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Down in Teshie, along the old Tema-Accra Road, many coffin makers have taken after Pa Joe. Pa Joe is basking in worldwide fame for coffin designs he reportedly created. In the sculptures of Pa Joe, each deceased goes home in unique style. The popular saying is that “he that lives by the sword dies by the sword.” But with Accra’s peculiar coffins, the deceased simply goes home in style.

Whether or not he/she died by the sword, after living by it; the dead is interred in a final house that sheds light on one’s lifetime occupation. For example, a tailor’s coffin could be one mighty scissors or sewing machine, a reel of thread or gigantic needle. Similarly, a sailor’s last abode could be a ship-like or boat-shaped coffin, while that of a writer could be some gargantuan pen or the classic quill.

I had gone to one of these telltale coffin manufacturers’ workshops in Nungua with a special enquiry, during my latest trip to Ghana. “Etisen (hello) Charley,” I greeted the carpenter, who responded: “Welcome.”
I asked: “Now, what kind of coffin would you build for a man that sleeps with anything in skirt?”

“O, my brother, that’s easy because a person that sleeps with his wife, daughter, and every woman in sight, has already designed his coffin.”
Anxious, I couldn’t wait and interjected, “what would that coffin be?”
The carpenter again: “The coffin for that kind of character would be shaped like a he-goat.”
Not exactly sure, I observed: “But, people could interpret that coffin as meaning that the deceased was a herdsman?”

At this point, Charley pulled the pencil, which was stuck behind his left ear and asked me for a piece of paper. I tore out a sheet from my reporter’s notebook and guess what my friend (madamfo) proceeded to draw. Strangely, his sketch of the kind of coffin he would send an Obuko home in, turned out to be the shape of my country. Reflexively, unable to tolerate this insult, I threw a punch at the carpenter. Unfortunately, the man had ducked and my blow landed on the nose of a policeman, who sensing trouble had come over to find out what the problem was.

It was at this point that I woke up. It was only a nightmare! Sadly, it was a living nightmare: As usual, there had been a power outage and mosquitoes were having a field day. Almost everywhere, there was the cacophony of rickety generators, each effusing a drone that struggled to drown that of the other’s. It was difficult to sleep, especially with the whiff of exhaust fumes from a neighbour’s antique electricity plant seeping into my room. Truly, life is tough for people living in Nigeria.

However, there was more to my fitful sleep: Part of the bad dream saw me taking a walk toward the Kofi Annan International Peace Centre (KAIPC), which stands overlooking Labadi Beach, which is opposite one regional headquarters of Ghana Armed Forces. It was near here that some former leaders of Ghana were tied to the stake for execution by firing squad on June 16, 1979. Interestingly, this part of Accra, along Labadi Beach is part of the old Accra-Tema Road. Aside being a very busy avenue, the scenery is quite enchanting, which is the reason many people, locals and foreigners that can afford it, are building ocean view homes around. Sources say some Nigerians are among property owners or residents in these parts. Driving through this route, a normal person would sober up at the memory of the June 16, 1979 tragedy. But such sensibilities are beyond some members of Nigeria’s political elite, who get no message from Labadi Beach, despite plying this road frequently.

It is worth noting that until June 16, 1979 no one could have imagined that the Ethiopian Solution would ever be adopted in the former Gold Coast. If it could happen in Ghana, it could certainly rear its head elsewhere. A word is enough for the wise.
Aside the nauseating issue of Nigeria’s elephant skin political elite, Travels went to Ghana to throw up the positive contributions of tourism and culture to a nation's economy, where the state is ready.

Waxing strong at 51
Today, March 6, 2008, Ghana (formerly known as the Gold Coast) clocks 51 years as an independent nation. Reliable sources indicate that Ga-na (the root of this country's name) belongs to an extinct empire, which flourished between the 4th and 13th centuries somewhere in the western areas of today's Mali. In other words, the original Ghana lies nowhere within the geographical entity, which bears that name today. Whatever the case, we have returned to the former Gold Coast to see what lessons could be learnt from the experience of this nation, which shares so much in common with Nigeria, self-styled Giant in the Sun sometimes teased as the Sleeping Giant.

