How Ghana ‘beat’ Nigeria twice in a week: From Twitter to German health HQ

Within a space of a week, Nigerians had reason on social media to twice lambast the Muhammadu Buhari-led government because of Ghana.

More for the first reason than the second, the first being an announcement on Monday by Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey, that the social media giant had chosen Ghana for their headquarters in Africa.

But Nigerians for good reason like having the biggest population of tweeps (as Twitter users are known), we’re concerned that Ghana was picked ahead of Africa’s most populous nation.

More so when Twitter released six vacancies for the new office – in there was a heavy dose of Nigeria, as for instance, applicants for specific roles having to know the Nigerian political context and also [the] ability to speak pidgin English, which is popular in Nigeria.

For most critics on social media, the official reasons Twitter gave in choosing Ghana did not help matters either - Ghana’s free media space and being host to the Africa Continental Free Trade Area, AfCFTA, Twitter said; counted for their choice.

But Nigeria’s Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, had other unofficial reasons because when asked about the issue, he blamed the media’s de-marketing of Nigeria as the basis on which Twitter opted for Ghana.

As I indicated to @Jack in our virtual meeting of 7th April 2021, this is the start of a beautiful partnership between Twitter and Ghana, which is critical for the dev’t of Ghana’s hugely important tech sector. 2/3#TwitterInGhana #TwitterGhana

— Nana Akufo-Addo (@NAkufoAddo) April 12, 2021

Before that storm could settle down, Ghana achieved another feat that some Nigerians latched on to again lambast their government.

German Ambassador to Ghana, tweeted on Thursday, April 15, plans by the European giant to launch a new “German-West African Center for Global Health and Pandemic Prevention.“

Excellent news: Germany ???????? will support launch of a new “German-West African Center for Global Health and Pandemic Prevention “ . It will be located in Ghana ???????? and be part of 8 new centers worldwide to fight global challenges #sciencediplomacy #weareinthistogether ⁦ pic.twitter.com/nv2Yk12XfY

— Christoph Retzlaff (@GermanAmbGhana) April 15, 2021

He said the centre will be located in Accra and be part of 8 new centres worldwide to fight global challenges.

Abuja stood in the like of fire for these twin misses – bordering on serious matters of global technology and health, far from the usual Jollof wars on Twitter and or the sports-related rivalry that has historically existed between the two countries.

For now, it’s Accra 2, Abuja 0 – all within the space of a week.

For maverick Nigerian politician, Dino Melaye, president Muhammadu Buhari must be worried by the rate at which Ghana is being picked ahead of Nigeria in respect of global enterprises wishing to establish their presence in Africa.

The ex-Senator in a tweet said the country was sinking and Buhari was snoring.

“President Buhari should be worried. Twitter picked Ghana as the Regional office, Germany again picked Ghana as West Africa HQ for the Center for Global Health. Nigeria is sinking and our President is snoring. SDM,” Melaye stated.