President Nana Akufo-Addo has said Ghana’s doors remain open to all Africans after recent concerns of xenophobia manifesting in resentment towards Nigerians.
“There is no xenophobia in Ghana, we are not a xenophobic State. We are the pan-African nation that has opened its doors to all Africans, and they are not going to be the object of any hate campaign in Ghana,” he said at the Jubilee House ahead of the departure of the outgoing Ambassador of Cote d’Ivoire to Ghana.
President Nana Akufo-Addo however reminded that fellow Africans needed to respect Ghana’s laws.
“What we do insist on, which is what every nation insists on, is that our own domestic laws are respected by those who come into our country, and, in so saying, we are no different from other people.”
The recent misunderstanding between Ghanaian and Nigerian traders has resulted in attacks on Nigerian owned shops.
These were part of attempts to enforce Section 27 (1) of the GIPC Act which bars foreign nationals from engaging in retail trade.
The Nigerian High Commission in Ghana had also earlier expressed displeasure with the way crimes involving Nigerians are reported in Ghana.
It said the reportage exhibited some form of xenophobia.
The High Commission in a statement said these “xenophobic tendencies” had the potential to mar Ghana-Nigeria relations.
“The Ghanaian Press, both print and electronic as well as social media seems to have enjoyed a field day in demonising Nigeria which for all intent and purposes, is seen as a fraternal brother to Ghana.”
The High Commission held that the unfair reportage “has caused untold pains, agony as well as apprehension” to Nigerians in Ghana.
But the recent tensions surfaced after concerns of an anti-Nigeria sentiment in Ghana because of the involvement of some of its nationals in the high profile crimes in Ghana.
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