Ghana imports from Nigeria

The portfolio of Ghana’s imports from Nigeria is vast. It is as huge as the land mass, the population and the level of diversity of the exporting country.

In a country like ours where control of standards are often lax, many items and services of spurious quality are dumped on us provided the price as determined by front men is right. Here, one is not talking about physical goods and services only. Intangibles such as political advertising are included. 

Recent imports to Ghana include political billboards carrying messages from Nigerian politicians and parties. They have extended to Ghanaian territory their campaign messages for their forth-coming general election. Many Ghanaians feel uneasy about this development and have spoken swiftly against it. On the contrary, there are equally great defenders who find nothing wrong with these billboards. As the debate heated up, task force acting on the instructions of the national security started ripping the offending billboards. What are the concerns about these billboards?

It has to be emphasised that nobody is talking about traffic and pedestrian safety. Nor have there been complaints about community aesthetics and property values. Not even a word has been spoken about non-conformance of standards. The complainants used terms such as, “Nigeria taking over Ghana,” and “posing a security threat.” In that case, looking behind the meaning of words and with the knowledge of current affairs in Nigeria, one would see two ghosts.

The old rivalry between Nigeria and Ghana which has existed since time immemorial and now termed healthy ‘compitashun or collaborashun’ is at play. The concern of domination cannot, in itself, be taken very seriously. Nevertheless, waking up to find the huge billboards of foreign politicians on your skyline as if they have every right to be there is unnerving. Isn’t that privilege reserved for a brief period for a visiting Head of State by the protocol of the host nation? To choose to erect or allow your image to be mounted on billboards in a sovereign country amounts to a handshake that has stretched beyond the elbow.

A peek further would reveal the looming spectre of Boko Haram which could crawl across borders on the back of Islamic fundamentalism. “Freedom fighters,” they say, know no borders. Else 9/11 could not have happened in faraway America. Boko Haram has shown that they will pursue their targets to any length, but Ghanaians do not want the seeds of a failed state to be exported to their country. 

It is hoped that Nigerian politicians would take no offence over their billboards being ripped. The fact that they were destroyed by an official institution should tell them that Ghanaians do not feel comfortable about the billboards. If it had been Nigeria, hoodlums would have done the business of ripping and nobody would claim responsibility for it.

Many of the imports from Nigeria, though for mutual benefit, leave Ghanaians feeling short-changed. Trade is one. Go to our local markets and the overwhelming presence of the Nigerian traders doing petty-trading is overwhelming. Yet this is a situation that is supposed to have been forbidden by the promulgation of the Aliens Compliance Order of 1969.

Another matter of concern is the implementation of the Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS) Protocol for Free Movement of People. It is taken as a license to invade the country with huge flocks of grazing cattle. The devastation that they cause to farms and our fragile savannah ecosystem is irreparable and may lead to desertification. In this, the Fulanis have found eager Ghanaian front men who are normally respected chiefs. Would a Ghanaian herdsman destroy one plot of a Nigerian’s plot of millet and not suffer the consequences?

Culture, with its various hues, is another import. Indeed, Ghana and Nigeria have such a long history of intermingling that it would be surprising if the cultures do not cross. English, the language of colonisation, education and trade is a common denominator. Both countries tease each other about who speaks the worst English. Without a doubt, the Nigerian pidgin is on the ascendancy. Ghanaian youth rattle it with pride much to the annoyance of their elders.

Film, theatre, comedy and music are other aspects of culture which the Nigerian way has dominated. This is no longer a ‘collaborashun’. It is a complete conquest. Na lie?

Not all Nigerian imports are of spurious value, though. Their banks have brought the capital to fuel Ghanaian businesses. To this, one can only say kudos. But for the political billboards, Ghanaian streets can do without them.

frazierjoek@gmail.com