Tobias Sylvester
Speaker of Nigeria’s House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, will be visiting Ghana on Wednesday to sort out the diplomatic misunderstanding between the country and Nigeria.
KanyiDaily had reported that Nigeria and Ghana have engaged in diplomatic rows in the past few months.
The Federal Government, through the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, had last week accused Ghanaian Authorities of sabotaging its diplomatic relations with Nigeria.
Mohammed warned that Nigerian Government will no longer tolerate the continuous hostility and harassment of its nationals in Ghana.
However, Ghanaian responded in a statement issued by the minister of information, Kolo Nkrumah, saying Mohammed’s allegations on the misunderstanding were inaccurate.
Speaking to journalists on Tuesday after visiting President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Gbajabiamila said he was at the State House to discuss with the president on his planned “legislative diplomacy” trip to Ghana.
The Speaker, who said he has got Buhari’s backing to embark on the trip, stated that he would meet with his Ghanaian counterpart, Aaron Oquaye, to find ways of resolving the squabble between the two country.
“I am leaving for Ghana tomorrow (Wednesday) to meet with the Speaker of the parliament in Ghana to look at the issues on ground as they affect our citizens and to try and calm things down and see if there is a way forward,” Gbajabiamila said.
“I will meet with the Speaker tomorrow (Wednesday). I informed the president and he is aware of every single step that we are taking, all the way, and we hope that we will come to an amicable settlement one way or the other.
“It is called legislative diplomacy. If you remember very well, during the days when I was Leader of the House, I led the delegation to South Africa during the crisis there with Nigerians and we were able to accomplish quite a bit, to simmer things down at that time.
“No demands, we are just going to discuss in the spirit of African parliaments and we will be looking at issues from time to time as they affect African countries, and this is one of them.
“I don’t want to make any statement at this time so that we don’t exacerbate matters. Like I said, we are looking for amicable solutions. The Ghanaians have their take on what is going on, we have our own take. We will see how we can marry the two takes and come to a solution.
“We are two strong West African countries and there must be symbiosis, we must work together. You don’t get anything from working at cross purposes or knocking heads together. We must, at all times, as Africans, work as best as possible together and that’s what this my trip is about,” he said.
This is coming weeks after Nigerian traders in Ghana said they are ready to return home following the closure of their shops by Ghanaian security agents over non-payment of the imposed $1 million tax.
