Nigerian retailers protest against unfair treatment in Ghana

Currently, there is tension between the two nations following the demolition of a building belonging to the Nigerian High Commission in Ghana over the weekend.

Following the demolition, some Nigeria protesters on Monday, June 22, converged on the High Commission’s premises in Accra to register their displeasure over current happenings and the demolition.

The protesters, mostly Nigerians are aggrieved over the closure of their retail businesses in Ghana.

Some of the protesters were chanting “we can’t breathe,” as they engaged the press.

“We are surviving by friends and sometimes we give them goods and they give us money,” one of them said to the press.

The shops where being closed in the enforcement of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre Act (865).

But Nigerian traders had argued that that the ECOWAS protocol, which allows the free movement of people, goods, and services in West African countries also allows them to trade in Ghana.

The Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) and particularly Nigerian traders in the country have been at odds because of this issue.

The current diplomatic tension between Ghana and Nigeria is yet to settle.

The diplomatic controversy erupted again when armed men reportedly invaded the residence of the High Commission and pulled down parts of a building under construction on the compound with a bulldozer.

Ghana’s Foreign Affairs Ministry has begun investigations into the incident.

The Ministry further assured that the government will not relent on its efforts to “guarantee the safety of Members of the Diplomatic Corps in Ghana.”