The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, who arrived in Accra, Ghana, in a bid to resolve the dispute trailing Nigerian traders in the West African country says he is hopeful that Nigeria and Ghana will arrive at mutually acceptable resolutions.
The Nigerian Speaker was accompanied on the legislative diplomatic mission to Ghana by the Chairman House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Buba Yusuf; Chairman House Committee on Media, Benjamin Kalu; House Member of Ecowas Parliament, Bayo Balogun, Ikenna Elezieanya, Ephraim Nwuzi and Balarabe Shehu.
Femi Gbajabiamila and the other legislative diplomat met with the Speaker of the Ghanaian Parliament, Professor Mike Oquaye.
In A statement by the Speaker’s Spokesman, Lanre Lasisi, on Wednesday, Mr Gbajabiamila said:
“There’s something in modern-day parlance called legislative diplomacy or parliamentary diplomacy, and that’s what obtains all over the world today. Diplomacy is done from all angles, including backchannel such as what we are doing now and sometimes you get results that you can only imagine. So, I look forward to a fruitful discussion as we move forward.
“In Africa, you cannot talk about Nigeria without talking about Ghana and you cannot talk about Ghana without talking about Nigeria and, therefore, it has become incumbent on us; one as leaders of parliament and two, generally as parliamentarians to bring to bear this concept of legislative diplomacy for fruitful results.”
“The weight and burden of our international relationship rest actually on parliamentary shoulders and it is my hope that we will, in two days, reach some resolutions that will settle both countries,” Mr Gbajabiamila added.
The Ghanaian Speaker, while thanking Mr Gbajabiamila for honouring his call, believes because of the strong relationship between both countries, there are tendencies for issues like this to come up, but what matters is the methods adopted to resolve the issues.
“Ghana and Nigeria are like the tongue and the teeth, they must interact, and sometimes the teeth may do havoc, and yet it never regrets the taste that the tongue gives to it. That’s what happens if we don’t interact.
“Even when we step on one another’s feet, in the process we should come to realise that there’s a need to continue to be together and we, therefore, welcome you. Thank you very much for your keenness in responding to my call that we should meet and you took a quick step in arranging to be here today.”
“I trust in the next two days, we will bring a beautiful reunion to our two nations,” he maintained.
(C) Control TV 2020.
