At about 09:54 hours GMT the Africa World Airline (AWA) took off from the Kotoka International Airport en route to Abuja, Nigeria. My mission this time round was to attend the 52nd Ordinary Session of the Authority of Heads of State and Government.
At about 12:30pm local time in Abuja the AWA flight AW 254 touched down at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport. As I disembarked from the plane together with other colleagues, we were met by the rather very hot temperature in Abuja at some 33 degrees Celsius. Everyone quickly hurried to take cover with the air-conditioning facility at the airport.
First Impression
Obviously, the next stage after disembarking is to go through Homeland Security checks with the Nigerian border agency in order to be cleared for entry into the Federal Republic. I got the sense that the Nigerians border officials are trained to sound, look and appear tough with everyone they deal with at the airport. After going through a cumbersome immigration procedure and checks, the whole team was cleared except my camera. Nick had left his yellow card back home in Ghana. He was only cleared after paying $50.00 to obtain a new one.
Departure to the Hotel
Officials from Ghana’s High Commission in Abuja, Nigeria were readily available at the airport to convey the team to our hotel. What I thought would be a 10-minute road trip turned out to be almost an hour journey. Indeed the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport is built on the outskirts of Abuja with a super highway constructed to link the central part of town to the airport. After about 48 minutes of travel the team finally arrived at the Reiz Continental hotel. What a relief it was.
The Move for Accreditation
After team members were allotted their respective rooms, the next move was to get our accreditations to be able to access the conference grounds without any restrictions from the rather difficult Nigerian security officials. The process for acquiring our accreditation was pretty straight forward. In no time all team members had secured their IDs and all was set for our fruitful participation in the 52nd ECOWAS Summit. Day one is effectively over.
Arrival of the President
President Akufo-Addo was scheduled to arrive in Abuja at about 6pm. At about 4:30pm, the team was onboard a bus to the airport to receive the President. The President and his team touched down at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport at about 6:35pm. Ghana’s High Commissioner to Nigeria and his staff received him and straight away, the President’s motorcade was en route to the Transcorp Hilton Hotel. With all State officials duly allocated their rooms, day two successfully ended and all was set for Ghana’s participation in the 52nd Ordinary Session of the Authority of Heads of State and Government.
The Summit
Institutional issues, Political and Security situation in Guinea Bissau, allocation of statutory positions in ECOWAS, Tunisia’s observer status, association agreement between the regional organization and Mauritania and Morocco’s membership of the community were among the main issues that were on the agenda of the 52nd Ordinary Session of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
Closed Door Session
The ECOWAS leaders departed from their tradition of first conducting the opening ceremony of the summit before their closes door session is held. This time round the leaders kicked off the summit with a closed door session strictly for just the Heads of State plus two other officials. The West African leaders are said to have reviewed the report of the 79th Ordinary Session of the Council of Ministers, the report of the 39th Ordinary Meeting of the ECOWAS Mediation and Security Council alongside the 2017 annual report of the Commission President, Marcel de Souza. After a four-hour closed door session, the doors of the Congress hall at the Transcript Hilton hotel was opened to all.
The Opening Ceremony
The summit was called to order at about 3pm after the marathon closed door session. The President of the ECOWAS commission first invited the President of Nigeria to deliver a welcome address being the host of the Summit.
The Nigerian Leader
In his welcome address, President Mahamudu Buhari called for a joint effort on the part of ECOWAS to ensure that all West African Citizens catch up in the slavery saga in Libya including evacuating them to their various countries.
On Liberia, he congratulated the leadership and people of Liberia for conducting themselves equitably during the first run of election. He urged them to do same during the upcoming second round election and elect a leader who will be sworn into office in January 2018.
President Buhari condemned the political and security situation in Guinea Bissau’s body politic. He urged the leadership of the country to as a matter of urgency embrace dialogue to resolve the issues of the country.
Representative of UN Secretary-General
The Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for West Africa and the Sahel, Dr. Mohammed Ibn Chambers conveyed the warm regards of the UN Secretary General to leaders of the West African Sub Region.
He urged the leaders of West African to make the provision of basic social services to their people such as healthcare, employment opportunities, water and food a top priority. He stated that the only way the sub-region can stop their citizens from attempting to migrate illegally to Europe and elsewhere is to ensure that the West African citizenry are living comfortable lives in their respective countries.
Other Speakers at summit included the President of the ECOWAS Commission Marcel de Souza, the Chairperson of the Commission of the African Union (AU) Moussa Faki Mahamat and the President of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, Mohammed Ould Abdel Aziz.
The Communique
The summit welcomed the report on the 79th Ordinary Session of Council of Ministers as well as the report of the 39th Mediation and Security Council and the ECOWAS Commission and welcomed the recommendations in the report whose implementation would contribute to the consolidation of regional integration, peace and regional security. The Authority also expressed satisfaction with the excellent work by all the institutions in 2017 against the backdrop of certain difficulties in the region and reaffirmed its commitment to build a prosperous region in ECOWAS in an environment of peace, security, democracy and good governance. It also frowned on the low level of economic integration after more than 40 years of existence of ECOWAS.
Host of 53rd Summit
The Republic of Togo will be the host country and venue of the 53rd ECOWAS Ordinary Session of the Authority of Heads of State and Government which will take in June 2018.
Departure of the President
President Akufo Addo after the Heads of State summit joined his colleagues for the traditional photo session. He interacted at a personal level with all his fellow Heads of State and shared pleasantries with them. His busy schedules would, however, not allow him to spend any more time in Abuja. State Protocol officials and staff of Ghana’s High Commission in Nigeria quickly arranged to ensure a smooth departure of the President from the Hilton Hotel to the airport for takeoff to Accra. At 6:45pm, President Akufo-Addo was airborne back to Ghana. The burden of hosting the President has thus been lifted off all the High Commission staff. Day three has thus been executed to perfection.
Departure of the Team
Arikair flight number W3308 is the return flight of the team in Abuja to Ghana. The scheduled time of departure was 17:00 hours. However, as is the tradition of the well-known Arikair, the departure time was delayed for about an hour and a half. After our long wait, the team boarded the flight with the hope that our flight time would be an hour and 15 minutes just like the flight time with Africa World Airline from Accra to Abuja.
To everyone’s displeasure, the captain of Arikair flight announced that our flight time would be one hour and fifty minutes. At this point, all we had to do was to sit back, enjoy the “meat pie” and “frufru” peach fruit drink served on the flight and wait to touch down at the Kotoka International Airport. At 8:31pm we touched down at KIA. The 52nd Ordinary Session of the Authority of Heads of State and Government was a great success by all standards. ECOWAS leaders are bent on ensuring that democracy and the rule of law prevails in the sub-region.
The Nigerian Jollof
The silent but yet very loud war between Ghanaians and Nigerians over whose “jollof” is the best motivated me to seek and find some Nigerian jollof. Thankfully, I found and tasted two separate options in Abuja, Nigeria. The Nigerian jollof is in its own class, but Ghana jollof will forever prevail over Niaja jollof.
Greetings from Nigeria
Hardly would any one greet someone in Nigeria without adding “Sir”, pronounced as “Sa” to the greeting. “Good morning Sa”, “Good afternoon Sa”, “Good evening Sa”. So, depending on which time of the day one is reading this travelogue, I greet you “Sa”. “Good Day Sa”.
Source: Ghana/Starrfmonline.com/103.5FM/Wilberforce Asare
