48 Hours on the Road from Nigeria to Côte d’Ivoire

by Jesusegun Alagbe (Nigeria)

Making a local connection Nigeria

The beginning It was a frosty Sunday morning in April 2019 when I embarked on a road trip from Ejigbo, a town in Osun State, Nigeria, to Abidjan, the commercial capital of Côte d’Ivoire. In 1902, the first set of migrants from Ejigbo were said to have arrived in Treichville, an Abidjan suburb named after Marcel Treich-Laplène (1860–1890), a Frenchman who first explored Côte d'Ivoire. Since then, Ejigbo people have been migrating to Côte d’Ivoire and now, they make over 70 per cent of the two million population of Nigerians in Côte d’Ivoire. A majority of the Ejigbo people who travel to and fro Côte d’Ivoire do so by road, hence the decision to take a road trip with some of the travellers. Booking was done three days earlier. My seat number was 43, which was close to the window at the rear of the green and white bus, a 75-seater with registration number EJG230XA. Although it was supposed to carry 75 passengers, over 100 travellers eventually boarded it. Apart from the passenger overload, goods and some other luggage that could not fit into the bus’ bunker were also spread through the overhead compartment as well as on the floor. Everywhere was choked up. The smell of freshly cooked soup as well as fish and bread permeated the coach as soon as we boarded. Shortly after the bus departed at 9.08 am, an imam politely asked all female passengers to cover their heads. It was time for a brief prayer. But by the time the imam turned on his megaphone, a ‘brief’ session turned into a 52-minute one. Everyone was tired. We arrived in Lagos at 5.35 pm and as soon as we entered the city, we got a special kind of stare from onlookers. It was too evident. At one area, one onlooker screamed, “Who are these?” A few metres away, a man in white attire correctly observed, “These are Ejigbo people; they are travelling to Côte d’Ivoire.” But we had barely moved an inch when one wrongly guessed, “These people must be from Sokoto.” Perhaps the goods loaded on top of the bus gave us out as people from the northern part of the country. We finally left Lagos – on to Benin Republic. Goodbye, Nigeria! We got to the Benin border at 9.50 pm and at this point, most of the passengers brought out their carte identité, the Ivorian permanent residence permit that is valid in all member countries of the ECOWAS. Within some minutes, we were done with the Béninoise immigration officials and got to Lome, Togo at 5.40 am on Monday. Between 5.40 am and 6.34 am, we travelled through Togo and arrived at Aflao, the Ghanaian border at 7.55 am. We left Alflao at 8.35 am. The trip between Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire was the longest, taking a whopping 15 hours, unlike the Nigeria-Benin, Benin-Togo, and Togo-Ghana trips. Journeying through Ghana had far more interesting sights to behold than any other country we had passed through. From the display of African wear to fresh fruits to artefacts by the roadside to the tunes of local music blasting from bars at almost every town we passed through, the scenes were amazing and lively. At Cape Coast, a bustling city, several tents were set up at its long stretch of beach. A certain natural cool breeze swept through our bus. Once we got to the city of Takoradi, we gradually left the shores of Ghana, on to the Ivorian border. We arrived at Elubo, the Ghanian-Ivorian border at 11.02 pm. As of this time, the Ivorian border at Noé, a few metres from Elubo, had closed, so we had to sleep overnight. On Tuesday, we arrived at the Ivorian border in Noé at 6.49 am. We left at around 10 am local time and were now in Côte d’Ivoire but yet to reach our final destination – Abidjan. As we journeyed, the country smelt of cocoa and oil palm. After spending about four hours, we finally arrived in Abidjan at 2.35 pm. There we were received by officials of the transport company at their park at an area called Temidire.