Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, has departed for Ghana on what he called “legislative diplomacy” following the closure of shops belonging to Nigerians in the west African country.
The Speaker had last week said the closure of the shops contravened Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) trade protocols and had called for a decisive solution between both countries.
Ghanaian government had imposed $1 million levy due to certain steps taken by Nigerian government to protect the former’s interest.
Both countries have traded words over the issue with the Ghanaian foreign minister citing the border closure policy by President Muhammadu Buhari as affecting the revenues of Ghanaian exporters.
Speaking to State House Correspondents at the end of the meeting during which he secured the blessings of President Buhari to embark on the “diplomatic shuttle”, Gbajabiamila said: “I’m leaving for Ghana tomorrow (today) to meet with the Speaker of the parliament in Ghana to look at the issues on ground, as it affects our citizens and to try and calm things down and see if there’s a way forward. I’ll meet with the Speaker tomorrow (today). I informed the president and he’s aware of every single step that we are taking all the way and we hope that we’ll come to an amicable settlement one way or the other.
“It’s called legislative diplomacy. If you remember very well, during the days when I was leader of the House, I led a delegation to South Africa during the crisis with Nigerians and we were able to accomplish quite a bit to simmer things down at that time.”
Asked what demands he was taking to Ghana, he replied: “No demands, we’re just going to discuss in the spirit of African parliaments and we’ll be looking at issues from time to time as they affect African countries and this is one of them.”
On what he made of the situation in Ghana, Gbajabiamila said: “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 Ghanians have their take on what’s going on, we have our own take. We’ll 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.”