After a not-so-pleasant road trip from Mile 2 (Lagos) to Abidjan, the commercial centre of Cote d’Ivoire, I can finally relate to “Akwaba” – ( a word derived from a local Ivorian language meaning welcome). It was a journey filled with numerous experiences as a first-time traveller across the West Coast with the hopes of covering the AFCON for the very first time as well.
To be frank, I was deliberating on whether to cover the tournament or not despite applying for media accreditation. CAF’s approval came late in December and I was going to miss another tournament. However, my brief interaction with a few friends and family convinced me to go for it this time around and at least have a feel of a tournament outside the shores of Nigeria.
After sorting out my indecision, I had to inform my Publisher, Calvin Emeka Onwuka of my plan to attend the 34th edition of the continental showpiece. With less than ten days to kick off, I came up with a budget and all of the things needed for the trip and prepared myself for the long trip mentally.
Travelling in January is usually stressful and this particular one was not short of drama. I crashed at my good friend’s place Sami before heading out to the Young Shall Grow park on Tuesday morning to begin my trip to Ivory Coast. Despite arriving at the Park some minutes past 6 am, we had no bus tickets but the attendant kept telling us to be patient. When I said ‘we’, I was referring to Micolo – who is my travel partner.
After so much drama and “lamba” at the YSG Park, we left angrily and settled for a private car operator just outside the premises. Without further delay, we left the area around 9:10 am to begin our trip. It was quite smooth at the roadblocks due to the reputation of our driver “Biggy”.
Upon getting to the Seme/Karake border and after getting our passports stamped, we were transferred into another vehicle to continue our journey to Lome, Togo. The real drama started when Micolo and I were to be separated, the gearbox of my transport got broken twice along the way and we could not communicate for hours. And when we eventually did, it was in Aflao – the Ghana-Togo border.
The longest part of the journey was to begin around 10 pm in the night and we hoped to arrive at the Ivorian border the following morning. However, “the lorry was driving backwards” and the journey that was supposed to be for 10 hours had four hours extra. During the night ride, we went through Accra, Cape Coast, Takoradi and a host of fine Ghanaian cities. We eventually arrived at Elubo (not yam flour in Yoruba) – Ghana/Ivory Coast border – at around 1:30 pm local time.
The immigration process on both sides was the most tedious as we were delayed for almost one hour despite having our passports and CAF visa letters with us. Remember Biggy? His contact at the border eventually got us through and prepared our transport to Abidjan – a four-hour trip from the border.
Like Lagos, we were welcomed by traffic on our way to Treichville – our final destination – before heading out to the apartment we already made payment for. Only for us to learn that our accommodation has been cancelled and our money has been refunded. Thankfully, Micolo’s aunt got us someone – Momo ( a Nigerian barber in Abidjan) – to help us out for the night as we ate a proper meal for the first time in 48 hours. Relieve!
To end the day, a taxi took us through the colourful city of Abidjan around 1 am on Thursday as we found our way to our place of rest. Comfort at last.
Day two will capture the accreditation centre waka, the first proper bathe in Abidjan and many more.
