Lai Mohammed Lists Ghana’s Sins;Against Nigerians – ‘Enough Is Enough’

Lai Mohammed, the Minister of Information and Culture, Nigeria has listed the several diplomatic breaches which he says the Ghanaian authorities are committing against Nigeria.

Mohammed who issued a statement to the effect, also declared that enough was enough, meaning that Nigeria would not tolerance such selected maltreatment again., listing the hostilities to include:

– the seizure of the Nigerian Mission’s property located at No. 10, Barnes Road, Accra., which the Nigerian Government had used as diplomatic premises for almost 50 years.

– the demolition of the Nigerian Mission’s property located at No. 19/21 Julius Nyerere Street, East Ridge, Accra,

-the aggressive and incessant deportation of Nigerians from Ghana,

 -locking of more than 300 Nigerian shops were for four months in Kumasi in 2018,

-locking of more than 600 Nigerian shops in 2019,

-currently, locking of over 250 Nigerian shops had been locked.

-Residency Permit requirements for which the Ghana Immigration Service has placed huge fees, far higher than the fees charged by the Nigerian Immigration Service.

Providing a background on the alleged deportation of Nigerians from Ghana, he said that between Jan. 2018 and Feb. 2019, no fewer than 825 Nigerians had been deported from Ghana

Lai Mohammed said Nigeria considered these as a serious breach of the Vienna Convention.

Other things he mentioned are:

-the compulsory Non-citizen ID card (120 U.S.120 dollars, and 60 U.S. dollars for yearly renewal), Medical examinations, including for Covid-19 which is newly-introduced (about 120 U.S. dollars),

-payment for residency permit (400 U.S dollars compared to the N7,000 being paid by Ghanaians for residency card in Nigeria).

– the outrageous stipulations in the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre Act.

“This Act has now been amended twice, with the 2018 GIPC Act raising the minimum capital base for foreign-owned businesses to one million U.S. dollars.

“Though targeted at foreigners, it seems GIPC’s definition of foreigners is Nigerians.

“The GIPC Act also negates the ECOWAS Protocol.

According to Lai Mohammed, the Federal Government frowned at the media war against Nigerians in Ghana. He raised the alarm that the negative reportage of issues concerning Nigerians resident in Ghana by the Ghanaian media was fuelling an emerging xenophobic attitude towards Nigerian traders and Nigerians in general.

“The immediate fallout is the incessant harassment and arrest of Nigerian traders and closure of their shops.

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“Harsh and openly-biased judicial trial and pronouncement of discriminately-long jail terms for convicted Nigerians.

“There are currently more than 200 Nigerians in the Nsawam Maximum prison in Ghana alone,” he said.