Omar Sterling meditated on half of "Tema Motorway" on Ghana's only motorway

Ghana has one motorway. The Accra-Tema Motorway runs 19 kilometres and was opened in November 1965 under Kwame Nkrumah. Sixty years on, it is still the only one, and it gave Omar Sterling the name for one of his verses.

On the intro to "Tema Motorway (Freestyle)", featuring Efya, Omar says he meditated on half of the verse while on the Tema Motorway, so he might as well name it after the road. He introduces himself as Paedaezy of R2Bees, from the days before he became Omar Sterling.

Eleven years from club to streaming

A video uploaded on 12 May 2011 shows him performing it at the R2Bees All White Easter Party at Barcadis Night Club in Tema, with Efya beside him. The freestyle only reached Spotify and Apple Music on 27 March 2022, eleven years later. In the verse he names KillBeatz, the producer behind the beat, who also produced "Ibiza".

The road inside the verse

Listen closely and the road is hidden in the lyrics. He talks about lanes, potholes and a truckload, except his load is a burden he offloads. He calls out haters who thought they could overtake, and when life comes to a standstill, he says he will simply chill.

Halfway through he turns to faith. He says he started life as good as a dead man until God blessed him, and compares himself to the prodigal son from Luke 15, who wastes his share and comes home with nothing. He sends that message home through his stepmother.

Efya's hook closes the song. She sings that she has paid her dues, and that if she had to do it again, she would do the same thing.

The road kept going

In June 2021 Omar released a sequel, "Tema Motorway to Aflao", on Same Earth Different Worlds. The motorway itself has changed too. Tolls were suspended in November 2021, and the booths were partly pulled down in September 2023.

In February 2026, Efya held a private ceremony, which her management described as a knocking ceremony, and Yen reported that R2Bees performed there. That was about 15 years after the Easter night in Tema.