Foreign Affairs Minister, Amb. Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, has appealed for calm following the tension that ensued over the purported demand by Ghanaians for the deportation of Nigerians from their country.
Odumegwu-Ojukwu made the appeal in a statement issued on Thursday in Abuja by Dr Magnus Eze, the Special Assistant on Communication and New Media, Office of the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs.
The statement was sequel to the joint news briefing which she had with Ghana’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Samuel Ablakwa, in Accra.
According to her, there is no cause for alarm over the anti-Nigerians protests in Ghana.
She noted that the viral videos showing the ensuing disturbances had caused anxiety, prompting President Bola Tinubu to dispatch her to the country for a firsthand assessment of the situation.
Odumegwu-Ojukwu said: “We are here in Ghana on a fact-finding mission as special envoy of President Tinubu, as a result of recent disturbances that have made the rounds in Nigeria.
“The government and people of Nigeria have been concerned with the widespread protests taking place in Ghana, requesting Nigerians to leave and dousing tensions in Nigeria, regarding the safety of lives and property of our nationals residing here in Ghana.”
She expressed appreciation to Ghanaian President John Mahama for his warm reception, adding that she was pleased to note that things were now calm there.
“Since we arrived, I haven’t seen people burning tyres in the streets or carrying placards everywhere calling for Nigerians to be deported.
“This shows that the Ghanaian government and the president have stepped up to the situation.
“I would say there’s no cause for alarm; they are handling the situation effectively and we will continue engaging stakeholders,” the minister said.
She reiterated that the sights of inciting videos and rhetoric were capable of causing irreparable damage to the mutual relations between the two countries.
The minister further said that Ghana’s Minister of Foreign Affairs assured on behalf of President Mahama of the safety of Nigerian nationals in Ghana.
She admonished Nigerian citizens in Ghana to feel free and go about their daily activities without fear and anxiety, bearing in mind the history, references and painful memories of the past.
Odumegwu-Ojukwu also underscored the need to institutionalise the Nigeria-Ghana Joint Commission, noting that such would help in engendering closer relations, including at the citizen-to-citizen level.
Ghana’s Foreign Affairs Minister said the ministry was addressing the matter and had met with some leaders of the Nigerian community, as well as engaged positively with the citizens of Ghana.
“The Ghanaian government will ensure that everyone in the country, citizens and non-citizens, is protected,” he said.
He also assured that Ghana would protect everyone, and urged people to be law-abiding, avoid criminal activities and actions that could cause tension between both countries.
The minister said the videos were not reflective of the actual situation on the ground.
According to him, he met the Nigerian accused of attempting to form a kingdom in Ghana and was told that territorial ambitions were never the intention nor the plan.
He said that Ghana has a lot of population in Nigeria, and that both countries share a lot in common.
“Both nations need to manage their citizens’ relations very well, not to see to the recurrence of the Aliens Repatriation Order in Ghana and the Ghana Must Go protests of 1983 in Nigeria.
“We are conscious of our history, that even though we have our historical backgrounds with lots of our ethnic groups having the same heritage and antecedents, we have so many anthropological antecedents which show we are one person.”
“Let us remember that Ghana is the headquarters of Pan Africanism,” the minister was quoted to have said in the statement.