I hear Akwaaba means welcome in one of the native Ghanaian languages.
The sign is boldly painted at the Kotoka International airport and most places you go you see the sign, AKWAABA though I have hardly heard any one say the words to me.
I am in Takoradi, a city very close to Sekondi. That is my base for at least the next one week. I might return to Nigeria after that but it all depends.
I made the eight hour road journey from Lagos on Saturday, my second time in Ghana even though my first trip was by air.
People kept saying the road trip will be cool because of the scenery but did I see the scenery? No! I slept from Lagos to Coundji border and then I only really saw the scenery from when we got into Ghana from Aflawho (sp) border.
We finally got into Ghana at 3pm after leaving Lagos at about 8am and after that we actually got into Accra at about 6pm and first things first we had to go to the Koffi Annan center for accreditation.
That was the worst accreditation center I have ever witnessed in my life. Even Nigeria we think is not organised does it better.
It was a complete sham and fighting match for four hours and at a time the Nigerian journalists got frustrated because right from behind them, the officials started attending to Malians, Benenoise, Moroccans and Angolans and then told the Nigerians they had closed until Monday and this was just Saturday.
At that point the Nigerians decided to barricade the door, almost like holding the officials hostage because in their reasoning accreditation does not end until the end of the tourney and the people would have best run shifts to clear out the crowd.
Some of the Nigerian journalists got into fighting bouts with the Ghanaian police who wanted to forcefully push them out and lock the doors and when that did not work they decided to resume the accreditation.
Pick pockets also invaded the place and one official complained she lost her bag and three hundred thousand cedis, then one Ghanaian journalist cried out that he just lost two hundred and fifty thousand cedis and he started blaming the Nigerian journalist until one of us shouted at him saying there were Nigerians, Ghanaians, Malians, Benenoise, Angolans and Moroccans present there so why would he blame the Nigerians and that was when he kept quiet.
Truly I seriously doubted he lost anything.
After that we eventually got accredited and whilst I wanted to spend the night at Accra the Nigerian contingent said they would go to Takoradi that night so I joined them and we eventually got there and packed in from of the Ray Bow hotel (where the Super Eagles were lodged) at about 2am on Sunday morning.
You bet we slept in the bus and at day break I eventually got a place at the New Mexico Hotel where I paired with a certain Arafat Aliyu who works with Hot 98.3 FM in Abuja.
Now it was time to start the business for the day and attend the last Super Eagles training session before the match against Ivory Coast.
My fingers hurt so I must stop now.
The sign is boldly painted at the Kotoka International airport and most places you go you see the sign, AKWAABA though I have hardly heard any one say the words to me.
I am in Takoradi, a city very close to Sekondi. That is my base for at least the next one week. I might return to Nigeria after that but it all depends.
I made the eight hour road journey from Lagos on Saturday, my second time in Ghana even though my first trip was by air.
People kept saying the road trip will be cool because of the scenery but did I see the scenery? No! I slept from Lagos to Coundji border and then I only really saw the scenery from when we got into Ghana from Aflawho (sp) border.
We finally got into Ghana at 3pm after leaving Lagos at about 8am and after that we actually got into Accra at about 6pm and first things first we had to go to the Koffi Annan center for accreditation.
That was the worst accreditation center I have ever witnessed in my life. Even Nigeria we think is not organised does it better.
It was a complete sham and fighting match for four hours and at a time the Nigerian journalists got frustrated because right from behind them, the officials started attending to Malians, Benenoise, Moroccans and Angolans and then told the Nigerians they had closed until Monday and this was just Saturday.
At that point the Nigerians decided to barricade the door, almost like holding the officials hostage because in their reasoning accreditation does not end until the end of the tourney and the people would have best run shifts to clear out the crowd.
Some of the Nigerian journalists got into fighting bouts with the Ghanaian police who wanted to forcefully push them out and lock the doors and when that did not work they decided to resume the accreditation.
Pick pockets also invaded the place and one official complained she lost her bag and three hundred thousand cedis, then one Ghanaian journalist cried out that he just lost two hundred and fifty thousand cedis and he started blaming the Nigerian journalist until one of us shouted at him saying there were Nigerians, Ghanaians, Malians, Benenoise, Angolans and Moroccans present there so why would he blame the Nigerians and that was when he kept quiet.
Truly I seriously doubted he lost anything.
After that we eventually got accredited and whilst I wanted to spend the night at Accra the Nigerian contingent said they would go to Takoradi that night so I joined them and we eventually got there and packed in from of the Ray Bow hotel (where the Super Eagles were lodged) at about 2am on Sunday morning.
You bet we slept in the bus and at day break I eventually got a place at the New Mexico Hotel where I paired with a certain Arafat Aliyu who works with Hot 98.3 FM in Abuja.
Now it was time to start the business for the day and attend the last Super Eagles training session before the match against Ivory Coast.
My fingers hurt so I must stop now.
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