I pray for Ghana, I pray for Africa, I pray for the world. But sometimes prayers are just not enough. Please tell someone to love his neighbor and tell him to tell someone else. One by one we can spread a message of love, and hopefully our children will grow to see a better world than we have today.

http://www.newsrescue.com/2009/09/racism-in-ghana-and-africa-how-i-almost-got-killed/

We all saw it coming and I suggest all these companies running there should pack and return fast before they try what Idi Amin did to Asians. They will wake up one day and seize businesses, they are not broad minded at all. I hope they remember how much Ghana cried when textile import from there was not allowed in Nigeria for a few months.

Can we cut them to size a bit before the insult becomes unbearable? If only we have ordinary NEPA light who will go there for business?

madam L:

We all saw it coming and I suggest all these companies running there should pack and return fast before they try what Idi Amin did to Asians. They will wake up one day and seize businesses, they are not broad minded at all. I hope they remember how much Ghana cried when textile import from there was not allowed in Nigeria for a few months.

Can we cut them to size a bit before the insult becomes unbearable? If only we have ordinary NEPA light who will go there for business?

Ummmmmm.
By the time this happen, so many ghanians will be enriched at the expense of Nigerians that refuses to read the hand writings on the wall

na Naija wey dey condone such things say dem be big brotha, na wa-o!

Ghana will surely crumble if they continue on this path.

@Supergo, thank you saying it all.

People do go to Ghana and then come home to tell all sweet but not bitter stories,forgetting that they go and stay only in Accra.What about other parts of Ghana? I told people on NL that Ghana's election had its own side of violence but people chose to always hear only the good side just to condemn Nigeria so quick.

Just two weeks ago, Nigeria shook Ghana up by stopping the crude flow and before you could say Jack the Ghanaian ministers were in Nigeria begging.Let them try to take Nigerians and Nigerian money outta their economy and see what will happen.

Roflmao!!!! kai!!!! Now Ghanians are XENOPHOBES and it is all against NIgerians? Na only Nigerians dey this Africa sef roflmao!!!

@Superego

1. You cannot use the word 'racism' to describe this situation. Both ghanaians and Nigerians belong to the negroid race. The correct word is probably xenophobia.

2. You mention reasons why Nigerians are suddenly unpopular in Ghana, focusing mainly on 'jealousy' as a major reason. Ever care to gauge the effect of hundreds of thousands of Nigerian home videos that depict Naijans as gangsters and voodoo specialists? Why do you think other west african countries blame Nigerians for the influx of ritual killings?

what goes around comes around!! remember Ghana Must Go! so Ghanian too should watch it o, this thing is a cycle.
But has Ghana really gotten to the level where they can chance Nigeria? make we hammer them with sanction now, ala America Style, abi we be giant of Africa for fun? shioooooo, we never see anything yet, we just dey start. thats what happens wen you mess up your home and send your children out to live in another man's, ofcourse dem go soap dem tire. i no blame Ghana, they believe they doing the right thing for their country, we too should react by doing the right thing simple.

Heart debate so far. Good points everyone.

Well . . . to me the whole thing sounds like some sort of World Bank/IMF script. I know first hand they are seriously in bed with the Bretton Woods people.
Let's hope we don't get some sort of Argentina story at the end of the day.

I don't understand the petty animosity between Ghana and Nigeria. Instead of trying to belittle each other, why not work together. This is the problem with Africa. We are not unified and therefore we were invaded by the white people, Arabs,etc. If Africans unite, we will be a force to reckon with, but thats hoping for too much.

It is better to do things that will benefits our brothers.

Oba234:

I don't understand the petty animosity between Ghana and Nigeria. Instead of trying to belittle each other, why not work together. This is the problem with Africa. We are not unified and therefore we were invaded by the white people, Arabs,etc. If Africans unite, we will be a force to reckon with, but thats hoping for too much.

Petty Animosity aside, can't one argue that Ghana has tried, over 30 solid years, to work with Nigeria in the ECOWAS circle? It does not take a genius to see that if Nigeria, the main ECOWAS country, is itself not serious about development, it is likely that would affect other member countries. I am not certain this move is really ANTI-ECOWAS in all aspects, but I do suspect that other countries might follow suit, if this turns out for Ghana's good.

mrperfect:

It is better to do things that will benefits our brothers.

