Tok Tok & The Credit Crunch

i guess coming from nigeria makes me wonder about my hosts. my nigerian brothers would say there is too much ‘tok tok’ in this country. then again it reminds me of something i was told about a place in london where you could go to let off steam. the concept of the place was that if something really bugged you, you could go there and shout about it at the top of your voice until you felt better. i was very young when i was told this so i couldn’t quite verify its authenticity (this was long before google was invented). the idea anyway is that if people do more of talking or had a forum to talk they would be less inclined to acting in an otherwise unruly manner. winston churchill was acclaimed for making the statement jaw-jaw instead of war-war.

i think except for the boku area, ghanaians do a lot of talking about issues. over the past few days, there has been some excitement about the new president as he approaches 100 days in office. i am of the opinion that there’s not much that can be done in a 100 days given the credit crunch and all. there are claims that there were promises made during the campaign that were to be fulfilled by the first 100 days. the opposition wait gleefully for the 100 days to pass and they have prepared a forum where the government and ‘experts’ will sit around and discuss the progress. well i am a guest here but if you ask me, with two downward adjustments in the pump price since the new government came to power i would give the government a thumbs up. but then i am an outsider, the ghanaian people know better. but i prefer ‘tok tok’ any day.

i have not written anything on the credit crunch. i guess it’s because i haven’t really felt it yet. well i don’t own a credit card and i am not in debt. like the true african, living in africa , you are only given something when you have paid for it or can provide fool proof guarantee that you will pay for it in the very near future. if you can’t afford something you can’t get it period! notwithstanding, there is a credit system but it works on individual bases not like in the mass marketed western credit system. the buka lady can allow her favourite customer run up drinking bills because she knows that when he gets paid, he will come to her first to pay up his drinking debt. this he does religiously because he would need the services for the next month. some landlords who own low rent apartments would accept month by month payments and sometimes are owed up to six months in arrears. the two scenarios are typical examples of the african credit system.

with the encroachment of western culture, the credit system has also gotten a measure of adaptation. the salary advancement scheme is one of such adaptation. the bank in which your salary account is domiciled would offer you advances in lieu of your salary. you are allowed to borrow up to a certain percentage while the bank gleefully awaits your next pay check and you sorrowfully wait for the remainder. of course as the typical african credit system, the payment is guaranteed in that; the bank has access to your money before you do.

Home is... II

once again i had the opportunity to visit my home country. it was an eye opening and pretty pleasant trip. i met with some interesting changes especially in lagos. seems the state governor has a vision (a rare thing for nigerian leaders). it was actually on my way back to the airport that i got a feel of the man’s vision. he wants to solve that age old problem of transportation we face in the overcrowded city. the statistics stands at forty thousand danfo buses and one million okada (motorcycles) servicing over thirteen million people, i guess excluding the seven odd million who own their own means of transportation. i must add here that his game plan is to eradicate the use of okada because of loss of life and the general nuisance these cause.

his approach is different from a host of his peers who think an outright ban on okada riders automatically solves the problem. he has more or less given 2011 as the time when the state will be rid of the menace. the plan being that by 2011 a functional train service and water transportation system would be in place. work has started on those already. so the okada drivers have two year’s notice to begin planning on finding alternative employment. the work on the road networks are continuing. places like oshodi that was both scary and slummy he’s clearing up. under bridges around the third mainland – ikoyi axis are being given a new look as per landscape. the green in the flag is once more showing brighter. i often wondered about the green on the flag when everywhere looked dirty and smelly.

the few nigerians i have spoken with feel the change coming. and they seem to be in support and believe in it. they talk of people queuing on the pedestrian bridge in oshodi with glee and wonder. i guess we were so rowdy a country that organized behaviour is shocking. its early days yet, like all good cynics (built over years of broken promises and failed projects and most importantly haphazard power supply) we keep our noses wrinkled until it happens.