Wealthy Ghanaians mostly are known for one
thing – their lifestyle. Wealthy or rich as he may
be, he never made any attempt to cover that ditch
– he drove a 4 wheel drive vehicle so it’s literally
a walk over for him. As far as he’s concerned
the rest can take care of themselves. This is a
class mentality of most Ghanaians by the way. Nigerians than there probably are of Chinese
and Indians put together in Africa. But is that
enough justification? Why don’t we consider
their strengths and inputs in our economies? It
is true majority of investments in Africa come
from Europe, America and Asia but take away
all these sources and you’re left with Nigeria.
We are not talking about ditches and Ghanaian
class mentalities, are we? Oh yes, we’re talking
about Nigerians. If you have been following the
news lately then you will be abreast with the fact
that Ghanaian Jollof rice has been adjudged the
best in Africa but Nigeria doesn’t want to accept
it. Many are the things we as Ghanaians share Wherever Nigerians are, there are booming
businesses. The richest person in Africa is
Nigerian. Africa’s top entertainers are currently
Nigerians – the originator of Africa’s most
popular music genre is a Nigerian. Nigerians
make more investments into local economies
than any other African country. So to think that
in common with Nigerians with Jollof rice aside
– music – fashion and maybe history. So at this
point whatever affects Nigeria literally affects
Ghana. Why is any of this relevant to the attacks
in South Africa? Maybe there’s no relevance –
maybe there is – or just maybe I’m trying to paint
a mental picture of the kind of people we have
as brothers. “But these guys are into kidnapping,
fraud and what not”, you’re probably right.
But are you not describing what every other
African literally is into these days? We live in
a continent with such high unemployment rate
amongst young people – fraud and several social
vices have become a norm in most societies.
What Nigeria maybe hold up against the rest of
us are numbers and why not? There are more they’re being slaughtered on the basis of crimes
by fellow Africans is something I cannot seem
to fathom. To write about the good of Nigerians
will take up more pages in this column than
I’m allocated so let’s talk about the attacks. You
probably have more facts on this issue than I
therefore I won’t dwell much on facts else I might
lose my credibility by making wrong statements.
I’m out here to share my thoughts and opinions
with you. South Africa prior to the 2010 Fifa
World Cup was reported to have the highest
crime rates in the world. Who were committing
these crimes, Nigerians and other Africans? I bet
if that were true, the southern African country
will have more prisons than schools and
hospitals, more deportations than exportations
35 | Colossium . September 2019