Although Nigeria and Ghana have a lot in common, when it comes to human and material endowments, the two countries seemingly couldn't be farther apart. However, over the last 30 years, the Ghanaian society and economy have been improving, despite that nation's apparent impecuniosities. On the other hand, Nigeria's fortunes have been plummeting in spite of the fact that oil revenue earnings have been spiraling upwards over the last decade or so.

Paradoxically, while the Nigerian nation was and is getting poorer, supposed leaders were growing filthy rich. A few Nigerian politicians, old men supposed to respect themselves, threw caution to the wind, and went on to loot the public treasury and expropriate collective patrimony with reckless abandon.

Gluttons and kleptomaniacs
A few years ago, a British high commissioner to Nairobi sparked much indignation among Kenyan politicians, whom the diplomat accused of "eating like gluttons and vomiting all over people's shoes." Interestingly, the British envoy's remark could well pass for some Nigerian pretender statesmen too. Imagine some monstrous cross of the concupiscent Billy goat and gluttonous pig eating with all fingers of both hands as well as 10 toes; farting and vomiting all over the place while spawning litters everywhere.
In a continent, where malaria claims the life of two children every minute, is it not the very apogee of vulgarity for any one to contemplate buying a mechanical masseur for N98 million? How on earth could anybody ever dream of renovating a house with N620 million? Where did the $10 billion or $16 billion electricity generation or distribution money go? Even if it was a "paltry $4 billion," where is the electricity? Was the contract for generating power or distribution of it? If it was for distribution, can one distribute that, which does not exist? Many questions…Curiously, some people refuse to see the light: It's like they've all lost every instinct for self-preservation.

Those former Ghanaian leaders did not own private jets. In fact, by the standard of a few Nigerian politicians, these men were saints. Yet, they paid the supreme price.
Welcome to Ghana, where on June 16, 1979 former heads of state Ignatius Acheampong and Kofi Busia were executed. Today, almost 20 years down the road, the average Ghanaian politician is guided by the memories of the tragic end of this duo, and other former leaders, who lost sight of the sacred responsibility imposed on them by providence to serve humanity and concentrated instead on feathering their own nests at the expense of the nation. The ancient Romans had a treasured and very sobering maxim, praemonitus, praemunitas. It simply translates as "forewarned, forearmed."
But, the way some Nigerian politicians carry on, leaves one wondering where some people think from:

Head or tail?
The prevailing Nigerian tragedy took on a more heart-rending twist recently, when some National Assembly members began hankering for heavier pay. There is nothing wrong with asking for enhanced wages, but that should come as a result of higher productivity. Unfortunately, the average Nigerian is yet to feel the impact of whatever contribution the current Nigerian executive and legislative arms of government have made.

It is possible that no one would raise an eyebrow over demands for fatter pay to already over-paid members of the political elite, if Nigerians had been granted a reprieve from the debilitating energy crisis that has plagued their country for about 30 years. But, today, a few weeks to President Umar Musa Yar'Adua's first anniversary in office, Nigerians have been told that resolution of the energy crisis is no longer a national emergency. Interestingly, nothing could be more exigent, for it is doubtful that success could be recorded in any other sphere without power to drive industries.

Nigerians need electricity to light up homes, preserve drugs, refrigerate food items, enable scholars study for their exams and allow the hospitality business entrepreneurs focus on core services instead of battling to sustain alternative sources of electricity and water. In Nigeria, some investors even have to build roads to their factories, not to talk of paying out crippling sums of money to hire private security.
Under such circumstances, amid robbers running rings around the citizenry with government apparently looking on helplessly, few things could be more provocative than demand by legislators for wage increment. Nothing could be more contretemps. In the same vein, no one should contemplate fuel price increase or any hike in taxes, now or in the near future, for that would appear like robbing the electorate to further enrich an apparently insatiable and immoral political elite. It is morally out of place to further fleece and pauperize the citizenry at a time roads remain death traps and the educational and health sectors condemned to a state of shambles.

