In June 1992, I did Accra-Lagos-New York-Lagos-Accra with Nigeria Airways. There was not much ado on arrival at JFK.

Five months later, back at JFK for the return flight to Lagos, it was a different kettle of fish. The queue for pre-departure formalities was not only interminably long and serpentine; even snails move faster. For each passenger (over 99% Nigerians), pre-departure formalities - passport check, body frisking, luggage inspection et al - were like an encounter with a bomb suspect.

Then it got to my turn. I handed over my passport. Within seconds, the officer handed it back to me and sighed: “Ghanaian?” he smiled at me, waving me on. “Enjoy your flight”. So, all the drama was because they were dealing with Nigerians. The world had tagged Nigeria and assigned it an uncomplimentary label.

How proud I was to be a Ghanaian! We were not angels, but we were close to saints, as a collective. That was Ghana, then. Unfortunately, that image has changed – scarred.

Ghana has now become the 419 capital of the world. We have stripped ourselves of dignity. Just as an example, if the car you are driving was bought from any of those car garages littered all over Accra and Kumasi, you may be driving a stolen car.

Read this.  

On Friday, June 9, 2023, detectives from the Canadian Regional Municipality of Peel executed a search warrant, leading to the recovery of eight vehicles at a business location in that country.

‘Insauga.com’, a news portal, reports that the vehicles -  a 2020 Mercedes GLEC, a 2021 Mercedes GBG TY, a 2021 Honda CRV, a 2020 Honda CRV, a 2021 Honda CRV, a 2020 Honda CRV, a 2020 Honda CRV, and a 2021 Honda CRV - estimated to be worth approximately $650,000 in total, were in the process of being shipped to Ghana.

An investigation by Mariana van Zeller for the National Geographic Channel, published in April this year, exposed a sophisticated car smuggling syndicate traced to Ghana.

The investigation started in the United States of America, where the investigative journalist followed the activities of a gang involved in stealing of luxury cars.

Van Zeller travelled to Ghana to meet some of the local players.

She met a hacker/black market trader and another person who handles the business aspect of the enterprise.

The two provided the journalist with insights into the local trade of stolen cars and how they are able to get the cars into the Ghanaian system without raising any red flags.

With import duties costing as much as 20% of the value of a car in Ghana, the hacker told Van Zeller that he could hack into the system of the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority to help the syndicate evade paying the required import duties.

In December 2022, the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO) of Ghana, in an operation, carried out in collaboration with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), retrieved 37 vehicles stolen from the United States of America (USA) and Canada.

Once upon a time, when we read stories as above, we self-righteously pointed at Nigerians. Their game had a name: 419. Sophisticated scamming. The number ‘419’ refers to the section (Section 491) of the Nigerian Criminal Code dealing with fraud and the charges and penalties for such offenders.

Today, Ghana is rivalling Nigeria for the top spot.

Imagine if the gang in the above case had succeeded. With $650,000, melted on the black market, what couldn’t they have afforded in Ghana? Mansions built within a few months; a fleet of about six up-market vehicles all parked in the mansion; ability to buy any number of the recent high-rise condominiums in Accra, some for girlfriends...

IF GOLD RUST, WHAT SHALL IRON DO: CASE OF 6,000 LICENSURE TEACHERS

And now, dear readers, ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the latest act that proves my case that “Ghana is sinking”

It happened only three days ago. Social media was awash with the news: “6,000 Teachers Fail Licensure Exam”

The story is that in the 2023 Ghana Teacher Licensure Examination, 6,481 out of 7,728 teachers failed. An official of the National Teaching Council speaking disclosed that some of them had had 7 re-sits and failed.

Did you listen to Joy FM on Tuesday night? Essays written by some of the teachers were read on air. OMG!!! How did these university and College of Education graduates pass their WASCCE at SHS? Some of them hold university degrees!!!

Once upon a time, in the 1970s, Ghanaian teachers were so good, we were exporting them. They were the bulk of Ghanaian professionals in Nigeria.

Ghana is sinking o.

Think of it: no political party, no Presidential hopeful has mentioned this ailment, let alone put down a strategy to cure it.

And you want me to vote!