Chairman,House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Hon.Yusuf Buba Yakub,today joined the Speaker of the House of Representatives ,Femi Gbajabiamala,for a legislative-diplomatic visit to Ghana.
The visit came at the instance of President Muhammadu Buhari,who is said to be deeply concerned about the lingering issues of diplomatic rows that have continued to spring up in recent times between Nigeria and its sister West African neighbour,,Ghana.
Alongside the House Speaker,the Chairman of the Committee on Media of the House,Hon. Benjamin Okezie Kalu,Hon. Ephraim Nwazi,Hon. Shehu Balarabe as well as other Members of the House and a few personal Aides of the House Speaker, the Hon.Member representing Gombi/ Hong Federal Constituency departed the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport this afternoon via a Nigerian Airforce Presidential jet at about 1 pm West African Time.
Recalled that the different acts of maltreatment meted on Nigerians in Ghana got to a head a few months ago when a heavy duty vehicle was in the dead of the night over land claimed deployed to demolish an almost-completed building project,which was said to be the new staff quarters for workers in the Nigeria High Commission in Ghana,and was being built within the compound of the Nigeria Diplomatic Mission in that country when that diplomatic breech by the host country took place. This action was largely seen across the globe to have violated the spirit and letters of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Immunity (1961).
Despite managing the Diplomatic fireworks,outrage and condemnation that had trailed that action,Ghana was again caught on the wrong side of diplomacy when in a video that went viral on the Internet a joint task force of their security Agencies was seen carrying out what again was seen as an impediment to free and unfettered movement of goods and persons in the West African Sub-region against all known protocols and conventions ratified by the two countries.
The video showed an obviously agitated Nigerian trader in a part of Ghana as he spoke to the world to announce the high-handedness of a joint task force of Ghanaian security Agencies as its members were locking up his shop for failing to pay what the Nigerian saw as high charges that were set as conditions for involvement in business in Ghana,a move perceived as a way to reduce what some Ghanaian nationals usually see as the overbearing influence of the Nigerian business population in that country.
It is believed that this latest infraction from the Ghanaian authorities is not unconnected to the frustrations that have been foisted on some West African neighbours,like the Republic of Benin,Togo and Ghana,since Nigeria closed its land borders a little over a year ago,which are seen as the gateways for the exchange of trade relations between the countries and the big Nigerian market.
While awaiting the return of this special legislative envoy of Mr. President led by the Speaker of the House of Representatives,Nigerians wait in bated breath and wonder whether Ghana and Nigeria will return to the path of real friendship in all things but football ,as was the case in the past.