Bravo President Yar'Adua
It was therefore, heart-warming that President Yar'Adua recently rejected the unsolicited offer of higher pay from the National Assembly. As one had rightly deduced, it was a mere prelude to some legislators’ quest to boost their take-home, which when juxtaposed with the value of their contribution in productivity terms, amount to very little. In fact, such waste as attends our so-called democracy make this system of government appear imprudent.

In 2005, I had travelled to Tafawa Balewa, homestead of Nigeria's first post colonial head of state. The motive was to find out how much the late Alhaji Tafawa Balewa left behind, by way of personal estate. In his village, from which he got his name, Tafawa Balewa left behind a modest bungalow. In Bauchi City, capital of the state, from which he hailed, the late Nigerian prime minister had a moderate storey building. In fact, the structure was so "unimpressive" that the state government had to throw in some funds to rehabilitate it. The long and short of what we are trying to say is that Alhaji Tafawa Balewa never owned a university; he did not acquire, procure, expropriate massive hectares of land as personal property across Nigeria. But this story is not about Tafawa Balewa. The core of this report is on Ghana, land of Ayi Kwei Armah, a celebrated novelist. Born in 1939, in Takoradi, Armah's writings explore and deplore corruption and the sickening penchant for material wealth among despicable African leaders: Primitive people living in modern times.

So, today, more than 300 years after a visionary leader brought together small Akan villages under one umbrella to form a formidable nation, now remembered as the Asante Empire, Nigerians are still waiting for their Osei Tutu.

Ghanaeen as metaphor
Welcome to Ghana, land of flag lovers. Across Ghana, the tourist would find this icon of various countries fluttering on the dashboard of virtually all commercial vehicles and many private ones. Expectedly, the Ghanaian Red, Gold and Green with a Black Star in the centre predominate. However, the other popular national colours here are the American Star-spangled Banner, British Union Jack, German Rot, Gelb und Schwartz, Nigerian Green-White-Green, Brazilian, Jamaican, Ethiopian and even the Japanese high-noon sun, and other symbols are commonplace across Ghana.

Truly, the people of the former Gold Coast are veritable vexilologists, going by their love of national insignias. The Ghanaian's love of flags may well be a spin-off of the pan-African philosophy of that country's one-time leader, Kwame Nkrumah. Ghanaians’ dispersal to numerous countries around the world, three decades ago, when severe economic downturn left millions of these proud people like worms on a desert of salt, is also partly responsible for their cosmopolitan outlook. That mass emigration, akin to the Irish exodus, following famine wrought by potato blight, brought a countless number of Ghanaians to Nigeria. The educated ones worked as teachers, while many unskilled refugees cleaned the gutters. Too many of the Ghanaian women economic migrants gravitated toward prostitution. In fact, at some point, those days, the plethora of Ghanaian girls involved in the commercial sex business led to the coinage of the word Ghanaeen as synonym for a prostitute in Burkina Faso. But, where are these Ghanaeens now? Most of them as well as the majority of Ghanaian men that cleaned gutters in Nigeria have since returned home.

And how the table has turned: In Burkina Faso, Benin Republic, Cote d'Ivoire, Gabon, Italy and virtually everywhere, many Ghanaeens are Nigerian girls. The reason: Tragic figures called rulers, whose fate is evocative of maggots that follow the corpse into the grave, have turned a quasi-heaven to hell. To foster graft, corrupt leaders would mystify any thing: What’s the big deal in providing uninterrupted electricity? Why do smaller and larger oil refineries produce finished fuel in other lands, while Nigerian ones are perpetually dysfunctional? And questions are being asked: Who are those behind all the endless importation of refined petroleum products? When the chickens come home to roost, the answers will ooze. For now, let’s take a look at some data that hint at what Nigerians are missing, no thanks to successive myopic and selfish rulers, who are too blind to appreciate the importance of regular power supply.

