HOUSE of Representatives Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila will visit Ghana today to liaise with his Ghanaian counterpart over the misunderstanding between Nigeria and Ghana.
Gbajabiamila stated this on Tuesday while addressing State House Correspondents after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
The Speaker, who said he was at the Villa to rub minds with the President on the diplomatic row, described his planned visit as “Legislative Diplomacy”.
Last week, the Speaker said the closure of Nigerian shops in Ghana contravened Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) trade protocols and called for a decisive solution between both countries.
“It is a usual engagement, like we always say when issues come up. I see Mr. President and find out and run things by him and we discuss issues. One of the issues we discussed today is that I will be leaving for Ghana tomorrow to meet with the Speaker of the Parliament in Ghana to look at the issues on the ground as they affect our citizens. Then, we will try and calm things down and see if there’s a way forward.
“I’ll meet with the Speaker tomorrow. I informed the President and he’s aware of every single step that we are taking all the way. We hope that we’ll come to an amicable settlement, one way or the other.
“It’s called Legislative Diplomacy. If you remember very well, during the days when I was Leader of the House, I led the delegation to South Africa during the crisis there with Nigerians. We were able to accomplish quite a bit, to simmer things down at that time,” he said.
When he was asked if his consultation would involve demands to the Ghanaian government, the Speaker said: “No demands; we are just going to discuss in the spirit of African Parliaments and we’ll be looking at issues from time to time as they affect African countries. This is one of them.”
On the current situation between Nigeria and Ghana, Gbajabiamila said he would rather not speak for now.
According to him, all efforts should be focused on sorting out the relationship and not heating up the atmosphere with comments.
Thenation
