The Speaker of Nigeria’s House of Representatives, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila says he is hopeful that Nigeria and Ghana will arrive at mutually acceptable resolutions to the trade disputes that erupted some weeks back.
The Speaker, who led a delegation of lawmakers from the House of Representatives, said this when they were received by the Speaker of the Ghanaian parliament, Prof. Mike Oquaye, as they arrived Accra, the capital of Ghana, on a legislative diplomatic mission.
Mr. Gbajabiamila said the two-day visit to Ghana was meant to explore legislative diplomacy towards resolving the issues affecting both Countries.
Welcoming the Nigerian delegation, the Speaker of the Ghanaian Parliament, Prof. Oquaye, expressed confidence on an amicable resolution of the issues saying 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.
Responding, Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila, 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.
Afterwards, the Speaker and his delegation made their way to the Nigerian High Commission where they met with Leaders of the Nigerian Union of Traders and Selected Stakeholders. It was a chance for the Speaker and his team to hear from the traders about their experiences.
The leader of the Nigerian traders in Ghana, Chief Chukwuemeka Levi Nnaji, informed Gbajabiamila and his entourage that Nigerian traders have been subjected to a lot of hardship by the Ghanaian authorities since 2007.
According to him, despite complying with laid down laws, Nigerians traders were always the target for harsh treatments whenever both Countries are having issues.
He added that Nigerians traders have their trades registered with appropriate agencies, pay their taxes as at when due, yet they were still subjected to harsh treatment by the authorities.
He, however, 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.
Modupe Arotolu