Which brothers? Brother wey dey claim you or you dey IMPOSE yourself on?

Well the power play between nations is nothing new, and chasing out Nigerians is not illegal for Ghana as every nation is sovereign. All international orgs like ECOWAS are simply agreements which can be broken not laws. The consequences of breaking them are usually isolation from peers.

The question here is does ECOWAS have something Ghana needs? Ghanaian economy and polity seems to be doing best in West Africa as  Obama ratified with his visit. But no doubt the economy is still import based, except for the recent oil discoveries. In contrast Nigerian economic environment is really acidic (high risks), thus the migration to Ghana. If Ghanaians are raising the stakes for entry there are two possibilities===

1. There leaders are inexperienced and over-confident in their economy: This means they are using statutes to help us reverse a trend we should have fought tooth and nail for, so Nigerians should be happy.

2. There leaders are smart: This means they must have seen something in Nigerian polity telling them that to migration of Nigerian businesses will be short lived, thus they must milk it for all it is worth now. Hence the high stakes.

The other probable option is that they really have something of enormous economic value to protect. I seriously doubt this. Ghana is still a third world economy. So far these trade policies are not due to increase in capacity, but relativity with Nigeria. And Ghana is yet to come under the full weight of international politics on her oil resources.


Either way, Nigeria should be happy, forget the street insults!

Nigerians even in african countries are seen like a rat infestation.
All over the place with majority as bent as the letter 'U'.

Ghana (and all other african countries) should start with seizing any large house susspected to belong to any Nigerian that has even the slightest connection with politics.
I think Nigerian politicians all over the world should be hounded back to nigeria and their foreign properties given away.

Nigerians never have a good reputation where ever on earth they are if you take an average view in that location.

Despite all the prayers , Nigeria is still this way.
Who knows, maybe when the demons were defeated in heaven, the worst of them fell down and banged
his big head in northern Nigeria hence the drough, absolute lack,religious wickedness,political
destruction and the 'may nothing work' atmosphere.

Goodluck Nigeria i say.

hackney:

Nigerians even in african countries are seen like a rat infestation.
All over the place with majority as bent as the letter 'U'.

Ghana (and all other african countries) should start with seizing any large house susspected to belong to any Nigerian that has even the slightest connection with politics.

Nigerians never have a good reputation where ever on earth they are if you take an average view in that location.

Despite all the prayers , Nigeria is still this way.
Who knows, maybe when the demons were defeated in heaven, the worst of them fell down and banged
his big head in northern Nigeria hence the drough, absolute lack,religious wickedness,political
destruction and the 'may nothing work' atmosphere.

Goodluck Nigeria i say.

Chei, na Nija you finish like this oh.
God dey

Many of you here are just plain clueless. One will think you you'll do your personal investigations of the trade laws of a country and that of Ecowas

before you again start shooting your mouths about the so-called behaviour of Ghana. Go have a hard look at the trade laws of Nigeria vis-a-vis that

of Ghana and the trade relationship to date and decide who has been a nice neighbour.

As usual everybody is throwing in their two cents without any understanding of the issues here. Ghana is not doing anything out of the ordinary so

my brothers get yourselves informed and stop this grand posturing.

This is funny. I am challenging the source to prove this ridiculous story. What is this nonesone. And I don't believe some people believe this and jumping on that to slaughter Ghana. Ghana is one of the main champions of the ECOWAS cause and is part of the WAMCO zone planning to get common currency with countries like Nigeria, Gambia and Seirra Leone. Ghana is involved in the construction of the biggest pipeline in ECOWAS with Nigeria, Benin and Togo. Ghana recently did ran to Nigeria for help when it had a fuel crisis. Ghana refused to close down Nigerian Banks after the scandal in Nigeria. Why then will anyone go and sleep and dream this story up. How can people be so callous? In any case what does the original writer of this story want to achieve? I can only see the original writer putting the lives of Ghanaians in other ECOWAS countries in trouble. If anyone cares to know the General Secretary of ECOWAS is a Ghanaian

for how long will a king remain a child? for how long will a prince continue his sojourn in a foreign land? i need an answer please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!