HOW CHEAP IS LIFE IN AFRICA?

HOW CHEAP IS LIFE IN AFRICA?

A friend of mine once said to me that life is cheap in Africa but even cheaper in West Africa.

My initial reaction then was to protest and tell him that it was yet again another western bias to looking at things where Africa is involved.

Strangely, he only smiled and reacted differently. He said he would prove it to me and he went ahead to enumerate the many plane crashes and road accidents, which occur in these parts of the world (of course just like it is the case in some other parts of the world). However, he was quick to add that even a bicycle accident stood a 100% chance of being investigated, documented and results of the finding to be used in a way that it helps forestall future occurrences.

What ever your opinion and reactions to that position put forward by my western journalist friend is, I will like to know. But then, wait a minute, lets review an item in the news from day before yesterday.

Am talking about the case of a boat which left Oron in south south Nigeria and headed for Equatorial Guinea until it capsized killing a majority of the over one hundred passengers on board.

According to the BBC online, “Twenty-nine people have been rescued after a boat carrying about 130 people from Nigeria to Gabon sank, rescue officials say”.

The report went further to state that “ the vessel was initially said to have been carrying 160 people but officials say the real number was slightly lower”. I then ask, was this some sort of budget Boeing 737 or Airbus on water? That many people without emphasis on safety?

In some parts of the world, that is actually the population of an entire town ya know!

Then comes the even more infuriating thing, “There are unconfirmed reports that some of those on board were illegal migrants looking for work in oil-rich Gabon”. Leaving a more oil rich Nigeria to seek greener pastures in oil rich Gabon? What a distasteful irony!

Before heading up to do a radio show about this topic, I sat and pondered a few questions;

1.    Did that boat sail through legal areas?

2.    Why did anyone allow it sail without life jackets for everyone on board?

3.    What exactly is it that attracts Africans especially west Africans to other nations in Africa even when it is clear that should they put in similar efforts in their home cities they are likely to do well?

I guess should I be able to find the real answers to the questions, I might as well  be on the way to being that somewhat “phantom” king of Africa (Lol).