Where blackout is rare
Believe it or not, Ghana raked in almost $1 billion (roughly N130 billion) from tourism in 2006. This earning, which was precisely $986. 8 million (over N110 billion), came from the pockets of almost 0.5 million tourists that washed into Ghana that year. Travels analyses of the Tourism Statistical Fact sheet, compiled by Ghana Tourist Board (GTB), revealed that overseas visitors' flow into the former Gold Coast, and income generated from tourism have consistently been on the increase over the years. For example, the 497, 129 tourists that went to Ghana in 2006 outnumbered the previous year's figure of 428, 533. In the same vein, the revenue grossed in 2006 was also higher than the $836.1 collected in 2005. A breakdown of expenditure by the average visitor to Ghana shows that accommodation gulps the lion's share.

Within the seven-year period of 1996 to 2002, for example, accommodation consumed a little over 31 per cent of each tourist's budget, whereas shopping, both formal and informal, steadied around 19 per cent. It is worth noting that the average total cost of food and beverages as well as entertainment boiled down to roughly the same amount spent on lodging.

Going by the same source, the average duration of a tourist's stay was 10 days, while the daily expenditure was put at $198. 5. In 2002, the tourist's average daily expenses were given as $112 but the steady increase through $134, $170 and $195 in 2003, 2004 and 2005 respectively could well be a pointer to inflation. In any case, the length of stay has remained an average of 10 days since 2000.

Surprise, surprise
Did you know that Nigerians accounted for the third highest number of visitors to Ghana in 2006? Did you know that the figure of Nigerians that entered Ghana in that year outnumbered the combined total of the citizens of Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire and Togo, three states that share borders with Ghana, whereas Nigeria stands three countries away?

Travels can authoritatively reveal that the former Gold Coast recorded some 47, 983 Nigerian tourists in 2006 against the combined figure of 47, 587 for nationals of Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire and Togo. Specifically, nationals of Burkina Faso and Togo, who visited Ghana in 2006 numbered 10, 544 and 11, 888, while Ivorians, with 25, 155 tourists, topped the list of the three immediate neighbours.
Britons accounted for fourth largest number of tourists to Ghana with 36, 747. Nigeria ranked third, behind Americans, who came second highest number of nationals to visit Ghana within the period in question. Although the number of US citizens (50, 475) that came to Ghana narrowly beat that of Nigeria, it came to light that the highest percentage of tourists to Ghana were actually overseas-based Ghanaians.

Close to 60, 000 Ghanaians living abroad visited their ancestral home in 2005. Figures for 2005, with regard to nationalities, tourists' expenditure and income to Ghana showed a similar trend.
Mr. Frank Kofigah, Manager, Business Development and Planning of Ghana Tourist Board (GTB) told Travels in Accra that the Ghanaian-born tourists were categorized as VFR, which translates as "visiting friends and relatives." The category of business travellers produced the second highest number of tourists, while holidaymakers or leisure tourists came third with 19 percent and 20 percent in 2005 and 2006 respectively. Further scrutiny of the data provided by this GTB officer revealed that in 2005 and 2006, 11 percent of all visitors to that country were actually in transit, while those that travelled there for conferences, meetings, studies and training accounted for 16 percent of the tourists in either year.
Within a period of 10 years (1996 to 2006), the number of hotels in Ghana doubled from 703 to 1406, and the number of beds also rose more than 100 per cent, from 13, 791 to over 28, 000. These figures do not only mean good business for hospitality industry practitioners: they translate as an index of growth of the economy, for estate developers, architects, builders, painters, carpenters, furniture-makers, and others would also share in this boom in the tourism business.

Did you know that the occupancy rates in Ghana's hotels have increased across the board over the last seven years? Although every class of hotel has pointed to a rise in the number of guests, it is unclear why occupancy rate in 3-star hotels spiraled to an average of 79.2 percent by 2006, against a paltry 2.4 percent in 2001. Five-star outfits also recorded rises during the same period from 72.1 percent in 2001 to 86.3 percent in 2006, while 2-Star lodges' occupancy level grew roughly 50 percent from 55.8 percent in 2001, to 88% in 2006.

