Africa’s version of the football World Cup is here, it’s a new edition of AFCON, and as usual, the excitement is high, especially for me.
In my sports journalism career, I have physically, covered four editions of this great event- 2000, 2002, 2006, and 2008.
In all of these, I was blown away by the experiences of friendship, relationships, and ties with fellow Africans, and of finally understanding lives outside Nigeria, and why African countries need the support of one another.
Although I flew to and fro the 2008 edition in Ghana, I still mark that year as the most exciting for me because I had the opportunity to travel across major Ghanaian towns and communities by road – Accra, Cape Coast, Sekondi, and Tamale, meeting people, enjoying their food, music, warmth, culture and exploring the whole gamut of human relationships.
I left Ghana with unforgettable memories.
My trip to Mali in 2002, was entirely by road from Nigeria and back with the Ogun State branch of Nigeria Football Supporters Club.
Spending like three days on the road across Benin Republic, Togo and Burkina Faso was a dangerous, but fascinating experience that gave me my first real education about life outside the university.
The 2006 edition experience in Egypt was a horrible one, apart from the Eagles losing narrowly to Cote d’Ivoire in the semi-final in Alexandria, there was a long hitch with our return flight to Nigeria, and we had to spend an additional three weeks in a country where one could not find Amala and Ewedu.
We were stranded, my office was worried, and my family was devastated.
But if Egypt was like Ghana and Mali, geographically to Nigeria, I would have again made my way by road back home. It was a big lesson in international travel for me.
Nothing could be more fascinating, ordinarily, than an African football tournament held in West Africa with Nigeria involved for Nigerian journalists fans, and businesses.
Sadly, the barriers have over the years become enormous, for easy and peaceful travel to be embarked upon, without blinking an eye, in the West Africa of today.
With the threats of war, marauders, and general insecurity across the region, journalists and fans are now thinking twice before jumping on the bus to Cote d’Ivoire.
It’s a big shame that in 2023, West African roads have not been interconnected and journeys done by rail with people sleeping with their two eyes closed, savoring the breeze of the rail and opening their eyes to feed on the beautiful landscape of the region.
This is tourism at its best.
West African presidents only need to wake up from their slumber to crush these artificial encumbrances to human growth and development; and to make events like AFCON 2023 a true platform for African reconnection and progress.
Credit: BIODUN ALABI
