Pascal Oparada
The video footage of a Nigerian man whose shop was locked up for not paying a $1 million, N450 million, permit has generated controversy among Nigerians.
In the viral video, a Nigerian man whose identity was not disclosed was heard telling Ghanaian Task Force officials that he has paid all his permits and that his business is duly registered in Ghana but his plea fell on deaf ears as the officials went ahead to lock up his shop.
It is alleged that the officials had asked Nigerian traders in Ghana to pay $1 million, the Naira equivalent of N450 million each before they would be allowed to trade in the country.
Many Nigerians asked that the Nigerian government retaliates and also sanction Ghanaian businesses in Nigerian to serve as a deterrent.
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According to them, what Ghana is doing is against the ECOWAS Chatter on free trade and movement of persons within the West African region.
Ovation magazine publisher, Dele Momodu lambasted the Ghanaians saying it is against African unity.
“Just imagine the uproar that would have followed if what’s happening in Ghana right now happened in the US… I’m so sad and repulsed watching these videos. As a good student of the teachings of THE OSAGYEFO DR KWAME NKRUMAH, in AFRICA MUST UNITE, I’m just speechless,” Momodu said.
Others said it is a ploy to ask Nigerians to leave Ghana as a retaliation for what Nigeria did to them in the 80s.
But speaking on the incident on a Ghanaian radio station, Starrfm, the Head of Communications, Ministry of Trade, Prince Boakye Boateng, said the Nigerian traders had failed to honour an ultimatum to meet the requirements.
He said, “It cannot be we’ve been insensitive; if that is what they’re saying, I’ll be disappointed because I’ll rather say they have rather been unfair to us as a regulatory body because we have given them more time than enough to the extent even the Ghanaians thought that the ministry was not even on their side or the ministry wasn’t ready to even enforce the law.”
He recalled that the shops were locked last December and later re-opened following the intervention of President Nana Akufo-Ado.
According to him, the traders complied but have not regularised their documents for verification.
Last month the Nigerian Embassy quarters under construction was demolished by Ghanaians who said it was an encroachment on their land. The Ghanaian government has since apologised for the demolition.