GTB moves house
After some 18 years operating from various temporary offices, including its last home away from home, in the Tesano area, on the way to Achimota, Ghana Tourist Board is soon moving to its permanent headquarters. This new hub stands near The Castle, Ghana’s State House in the Osu area of Accra. Established in the 1960s, Ghana Tourist Board, which currently boasts a workforce of 200, has always kept statistics. GTB has an office in each of Ghana’s 10 regions but the offices in Accra, Kumasi and Takoradi/Sekondi are the largest. Although the bulk of office work is done in the regions, the head-office coordinates all activities, according to Mr. Kofigah.

The GTB is currently part of Ghana’s Ministry of Tourism and Diasporan Relations (MoTDR). Mr. Kofigah explained that GTB’s current place in MoTDR was partly aimed to bring home as many Africans in Diaspora as possible, especially those who can trace their roots to Ghana.
Ghana Tourism Board has come a long way from its infancy days, when it was known as the Tourist Control Board. Later, the GTB would be tossed at various times from Ministry of Tourism and Culture to Tourism and Information before relocation to Ministry of Tourism and Trade and subsequently to Tourism and Industry. At some point, GTB was taken to the Ministry of Tourism and Modernization of the Capital City. Although the Tourist Control Board started in Ramia House in Adabraka, Accra, that organization later moved into the Head of State’s complex. At some point, workers were deployed between the Trade Fair site at La and the Ministry of Trade before GTB office moved to Tesano. Another money-spinner in Ghana is that country’s museum industry.

Inside Ghana museum
Established in 1957, the founding chief of Ghana Museum and Monuments Board (GMMB) was Prof R. B. Nunoo, whose remains were laid to rest in October 2007. Nunoo was succeeded by Mr. Emmanuel Asantee, after whose tenure GMMB went for about seven years without a substantive head, until the appointment of Dr. Isaac N. Debrah in acting capacity. It is worth noting that Mr. Debrah was acting Director for about 12 years. Mr. George Olympio would later take over, also in acting capacity. After two years of holding fort, Olympio then left to teach at University of Science and Technology (UST). Olympio’s departure led to the engagement of a member of Board of Ghana Museum as acting director prior to the appointment of Maisie, the incumbent acting chief of GMMB.

Although history, environmental and cultural studies are part of Ghana’s high school curriculum, museum studies is not part of that document. However, Maisie was optimistic that more and more Ghanaian students are becoming aware of the importance of visiting a museum because many schools frequently bring pupils/students on excursion his repositories, where the admission fee is 10 pesewas (N15) or one cedi (150) per Ghanaian minor or adult respectively, against 5 US dollars (N600) for each foreigner.
Maisie identified inadequate funding and logistics among major challenges facing his institution. Owing to impecuniosities, GMMB cannot organize as many exhibitions as it would love to. According to Maisie, “One exhibition costs at least 80 million cedis, but a proper exhibition could gulp over 200 million cedis.” He was however quick to add that GMMB was not the only victim of poor funding: “It is a common problem facing all museums in Africa,” he rued. To complement government’s efforts, GMMB often launches fundraising appeals. Hear him: “We appeal to public to donate. Frequently they do, but still the income is not enough.”

Whatever the difficulties confronting GMMB, the government of Ghana has done a lot to save that country from the embarrassment of owing what amounts to peanut as due for membership of international bodies. Maisie again: “We are up to date on all dues. We are not in arrears of payment to the West Africa Museum Project (WAMP) or ICCROM and so on.”
Apparently, Mr. Maisie also had another reason to be upbeat, when he enthused that tourists have always been on the increase to Ghana Museum. “The figures have never dropped over the years,” concluded.

Why have we gone to all these? It’s partly because Nigeria has the potential to earn billions of dollars from tourism but successive governments have made it impossible for our nation to harness this potential through refusal to provide uninterrupted electricity supply. To add salt to a festering injury, supposed leaders have been looting the treasury under the pretense of curbing darkness. And I think back to the stakes in Accra and the fate that befell Ghana’s past leaders, and it would seem that Nigeria’s political top dogs have lost their instinct for self-preservation.