The Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, Mrs. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, last week, led a delegation to both the Ghana High Commission in Nigeria and the Togolese Ambassador to plead the case of Nigerians who suddenly found themselves under attack in both countries. She first had a meeting with the High Commissioner Rashid Bawa who assured her that Nigerians doing business in Ghana should carry on their trade without fear of molestation.
The controversy arose from the forcible closure of 50 spare parts shops owned by Nigerians in Kumasi following violent protests by indigenous Ghanaian spare parts dealers who alleged that the Nigerian traders were flouting the laws governing retail marketing in their country.
Mrs. Dabiri-Erewa and her delegation were assured that the decision to protect Nigerians has the authority of the Ghanaian President, Prof. Nana Akuffo-Addo, who has directed security agencies to guarantee that the Nigerian traders resumed their business without fear. She also led her delegation to the Togolese Embassy where she also pleaded the same cause. Ambassador Lene Dimban also assured her that Togolese authorities would ensure that the incident which occurred in Ghana would not occur in Togo.
We commend Dabiri-Erewa for her prompt responses to these potentially dangerous incidents. She has made timeliness a virtue in trouble-shooting. We agree with her that when and where Nigerians commit crimes, we should know who they are because they are giving the country a bad name. But, as she said, Nigerians should not just be criminalised, without cause or proof. We also wish to believe in the assurance of the high commissioner that the matter is under control and that the issue would not get worse. We agree with him that the media should not sensationalise the situation, which we do not think is the same thing as keeping quiet or turning a blind eye in the face of obvious cruelty and, sometimes, egregious mistreatment of Nigerians.
We support the view by the Ghanaian official that crimes against individuals should not be magnified to look as if they are against nations. And the greatest guarantor of that principle is the rule of law. Incidentally, Ghana and Nigeria profess to be guarded and guided by the rule of law. Indeed, the Ghanaian Police have said that the two Ghanaians who masterminded the looting of the shops belonging to Nigerians in Suame Magazine in Kumasi are being hunted for and will be arrested whenever they are found. That is the way it should be.
The Federal Government should also expedite action in unraveling the circumstances that led to the termination of the appointment of a Nigerian lecturer, Professor Augustine Nwagbara, by the authorities of the University of Education, Winneba, Ghana. The Nigerian professor was sacked when his conversation with some Nigerians was leaked. We believe that the termination of Nwagbara’s appointment because of his opinion is against the freedom of speech. The government must ensure that Nwagbara is paid all his entitlements.
When 723 Nigerians were deported from Ghana last February, Nigerians were not thrilled, but the Ghanaian authorities listed their offences. We expect Nigerians to obey the law of the land wherever they may live. Those who disobey the law must accept responsibility for their actions.
The West African sub-region is virtually a homogeneous entity which could easily be formed into a political unit. There is little to distinguish Accra from Lagos except for the snarling Lagos traffic. If West African leaders had been good integrationists, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) should have long been welded into one. Nigerians feel at home in Ghana as Ghanaians feel at home in Nigeria.
The political, economic and cultural ties that bind West Africa are too many and so firm to permit alienation of citizens in the region. From colonial times, Nigeria has collaborated with Ghana in many areas. Both worked for Pan Africanism. Indeed, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe (Zik), Nigeria’s first President, found Kwame Nkrumah a soul mate in the anti-colonial struggle such that on his way home from his US sojourn, Zik stopped first and spent years in Ghana before he finally returned to Nigeria in the 1930s.
We don’t expect Nigerians to be mistreated anywhere in West Africa, especially not in Ghana or Togo; and we wager their citizens would not be mistreated in Nigeria. Our policy of good neighbourliness should take care of that. We had “Nigerians Must Go” in 1969 and “Ghana Must Go” in 1984. We do not need a repeat.