I marked the Founder�s Day, a day to immortalize Ghana�s first President Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, in Calabar (also known as Canaan City) in Cross River State of Southeastern Nigeria.
I travelled to the place to renovate a house put up by my father on Mt. Zion Road in the late 1960s since my children wanted to spend the Christmas holidays in the area to witness the famous Calabar Christmas carnival and tour the renowned Obundu Mountain Resort.
In the evening, I went to visit my friend, Moses Effiong, who is the Chief Executive officer (CEO) of a group of companies in Calabar. His father was once residing in Ghana and owned large cocoa and coffee farms in the Volta region. He was the one who encouraged my father to build the house in Calabar. Unfortunately, during the Second Republic, an order was given to all aliens, without proper documentation, to leave Ghana. So Senior Effiong had to leave with his family.
It was a traumatic experience but realizing the value of Ghana�s education, especially in the Volta region, Moses was sent back to Keta by his father where he attended secondary school and later proceeded to the University of Ghana, Legon to read French and Spanish.
He went back home and worked briefly in the Nigerian Foreign Service. Later, he joined his father�s oil palm company. Moses ventured into other businesses and by the time his father retired, they were having branches all over Nigeria, two in Equatorial Guinea and one in Gabon.
That evening, as we sat in his garden overlooking the Calabar River, Moses talked about his school days in Keta and Accra.
�I wish Nigeria could be like Ghana,� he said.
I asked him why he made that statement and he told me that Ghana is getting back on the shining pedestal.
He noted that if the leaders of the country continue to provide the requisite freedom to the people, the country would the best place to live in Africa.Moses revealed that the present regime is in the best position to develop the country provided they remain focus.
He said as a businessman he believes in order to open the north to bring development to the area, the government needed to upgrade the Tamale airport into an international one.
Again, he was of the view that the government should also turn the Tamale Medical School into the College of Rural Health and an agreement should be reached with the Cuban government to bring medical professors to teach at the college rather than allowing medical personnel to come to man the hospitals as it is being done in Equatorial Guinea.
�I want to see a railway line constructed from the western side to the eastern side of the Northern sector of the country. There is also the need to finish the Bui city. Again, the perennial excess water from the dams in Burkina Faso should be harnessed by the experts from the Hydrological Division of the Ministry of Works and Housing for irrigation farming and aquaculture,� Moses said.
Moses said that Brong Ahafo region is becoming the food basket of the country and stressed the need to make it a modern farming zone and mining should not be allowed to take place there.
Moses, who called for the prohibition of mining in the Brong Ahafo region, also said a railway line should be constructed immediately to link the north and the Western region.
Commenting on the Volta region, my Nigerian friend said with its unique geographical landscape, many things could be done there. He also suggested that the region could also become an educational hub, with centers for various kinds of technological research works.
As I crawled into the king-size bed in one of the guest rooms, the words of Moses kept running through my head and I wished the authorities would heed the suggestions of my friend.
I went to the old Watt market to get something for my wife and children the following day. I then floated into a deep sleep after the rain from the Calabar River struck a rhythm in the dark skies.
Source: Amos Amaglo
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