CHAPTER FOUR
...No sooner had he began finding his feet than a radio broadcast at noon
on Monday in 1980 was made. All illegal foreigners, residing and working in Nigeria were to leave the shores of the country in two weeks.
His dream was to be again,truncated. Many of the Ghanaian ‘hustlers’ had purchased television sets, radio sets, refrigerators, sound systems,
and irons among other appliances which were relatively cheaper in
Nigeria, and the idea was to show to their relatives and friends of what “ good life” they had in Nigeria during their stay.
Bullet, one of the Ghanaian guys,wanted to open a record store in Accra.
It was one of the few businesses on the rise in the country. He made a
box in which he put all his sound systems, speakers, tape recorder and a turntable, safely locked it and into the articulator truck he put it,when the trucks stopped by the village square to pick up all the Ghanaians out of the country.
At this point, talking about substantial amount of money,capable of
establishing a furniture shop was a wild dream for Elorm. Another
fruitless journeyhad been climaxed by repatriation.
Ghanaian girls were at the time indulging in serious prostitution [ashawo
business] at pubs, drinking spots and hotels.
It was good business for Ghanaian men who were engaging girls insex trade.
What these men did was to gather the innocent girls from Ghana and take them to Nigeria, spread them all over the place, where they wooed their men clients at drinking spots, pubs and hotels for payment after offering sexual service.Upon return after their respective nights in the homes of all shades of Ibo and Yoruba men, all the monies were taken from them, the girls had very little of the entire proceeds.
A number of them, the girls contracted deadly diseases, HIV/AIDS,
gonorrhoea, syphilis, even money to purchase make up kits was hard for them to come up with, despite the monies they made from sleeping with men.On the journey back to Ghana,about fifteen articulator trucks,packed with Ghanaian strugglers with their belongings got stranded in the middle somewhere.The journey was one other hell of a time, and for three whole weeks,the Ghanaian citizens were stranded in the trucks, and massive traffic had choked between Togo and Benin borders. Ghana then had also closed her borders, same as Togo.
Ghanaians who were still left in Lagos-Nigeria were bullied and their
belongings seized by Nigerians,the deadline had elapsed, they had
overstayed their welcome.Many people died in the trucks,men and women alike. The ashawo women,worst affected. The sort of activities they engaged in, demanded regular cleaning of their body and use of cologne.
In the absence of cleaning, they stunk pungently. Some men who stored food on the truck, had sex with the hungry women before handing them the food,in the full glare of everybody on the trucks. Elorm was in there,he
recounted that about 150 people may have died on the trucks, still alive,
and hoping that soon there would be a way, for he had a will.After three weeks on the road, the head of state of the former British colony got wind of the dire situation of the stranded Ghanaian citizens and after thorough flight surveillance;ordered that the border be opened.
There were still more obstacles ahead, the Benin border would still not be opened, and people were still dying, the Akan speaking clique of citizens made a decision, there had to be a way of getting out of calamity.A Grande demonstration was planned, but they had to contend
with arm-wielding security officials at the borders. Clad in red arm and
head bands, they confronted the guards at the gates, while the tussle
ensued the trucks broke loose the iron bars with lightning speed, one truck after another, had access to the routes straight into Ghana on top speed.
A big relief for Elorm at last, they were in Ghana. It was another unrewarding and wasted journey;especially witnessing other people die right before his eyes, and the offensive smell of their carcasses.No phones and no money for most of the returnees, there had to be a public announcement on radio for people to go and identify their broken relatives and dead ones, following the repatriation......to be continued!
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