Gbajabiamila Hopeful of Mutually Acceptable Resolutions in Nigeria, Ghana Diplomatic Row

By Adedayo Akinwale

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, has expressed hope that Nigeria and Ghana will arrive at mutually acceptable resolutions to defuse the diplomatic tension between both nations.

The Speaker, who led a delegation of lawmakers from the House of Representatives, stated this when they were received by the Speaker of the Ghanaian parliament, Hon. Mike Oquaye, as they arrived Accra, Ghana, on a legislative diplomatic mission.

Alongside the Speaker on the legislative diplomatic mission to Ghana are the Chairman, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Hon. Buba Yusuf; Chairman, House Committee on Media, Hon. Benjamin Kalu; House Member of ECOWAS Parliament, Hon. Bayo Balogun; Hon. Ikenna Elezieanya, Hon. Ephraim Nwuzi and Hon. Balarabe Shehu.

Gbajabiamila, in a statement issued Wednesday by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr. Lanre Lasisi, said the two-day visit to Ghana was meant to explore legislative diplomacy towards resolving the issues affecting both countries.

The Speaker, while thanking his counterpart for the warm welcome, emphasized that within the next two days of discussions, hopefully, they would be able to arrive at a mutually acceptable resolution between both countries.

He added: “There’s something in modern-day parlance called legislative diplomacy or parliamentary diplomacy, and that’s what obtains all over the world today. Diplomacy is done from all angles including back channel such as what we are doing now and sometimes you get results that you can only imagine. So I look forward to a fruitful discussion as we move forward.

“Like you rightly said, Nigeria and Ghana are more like Siamese twins and brothers. I love the analogy you came up with, like the tongue and teeth. Brothers will always have squabbles, healthy ones, national interest on both side will always come to play but it’s not the misunderstanding that matters, it’s how you resolve it that matters.

“In Africa, you cannot talk about Nigeria without talking about Ghana and you cannot talk about Ghana without talking about Nigeria and therefore it has become incumbent on us, one as leaders of parliament and two generally as parliamentarians to bring to bear this concept of legislative diplomacy for fruitful results.

“The weight and burden of our international relationship rest actually on parliamentary shoulders and it is my hope that we will, in two days, reach some resolutions that will settle both countries.”

Earlier, while welcoming the Nigerian delegation, the Speaker of the Ghanaian Parliament expressed confidence in an amicable resolution of the issues.

According to him, “Ghana and Nigeria are like the tongue and the teeth, they must interact, and sometimes the teeth may do havoc, and yet it never regrets the taste that the tongue gives to it. That’s what happens if we don’t interact.

“Even when we step on one another’s feet, in the process we should come to realize that there’s a need to continue to be together and we, therefore, welcome you, thank you very much for your keenness in responding to my call that we should meet and you took a quick step in arranging to be here today. I trust in the next two days we will bring a beautiful reunion to our two nations.”

Gbajabiamila also led his delegation to the Nigerian High Commission where they met with leaders of the Nigerian Union of Traders and selected stakeholders.

The leader of the Nigerian traders in Ghana, Mr. Chukwuemeka Nnaji, informed Gbajabiamila and his entourage that Nigerian traders had been subjected to a lot of hardship by the Ghanaian authorities since 2007.

He noted that despite complying with laid down laws, Nigerian traders were always the target for harsh treatment whenever both countries are having issues.

Nnaji stressed that Nigerian traders have their trades registered with the appropriate agencies, pay their taxes as and when due, yet they were still subjected to harsh treatment by the authorities.

He added: “For instance, while many Nigerian traders could not afford the latest $1 million trade registration fees, those that paid still had their shops under lock and key.”

Nnaji said that with about 250 shops locked up by the authorities, the situation has led to the death of some of their members.

He appealed to the Speaker to follow up on the legislative diplomatic initiative in order to ensure that the resolutions arrived at are implemented by the Ghanaian authorities.