By Samson Yaki
Following the recent demolition of building structures at the Nigerian High Commission in Ghana, the president of the country Nana Akufo Addo, has expressed unreserved apologies to the Nigerian Government over the ugly incident.
Regretting the infamous act, the President ordered a full investigation to unravel the faces behind the act of which two people have been reportedly arrested and charged with Unlawful entry and causing unlawful damage.
In the same vein, Ghana’s foreign ministry said it regretted the incident and guaranteed that an investigation would be conducted, adding that security had been “beefed up” at the facility. Expressing dismay over the incidence, the country’s former President John Mahama, condemned the demolition and criticized his successor’s government.
“It beats my imagination how such a violent and noisy destruction could occur without our security agents picking up the signals to avert the damage,” Mr Mahama tweeted. The Minority Parliament of Ghana has affirmed that the demolition was “carried out under the full protection of state security”.
The government of Ghana must bear full responsibility for this ugly incident.
Meanwhile mix relations have trailed the call for retaliation by the Nigerian House of Representatives owing to the fact that the act was not only a slap on the face of Nigeria but also a gross violation of Article 22 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
Accordingly, the dastard act contravenes the provision of the Article regarding a foreign mission’s property in any country as inviolable and must not be entered by anyone without permission. On the contrary, some people are of the opinion that reprisal actions, as advocated, is not the right way to address the issue, calling on the two governments to work together to unravel the matter and punish the perpetrators, while Ghana rebuilds the edifice at its own cost.
According to them, African countries must emulate the Europeans and Asians in forging progressive and productive relationships.
It would be recalled that a businessman who had previously claimed that he owned the land where the building was being put up had led the demolition operation. Nigeria’s Foreign Affairs Minister Geoffrey Onyeama said a bulldozer was used during the recent incident which destroyed two residential buildings, calling the demolition “outrageous and criminal” and urged Ghanaian authorities to protect Nigeria’s diplomatic buildings.
It is worthy of note that Ghana-Nigeria relations are so important as the two countries hold the largest economies in West Africa and the diplomatic relationship of the two countries is crucial to the region and trade is a key part of that relationship.
But recent incidents showed that the diplomatic ties between the two countries have not been on a better side.
Last year disputes over the status of foreign traders led to the temporary closure of some Nigerian-owned shops.
Another recent source of contention was Nigeria’s decision to close its border with Benin, which affected traders across the region, including Ghanaians.
Few expect that it could be the worse of time between the two countries, hoping to see the type of tensions witnessed in 1969-70 and 1983, when both sides expelled large numbers of the other’s citizens.