Letter from Africa: What can Ghana learn from Norway?

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Late President John Atta Mills turned on a valve to start pumping Ghana's oil in 2010

In our series of letters from African journalists, Ghanaian writer Elizabeth Ohene considers what her country can learn from Norway.

My visit to the Norwegian city of Lillehammer a few weeks ago reaffirmed my conviction that the Scandinavians really are a class act.

Those who follow these things would remember that Lillehammer was the host city for the 1994 Winter Olympics.

I remember the images of a pretty town on television but then I know that the camera can portray my home city Accra as a pretty town when I know the reality to be somewhat different.

You can take it from me that Lillehammer is as picturesque and pretty as anything you have seen on television.

It is a small town of about 26,000 people and the first thing I wondered when I arrived at the train station was how they had managed to host the Winter Olympics.

Like many African countries, Ghana has witnessed a population boom in recent years

But I was soon to discover that organising big numbers in small places comes to them easily.

Indeed, as I looked on in amazement at the smooth running of the conference I was attending, I wondered about what lessons to take back with me.

And the more I looked on, it occurred to me, it was the might-have-been that was the most important.
Touchy subject

I have written on other occasions about the unmanaged population growth of Ghana.

I have drawn attention to the fact that at Ghana's independence in 1957, we had a population about the same as Norway.

However, 58 years later, Norway still has a population of just over five million people and Ghana has almost 28 million people, according to the latest figures from the statistics department.

I know this is not a popular subject in Ghana and every time I have tried to raise it, I have been met with hostility from many quarters.

But I still think that there must be a lesson somewhere we can learn in having a manageable-sized population.

If Norway had been growing at the same rate of population as we have been doing and they were also now about 28 million people, the country would not be as wealthy as it is today.

Even if they were increasing at half our rate of population growth, they would still not have the disposable income that they have today.

I acknowledge that it is not only in the rate of population growth that the Norwegians are different from us; but the orderliness and cleanliness that one finds in Norway must have something to do with there not being too much pressure on facilities.

-BBC

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