The Series Of My Life - Season 1 - Episode 8

4 years ago

The Series Of My Life - Season 1 - Episode 8

In early 2002, i traveled to Ghana for the first time. I had met Boniface, a yellow short guy from Anambra state at a burial ceremony. We got talking about business and he told me that he imports Nkatie Burger from Accra.

The burger was small peanuts with one grain of groundnut inside each nut. He had said that he supplied the goods to some retailers in Idumota market Lagos Nigeria. The following week, i agreed to give the business a trial.

My main drive was the prospect of going to another Country; not the profit. I went to Lagos Island and changed some naira to 3000 dollars. We got to Cotonou and boarded a 505 Station wagpn to Lome. That was my first time in the city. We arrived Lome in the night, so i had no opportunity to take a good look at the city. We stopped at the Lome-Ghana border town called Aflawo. The border towns were located beside the Atlantic Ocean. While we waited for the man who was supposed to cross us into Ghana, i strolled down to the ocean beach to have a look. It was night and there were not many people at the beach. I also avoided venturing further down the ocean shores because i had some dollars with me. Strangely i paid much more security attention to the 3000 US dollars in my pocket more than i had ever done to its naira or CFA equivalent. I approached two ladies smoking cigarette and asked them to give me one.

We got'chatting and they told me their names which i cant remember now. They were togolese girls who lived not far from the border. I told them that i was a Nigerian who was going to live and work in Ghana; I didnt want them to know that i was a businessman. Worthy to note was that i used all kinds of methods to protect my money; lies, deceptions, tricks and every other method i could think of. I sat beside one of them and lied about how beautiful she looked even though i knew that the blue light bulb hanging above us played tricks to my eyes. They were sexx workers because one of them told me that we can make out in their place if i could pay her. I told her that i was going to inform my friend so that two of us could go with them. I disappeared out of their sights and never returned. Time to cross the border was a few minutes away. People had gathered around a man who claimed to be an immigration officer. We all paid him equivalent of N500 naira each and he diasppeard into the darkness.

He came back twenty minutes later and asked us to follow him. It was still very dark. He led us through the ocean shores for about 5 minutes until we reached another busy border town. My friend Boniface announced the town as Aflawo Ghana. A hiace bus was already waiting to take us to Accra. We got to Accra around 5am and waited inside the bus until the day broke. We took a taxi to the warehouse where we were supposed to buy the burger only to see some Igbo boys from Idumota already packing everything.

Boniface recognized one of them and approached him. It happened to be that the guy was among those Boniface supplied the Burger a week before in Idumota.

Boniface was angry because the guy was still owing him from the last supply. They had seen the address on the cover of the burger and came to Ghana before us. The only option facing us then was to buy a different thing or go back to Nigeria with our money. We drove back to the Accra city center. Boniface told me it was time to go back but i was interested in touring the city, so i told him to go.

He left Ghana that morning while i stayed back in Accra. I asked around and got a small map of Accra. I first of all visited Nkrumah sqaure, a very busy comerce center where first class super markets and malls were located. I bought a springle and ate while i window shopped for hours.