Throughout my 36 years on earth I have never experienced such humiliation, extortion, intimidation and impertinence for human dignity and rights. I left the city of Kumasi in Ghana, West Africa with 25 Ghanaian students from various tertiary institutions on Thursday, 25 July, at 11pm to take part in the first ever Students For Liberty West African Regional Conference in Ibadan, Nigeria, a distance of 834.6 KM.
Code Named ‘Liberty By Bus’, the journey begun with so much enthusiasm, with students singing and drumming, oblivious to what lay ahead of us on the various borders en-route to our final destination. Most of the students were traveling out of their home country for the first time of their lives.
In all my life, I personally never have traveled by road to any country, despite having traveled widely in Africa. Though I had heard from traders about the dreadfulness on the Eastern corridor, I was confident that there would be no problems for us, since it was a student delegation and since the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) had been strengthened lately.
Alas, I was naively wrong! Our nightmares begun the moment we approached the Togolese border at Aflao on Friday Morning. For four hours we had to go back and forth between offices manned by unfriendly bureaucrats, who can be best described as extortion mongers, we got clearance, but only after parting with CFA 60,000. The only document that testified payment was the L’es Passe that cost CFA 5000.
When we finally entered Togo, the drive along the pristine Atlantic Ocean was very refreshing and spectacular, and we resumed singing and drumming until we arrived at the infamous Lakpogi border. The Togolese Border officials demanded CFA 60,000 before we could exit and face their Benin counterparts.
After almost an hour of tough bargaining and pleading, with border officials shouting abuses and threats at us, we settled on CFA 40,000. One officer told us to park the bus in one place, then another said we could not park there, and to move it to another place. It is curious to note that at the Francophone borders you have to go through three agencies of Immigration, Customs & Excise. I was later outraged to learn that Nigeria has one more – Narcotics!
Benin was the apex of this extortion, humiliation & intimidation. In this country any bully who lives in a border town and can get a rope long enough to cross a road can mount a barrier and seek rent. We came across many of them.
Approaching the Benin side of the frontier at Lakpogi, the first barrier you come across is operated by about five shabbily dressed young men. We were ordered to stop, and one of them who claimed that his father is a Ghanaian, spoke to us first in Twi, the most popularly spoken Ghanaian language.
He told us we needed to pay CFA 10,000 before we would be allowed to proceed. I was bewildered, seeing the way they were dressed, but the fact that the other border agencies were about 20 Metres ahead seemed to affirm their authenticity. I asked them their designation and they said they belonged to the local authority.
Of course money changed hands, but, once again, my demand for receipt was met with contempt and threats, and we moved on calmly. The first thing I did when we approached immigration was to complain to the officers about the payment I made to the young men at the barrier nearby without receipt being issued.
I wished I could swallow that back, as the officers only addressed it by insulting me and my interpreter, telling us that we think it is our native Ghana. Interestingly, my interpreter was a Togolese student studying in Ghana.
Jostling through dilapidated wood structures that pass as offices, Immigration, Customs and Excise agencies here looted CFA 18,000 each from us plus CFA 5000 for the famous French countries’ L’es Passe, but that was not the end. Those with passports that have never passed through the Lakpogi border, what they call a "Virgin Passport," had to pay CFA 1500. The others with various National ID cards had to pay CFA 1000. Again no official receipts were issued.
When we thought it was over, Excise asked us for Yellow Fever vaccination cards. When we explained we thought that’s no longer relevant in West Africa, the officer in charge insisted that we each get one or we would be refused passage. I coughed CFA 3000 for each student.
When I asked for the shots to be administered, the officer suddenly became angry and sternly warned me to leave with my students or risk arrest and detention. All my pleads with him to at least issue the yellow fever cards to us so that we wouldn't have to pay for them again at other frontiers fell on deaf ears and seemed to enrage him more.
Benin, whose president is the current African Union Chairman, is the most corrupt state on this crooked route. Driving through Benin to the Seme border, gun toting police officers also squeezed money from us before we could pass. It is understandable that the 2013 Index of Economic Freedom which ranks Benin 101stnotes that “Despite several high profile prosecutions, government corruption continues to impede development and deter investment”.
It was almost 5 pm when we arrived at the chaotic Seme border. A Ghanaian Truck Driver Assistant approached us in our language and began explaining to us the process to cross the border. Suddenly, four hefty border officials pounced on him and started beating him with clubs and truncheons. When we enquired about his crime, we were told that they suspected he was a criminal who might be trying to rob us. So insane!
Officials here demanded 17,000 Naira for bus registration, and I asked for clarification between that and L’es Passe, but nothing came out of it.
The officer here was the most sympathetic government official I met on this journey. After explaining our predicament, with so much extortion on our way here and that we are running down on funds, he took only CFA 10,000 from us and asked us to proceed to the Nigeria side of the border. He was to become helpful once again later on.
We were now elated since we were getting closer to our destination and thought we will have no hurdles with our Anglophone brothers. Once again I was wrong.
As earlier indicated, Nigeria has four government agencies at the borders and all of them were asking for 5000 Naira per delegate and 13,000 Naira for the Bus. We started bargaining with them, and one immigration officer appeared on the scene and asked of our Nationality.
